Patience · Game 200 of 388 ♥
Nestor
Find two of a kind and clear them away – a simple pairing patience where every card lies face up and the only question is which pair to take first.
- Players
- 1
- Duration
- 5 min
- Age
- 6+
- Difficulty
- easy
- Cards
- 52 cards, no jokers
- Skill – Luck
- SkillLuck
- Everyone for themselves – Lots of interaction
- Everyone for themselvesLots of interaction
- Simple – Complex
- SimpleComplex
- Quick – Long
- QuickLong
Mood relaxedlearned in 5 minutes
Collections: Solitaire games · Games for kids
Full rules
Overview
Nestor is a simple patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) that even children can play. All the cards lie face up in eight columns. You clear them away in pairs of the same rank – two Kings, two 7s – until, with luck, none are left. Suits don't matter. The only skill is choosing which pair to take when there is more than one.
- Players: 1
- You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
- Time: about 5 minutes per game.
The parts of the layout
- Tableau: eight columns of six cards, spread downwards so you can see every card. Only the top card of each column – the one at the bottom of the spread, not covered by any other card – is available.
- Reserve: four extra cards, face up in a row. Every reserve card is always available.
Setup
- Shuffle and deal six rows of eight cards, face up and overlapping, so that they form eight columns of six.
- Never put two cards of the same rank in one column. If the card you are about to deal matches a card already in that column, put it at the bottom of the deck and deal the next card instead.
- The last four cards form the reserve.
Example: Column 3 already holds 9♣, 4♥ and Q♠. The next card for column 3 is the 4♦ – a second 4 in that column. Slide the 4♦ under the deck and deal the next card to column 3 instead.
Playing
Take away two available cards of the same rank – any suits – and put them aside, out of play. Available cards are the top cards of the columns and the reserve cards. Taking a card from a column frees the card above it.
You can pair two column cards, a column card with a reserve card, or two reserve cards.
Example: The top cards include 7♥, K♣, 2♦ and 7♠; the reserve holds K♦. Remove the 7♥ and 7♠. Then remove the K♣ with the reserve K♦. Three new cards are now free in the columns: 5♥, 3♣ and J♥.
Winning
You win when all 52 cards have been paired off. If no two available cards have the same rank, the game is lost.
Tips for beginners
- When you can choose between several cards of the same rank, look at what is underneath each one and take the pair that frees the most useful cards.
- Save the reserve cards for when you really need them: they are always available, so they can't get buried.
- Try to take cards from the longest columns first – they hide the most cards.
Variants
All of these are optional – choose one before you start.
- Strict (Morehead and Mott-Smith): the four spare cards lie face down as a stock. Only when you are stuck, turn over the top one: if it pairs with an available card, discard both and carry on; if it doesn't, the game is lost. Much harder – about 1 game in 10.
- Vertical: deal seven columns of six; the other ten cards form the reserve. Easier.
- Doublets: deal twelve columns of four; the last four cards form the reserve.
Background & history
- Family: Patience (pairing game: all cards face up, cards are removed in pairs rather than built)
- Origin: 19th century; first described in Dick's Games of Patience (New York, 1883)
- Also known as: Matrimony
- Related games: Vertical, Doublets, Monte Carlo, Pyramid
The oldest description we found is in Dick's Games of Patience (New York, 1883) by William B. Dick, under the name Nestor. The rules are the same as today: six rows of eight cards forming eight columns, never two cards of the same rank in one column – a duplicate goes to the bottom of the pack during the deal – and four reserve cards, "any card of which may be employed to assist in the formation of new pairs". Dick even walks through a complete winning game. Professor Hoffmann (Angelo Lewis) included the game in The Illustrated Book of Patience Games (London, 1892) with the same layout; he, too, uses the reserve cards "one by one, as occasion may arise", when no pair is left in the tableau. Why the game is named after Nestor, the old king in Homer's Iliad, is not explained in either book.
Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1949) give the game as Nestor, also called Matrimony, and make it harder: the four spare cards lie face down as a stock and are turned one at a time, only when you are stuck, and a stock card that can't be paired loses the game. They estimate four minutes per game and a win in one game out of ten, and mention the open reserve as an alternative rule.
Nestor belongs to the pairing patiences, like Monte Carlo, which also removes pairs of the same rank, and Pyramid, which removes pairs adding up to thirteen. Its variants Vertical (seven columns and a reserve of ten) and Doublets (twelve columns of four) only change the layout.