Pile-On

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Playing
4. Winning
5. Tips for beginners
6. Variants

Overview

Pile-On is a patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) that works like a sorting puzzle. The whole deck lies face up in thirteen small piles of four mixed cards, with two empty spaces. You shift cards from pile to pile until every pile holds four cards of the same rank – four Aces, four 2s and so on up to four Kings. If you know the "ball sort" or "water sort" puzzles on phones, where coloured balls are sorted into tubes, you already know the idea. Suits play no part at all.

All cards are visible from the start, so there is almost no luck: nearly every deal can be solved if you plan well.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Time: about 10 minutes per game.

Setup

1. Shuffle the deck.
2. Deal the cards face up into 13 piles of four cards. Spread each pile slightly to the right so you can see all four cards; the card furthest to the right lies on top.
3. Leave room for two more piles. These two empty spaces are what make the game possible.

A tidy way is to lay out 15 places in rows of 4, 4, 4 and 3, with the two empty spaces at the end.

Playing

There are no turns – you make one move after another, in any order you like. Only the top card of a pile can be moved. The cards below it become free as the cards above them are moved away.

1. Same rank: you may put the top card of a pile on the top card of another pile if both have the same rank – a 7 on a 7, a Queen on a Queen. The suit does not matter.
2. Groups: if the top two, three or four cards of a pile all have the same rank, you may move them together as a group.
3. Four at most: a pile may never hold more than four cards. A pile of four is full, even if its top card would match.
4. Empty spaces: you may put any top card, or any group of top cards of the same rank, into an empty space. It starts a new pile there.

Cards never leave the table: finished piles of four simply stay where they are.

Example: In the deal above, three Queens lie on top (Q♥, Q♠ and Q♣), but every pile is full, so they cannot go on each other. Move the Q♥ into an empty space, then put the Q♠ and the Q♣ on it: that pile now holds three Queens. Their old piles now show the 2♠, J♠ and 9♠ on top. Put the 2♥ on the 2♠, the J♣ on the J♠ and the 9♥ on the 9♠. The fourth Queen, the Q♦, is at the bottom of the last pile – you will have to dig it out later.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards lie in 13 piles of four of a kind, with two spaces empty again. If you can make no more useful moves – or only move cards back and forth – the game is lost. With perfect play the game is almost always winnable: in Mark Masten's computer analysis of a million deals, 99.18% could be solved.

Tips for beginners

• Keep at least one space empty whenever you can. Fill a space only with a move that will soon free another one.
• Look for ranks with three free cards: moving them into a space together clears the way quickly.
• A pile that holds only one rank (for example three 8s) is clean. Put matching free cards on clean piles first, not on mixed ones.
• Don't build three cards on top of a single different card unless you know where the fourth card of that rank is – otherwise that pile may be stuck for good.
• Try to empty short piles that hold only two ranks: moving their cards away gains you a new space.

Variants

All of these are optional – choose one before you start.

• Three spaces: lay out 16 places with three empty spaces. Much easier – according to Masten's analysis practically every deal can then be solved. Good for learning.
• One space: only one empty space (14 places). Very hard – according to Masten, only about one deal in 10,000 can be solved.
• Columns instead of fans: lay the 15 places side by side as columns (each pile spread downwards). Some players find it easier to see which piles still have room.