Sultan

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The parts of the layout
3. Setup
4. Building the foundations
5. Playing
6. Redeals
7. Winning
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Sultan is a classic two-deck patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) with a pretty finish: if the game comes out, the King of Hearts – the Sultan – sits in the middle of the table, surrounded by eight Queens. You start with eight Kings and an Ace laid out in a square and build on them, suit by suit, using a small reserve called the divan. With some care you will win about two games in three.

• Players: 1
• You need: two standard 52-card decks without jokers (104 cards).
• Time: about 10 minutes per game.

The parts of the layout

• Foundations: the piles you build on. At the start they are eight Kings and one A♥, taken out of the deck and laid in a square of three by three. The King of Hearts in the centre is the Sultan: nothing is ever played on him.
• Divan: eight face-up cards, four in a column on each side of the square. They act as a reserve – a store of free cards. Every divan card can be played at any time.
• Stock: the face-down pile of remaining cards.
• Waste: the face-up pile where you put stock cards you can't use. Its top card is free.

Setup

1. Take out all eight Kings and one A♥. Lay them out in a square of three by three, as shown below. The Sultan is the King of Hearts in the centre; the A♥ and the other K♥ go above and below him. The positions of the other Kings don't matter.
2. Shuffle the remaining 95 cards and deal eight cards face up, four in a column on each side of the square: the divan.
3. Put the rest face down as the stock.

Building the foundations

All foundations are built up in the same suit, ending with the Queen:

• On each of the seven Kings (not the Sultan): the Ace of the King's suit, then the 2, 3 and so on up to the Queen. The Ace counts as the card after the King.
• On the A♥: 2♥, 3♥ … up to the Q♥.

Hearts therefore have two foundations: the outer K♥ and the A♥. The second A♥ goes on the outer K♥.

Playing

You may play to a foundation:

• any card of the divan,
• the top card of the waste,
• the card you have just turned up from the stock.

When a divan card has been played, fill the gap at once with the top card of the waste or, if there is no waste yet, with the top card of the stock. If there is neither, the place stays empty.

When you can't or don't want to play any more, turn the top card of the stock face up. Play it to a foundation if it fits; otherwise put it face up on the waste.

Example: The K♣ foundation shows the 4♣ and the A♥ foundation the 6♥. You turn up the 5♣ and play it on the 4♣. The divan holds the 6♣ and the 7♥ – play both. Fill their two places from the top of the waste.

Redeals

When the stock is empty, pick up the waste, shuffle it and turn it face down as a new stock. You may do this twice, so you go through the cards three times in all.

Winning

You win when all 95 cards lie on the foundations: the Sultan in the middle, surrounded by eight Queens. If the stock is empty after the second redeal and no card fits, the game is lost. Morehead and Mott-Smith put the chance of winning at 2 in 3.

Tips for beginners

• Check the divan after every card you play – a gap may be filled with a card that fits at once.
• Keep the foundations of each suit roughly level, so that neither of the two piles of a suit waits for long.
• Don't be in a hurry to turn up the stock: first play everything useful from the divan and the waste.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Smaller divan: some books and programs use a divan of only six cards – a little harder.
• Free choice: the oldest known description (Ednah Cheney, 1869) lets you fill a divan gap either from the waste or from the stock, whichever you prefer.