Westcliff

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and colours
3. The parts of the layout
4. Setup
5. Playing
6. Winning
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Westcliff is a quick and easy patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) that plays much like Klondike. You sort the deck onto four piles, one per suit, from Ace up to King, and on the way you build columns down in alternating colours. Ten short columns and free use of empty spaces make it very friendly: Morehead and Mott-Smith put the chance of winning at 9 in 10. A good first patience.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Time: about 5 minutes per game.

Card order and colours

The Ace is low. From lowest to highest:

A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K

♥ hearts and ♦ diamonds are the red suits, ♠ spades and ♣ clubs are the black suits.

The parts of the layout

• Tableau: ten columns in front of you. The cards in a column are spread downwards so you can see every face-up card. The top card of a column is the one at the bottom of the spread, not covered by any other card.
• Foundations: four spaces above the tableau, one per suit, where you collect the cards in order from Ace to King. They are empty at the start.
• Stock: the face-down rest of the deck.
• Waste pile: where you put stock cards you can't use yet. Its top card is always available.

Setup

Shuffle and deal three rows of ten cards, overlapping: the first two rows face down, the third row face up. That makes ten columns of three cards, 30 in all.

The other 22 cards are the stock.

Playing

Usually you first make every move you can in the tableau, then start on the stock.

• Foundations: move each Ace to the foundations as soon as it is free. Build each Ace up in suit: 2♣ on A♣, then 3♣, and so on up to the King.
• Tableau: a card may go on the top card of another column if it is one rank lower and the other colour – a red 8 on a black 9, a black 3 on a red 4.
• Moving runs: instead of the top card alone, you may move all the face-up cards of a column together, if they form a correct run (descending, alternating colours) and the highest card of the run fits where it goes.
• Face-down cards: when a face-down card becomes the top card of its column, turn it face up.
• Empty column: fill it with any card or any run.
• The top card of a column may always go to a foundation.
• Stock: turn up the stock one card at a time. Play the card to a foundation or onto the tableau if you can; otherwise put it face up on the waste pile. The top card of the waste pile may be played whenever it fits.

There is no redeal: you go through the stock only once.

Example: Put the A♣ on the foundations and turn up the card below it. Move the 6♦ onto the 7♠ and the 2♥ onto the 3♣, turning up the cards below them. The run 7♠ 6♦ can later move as a unit onto a red 8. When the 2♣ appears, it goes straight onto the A♣.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards lie on the foundations. If the stock is used up and no move is possible, the game is lost – but that happens only about once in ten games.

Tips for beginners

• Turn up face-down cards first – they may hide Aces and low cards.
• Before you put a stock card on the waste pile, check the whole tableau: a card on the waste pile is only playable again once everything above it is gone.
• Don't fill an empty column too eagerly: keep it for a King or a card that frees a face-down card.

Variants

All optional:

• Classic Westcliff (1911): deal only seven columns of three (21 cards); everything else as above. Noticeably harder.
• Partial runs: you may also move just part of a run. Wikipedia describes the game this way and many computer versions play it so; Morehead and Mott-Smith's text allows only the top card or all face-up cards.
• Easthaven: seven columns of three, no waste pile. When you are stuck, deal a new row of seven cards onto the columns; only a King may fill an empty column.