Clock Solitaire

Clock Solitaire is a single-player card game in which you place cards on a clock face until all 52 are face up. This free version plays the full game in your browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install.

The game involves no decisions. The order of the shuffle decides whether you win, and your job is to put each turned-up card on the pile that matches its rank. Every deal has a number, so you can replay a deal or share it with someone else. A counter shows how many cards are still face down, and hints and an auto-place option help while you learn the clock.

How to play clock solitaire online

1. Click New game (or press N) to start a random deal. Note the Deal # in the stats row.
2. Look at the card in hand at the top left of the board. It reads “Turned up: ”.
3. Choose an Assist setting. Assist: off gives no help. Assist: highlight target (the default) puts a gold outline on the correct pile. Assist: auto-place places each card for you about 0.65 seconds after it turns up.
4. Place the card on its pile. Tap or click the pile, drag the card onto it, or tap the card in hand to send it to its own pile.
5. Repeat. Each time you place a card, the top face-down card of that pile turns up. Continue until the fourth King appears.
6. If you are unsure, press Hint (or H). The target pile pulses for 4 seconds.
7. To let the game finish the deal, press Auto play (or A). Set Speed to slow, normal or fast first, and press Stop to halt it.

Number keys 1 to 9 choose the Ace to 9 piles, 0 chooses the 10 pile, and J, Q and K choose the jack, queen and king piles. Arrow keys move between piles. To share a deal, copy the address, which ends in ?seed= followed by the deal number.

How clock solitaire works

You play by placing each turned-up card face up under the pile of its own rank, then turning up the next card from that same pile. You keep doing this until the fourth King is turned up, which ends the game.

The deal has 13 piles of four face-down cards. Twelve piles sit around the clock face and one sits in the centre. The game starts by turning up the top card of the centre pile, and that card is “in hand”. For example, in deal #23 the first card is the 5 of spades. It goes under the 5 pile, and the top face-down card of that pile is the jack of clubs. The jack goes under the jack pile, and the game continues from there.

Clock solitaire rules

The rules are fixed. A card can go only to its own pile, and the game ends the moment the fourth King is turned up. There is one rule set and no variants.

The piles follow the clock. The Ace is 1 o’clock, the 2 to 10 follow, the Jack is 11 o’clock and the Queen is 12 o’clock. The Kings form the centre pile. The fourth King is never placed by hand, because it ends the game as soon as it appears.

You win if all 52 cards are face up at that moment. That means 51 cards were placed by hand, and each pile holds its four cards of one rank. You lose if any card is still face down. In deal #1, for example, the fourth King came up after 39 cards were placed, with 12 cards still face down. The game never gets stuck, because every turned-up card fits exactly one pile.

Each deal has about a 7.7 percent chance of winning, which is 1 in 13. Across 10,000 seeded deals, 769 were wins.

Clock solitaire strategy and tips

No strategy changes the result. Every move is forced, so the outcome of a deal is set by its shuffle. You can still use it to learn the layout and to see how close each deal comes.

Read the face-down backs. Each back shows the pile’s label and a “×n” count of face-down cards left in that pile. The count tells you how many cards remain before that pile is fully turned up, which helps you follow the sequence.

Watch the Face down chip. It starts at 51 because the first card is already turned up, and it falls as the game goes on. A loss shows how many cards were left, so a low number tells you how close the deal came.

Use Same deal again in the end message to replay a deal with the same order. This is useful for learning the piles, because you can practise the rank-to-clock mapping without the hints.

Start with Assist: highlight target while you learn the clock. Once you can name each pile without help, switch to Assist: off to practise.

Frequently asked questions

Is clock solitaire free, and do I need to sign up?

Yes, clock solitaire here is free to play, and you do not need an account. Your stats stay in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Can I play clock solitaire on a phone?

Yes. The board fits 375 px and 320 px screens without horizontal scrolling. On a phone, cards are about 45 px wide, so you can tap a pile or drag the card in hand onto it.

Is my game saved if I close the page?

Yes. The game in progress is saved after every move, so a reload continues it. Opening an address with a different ?seed= number starts that deal instead.

Can I undo a move?

No. The game has no undo, because every move is forced and there is no choice to take back. To play a deal again, use Same deal again.

Can I see the face-down cards?

No. Face-down cards stay hidden until they are turned up.

Does the game have a timer or a score?

No. The only results are wins, the win rate and your current streak.

Does a wrong tap count against me?

No. A wrong pile only shows a short message and shakes, with no penalty and no counter.

More games

• Aces Up Solitaire: another one-deck patience: discard lower cards of each suit until only the four aces are left.
• Golf Solitaire: clear cards from the layout one rank above or below the waste card.
• War Card Game: a card game against the computer that is decided by the cards alone, like clock solitaire.
• Pyramid Solitaire: remove pairs of cards that add up to 13 from a pyramid.
• Klondike Solitaire: the classic solitaire with seven columns and a stock.
• Canfield Solitaire: build the foundations up from the first card dealt, with a 13-card reserve.
• TriPeaks Solitaire: clear three peaks of cards one rank up or down.