Solitaire Rule-Making Reasoning Explained

Last updated: October 23,2023


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About Pete’s Solitaire Rules
I have played solitaire (the Windows kind) when my brain wants to idle for a long time. But a couple of years ago, I started to realize (I do have some statistics in my background) that I was a slave to “the odds” if I just played it as I learned it as a kid. So, I decided to write down my own set of rules for improving “the odds” at winning.

After a while I even redefined winning to meet my own needs.

It should go without saying that I consider 3 card draw the only way to really play Solitaire. I use the scoring system that counts up in seconds from the time you turn the first card over. I think this scoring system also takes away points for removing a card from the “aces” stacks and putting it back on the columns below, but I don’t care about that part at all.

Anyway, the rules for winning that I have established are in 2 sections.
Section 1 contains the rules for even deciding which games to play. No matter how good a player you are, you are still faced with the odds that the next card you turn over may or may not be helpful enough to win the game. So, I figured that if I only play games that are already off to a good start, I will have adjusted the odds in my favor. And besides, its MY game and MY time!

Section 2 holds the rules for playing the game once I have decided that I have a worthwhile hand laid out in front of me. None of these rules conflict with the formal rules for the game as far as I know.

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I believe that if you follow all the rules, you will win at least 1 of every 3 hands and often you will do even better. If you take the time to check out these rules, I’m sure you will see many that you already “instinctively” use. But I hope there are at least one or two that will be new to you.

Pete’s scoring system:
I know I’m going to win often, but I also know that I’m going to be doing a lot of dealing of new hands. So to me, the scoring is to see how many hands I can win in a certain period of time. And next in priority is to see how long it takes me to win a hand that I DO win. It should never take over 150 seconds to win a hand. My goal is to win in less than 100 seconds.