Australian Patience is a fast-paced and strategic solitaire game that blends elements of Yukon, Scorpion and Klondike. Like in Yukon, you can move any face-up card along with the cards stacked on top of it. The stock allows just one pass, so each move carries extra weight.
Chance of winning: Medium (~20% of deals are winnable)
Goal
The goal in Australian Patience is to move all the cards to the foundation piles.
Deal & layout
There are 7 tableau piles, which are each dealt 4 face-up cards.
The rest of the cards go face-down in the stock.
Allowed moves
The tableau is built down by rank and by same suit. Any card in the tableau can be moved, the cards on top don't have to be correctly ordered. All cards on top of the moving card will be moved with it as a unit. This is similar to how cards are moved in Yukon Solitaire. Only Kings (or sequences starting with a King) can be moved to an empty tableau pile.
Click the stock to reveal a card, which is flipped and moved to the waste. There is only one pass through the stock, it cannot be reset.
Foundations are built up in-suit (by increasing rank).
Strategy
The general strategy should be to bring all the cards from the stock onto the tableau (or move them to the foundations). Resetting the stock is not allowed, so a card might become inaccessible in the waste, resulting in a lost game.
To bring a card from the waste onto the tableau it can help to reason backwards. Check if the card it has to be placed on is in the tableau and if it is available. Example: A ♥9 appears. It must sit on ♥10 (same suit). If the ♥10 is not free in the tableau, then you need to free it first. Reason backwards from the blocking card. Which card is covering ♥10? What needs to move to uncover it?
Only flip the stock when necessary to avoid burying cards in the waste.
Don’t make moves in the tableau just because you can. Only make moves that help with the overall strategy.
Be careful with moves which result in higher ranked cards laying above lower ranked cards of the same suit. Sometimes it might not be possible anymore to free the lower ranked cards.
Don’t immediately move a King to an empty tableau pile, especially if it doesn’t free up other cards. One of the next stock flips could have a King as well, which could allow better subsequent moves. Try to avoid burying a King in the waste pile.
Normally it’s always safe to play a card to the foundation. It should also be safe to build on Kings that are at the bottom of a tableau stack.
Check the initial deal for unsolvable deals. If the deal has a pile with e.g. cards 6-4-5 of the same suit without any other cards in between, it’s impossible to finish the deal. The 5 cannot be placed on top of the 6, and it can also not be moved to the foundation because the 4 is buried below it.
There are a few variations of Australian Patience that increase the chance of winning a game:
Canberra Solitaire: Same rules as Australian Patience, but allows a single stock reset.
Tasmanian Solitaire: Same rules as Australian Patience, but allows unlimited stock resets as in Klondike.
Brisbane Solitaire: Same rules as Yukon except building is regardless of suit, and the starting tableau is a bit different.
Developer
The implementation of Australian Patience on this page is developed by Solitaire Paradise.
Video tutorial
If you prefer a video explaining the rules, check out this great tutorial by The Card Guy.
System requirements
Australian Patience can be played in all modern browsers, on all device types (desktop, tablet, mobile), and on all operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, ...).
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Read this first: Scrabble FAQ
How are the words validated?
The game uses a dictionary that follows the same language rules as the NASPA Word List 2020 Edition (NWL2020). Those rules are made by NASPA, the North American Scrabble Players Association. You can find an overview of the accepted two-letter words here.
Can I challenge a word placed by the computer?
No, words placed by the computer cannot be challenged. The computer only places words that are in the word list we use, you can be sure they are valid.
How are the letters dealt?
The dealing of letters is completely at random, so it means that it can happen that you have (almost) only vowels, or don’t receive high value letters. If you are not happy with the letters you receive, blame probability calculation! You can always swap your letters if you cannot find a good word to play.
Can I see the letters on the rack of the computer?
No, this is not possible. In a real-life game of Scrabble, you also cannot see the letters of your opponent. The official rules also state that you cannot see your opponent’s rack.
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