Rules for Canberra

Family: Yukon
Categories: Easy to Win
Variants: Australian Patience, Tasmanian Solitaire
Also Known As:

Canberra is a more forgiving version of Australian Patience because you are allowed one redeal instead of none. Losses are rare. (For an even more forgiving version, try Tasmanian Solitaire which allows redealing forever.)

Layout

There are four foundations, which are initially empty. There are seven tableau piles, fanned down, which starts with four face-up cards each. The remaining cards form the deck. A discard pile starts empty.

Play

Top cards of tableaus are available for building onto the foundations, which build up following suit. Only an Ace may be played to an empty foundation.

All face-up cards in the tableaus are available for moving among the tableaus, which build down and follow suit. The moved card and the rest of its fan all move together, even if they are not all in sequence. Only Kings or fans whose bottom card is a King may be played to an empty tableau pile.

Dealing

You may deal at any time by taking a card from the hand and turning it face up onto the discard pile. You may redeal once: when the deck is empty, pick up the entire discard pile and turn it face down to form a new deck.

Goal

The goal is to move all the cards onto the foundations.

Tips

Very rarely, you may be dealt an obviously unwinnable game. For example, suppose a pile has the 3 of Clubs on top of the 2 of Clubs, and that 2 on top of the 4 of Clubs. You cannot win, because you will never be able to move the 3 in order to reach the 2.

Solitaire Till Dawn will not count a game as lost if you never make a move and simply start another new game after looking at the layout. If you see a deadlock like the one described above in the initial layout, just skip that game and it won’t be counted as a loss in your statistics.