Addiction Solitaire Rules: How to Play

Addiction Solitaire is a quiet little puzzle with a big table. The whole deck lies face up in front of you, four rows of thirteen cards, and all you do is slide one card at a time into an empty space. There is no stock to turn and nothing hidden. It sounds almost too simple, and then you find you have played five games in a row.

You may know this game under an older name. At the card table it has long been called Gaps or Montana, and some books list it as Spaces. They are all the same idea. This page explains the rules step by step, with examples, exactly as our free Addiction Solitaire game plays them.

The Goal

Arrange the cards so that each row holds one suit, in order from the 2 on the left to the King on the right. The thirteenth place in each row ends up empty. It does not matter which suit lands in which row.

A finished row looks like this:

The Deal

1. Shuffle one standard 52-card deck. No jokers.
2. Deal all the cards face up in four rows of thirteen. The cards do not overlap.
3. Find the four Aces and take them off the table. They are not used again.

The Aces leave four empty places behind. These are the gaps, and they are the whole engine of the game. There are always exactly four gaps on the table, and 48 cards.

How Cards Move

There is only one kind of move: put one card into one gap. Which card may go there depends on the card sitting just to the left of the gap.

The basic rule

A gap takes the card that is the same suit as its left-hand neighbor and one rank higher. Only that one card fits. It can come from anywhere on the table.

When the card moves, the place it came from is now empty. So every move closes one gap and opens another. A good move is one where the new gap is useful too.

Gaps in the first column

A gap at the very left of a row has no neighbor on its left. It takes any 2. You choose which one, and your choice sets the suit for that row: put the 2 of Spades there and the row must become spades.

In our game, tapping a first-column gap brings up a short list of the 2s you can use. If only one 2 is available it moves straight away.

Gaps after a King

Nothing is higher than a King, so a gap that follows a King takes nothing. It is blocked. It stays blocked until the King moves away, which can only happen when a gap opens right after the Queen of the same suit.

Our game marks a blocked gap with a no-entry sign and the word "Blocked", so you can see it without having to work it out.

Two gaps side by side

Sometimes two gaps sit next to each other. The left one follows a card and can be filled as usual. The right one has an empty place on its left, so nothing fits it until its neighbor is filled. Fill the left gap first and the right one comes to life.

Cards "In Place"

A card is in its final place when it is part of an unbroken run from the start of its row: a 2 in the first column, then the 3 of that suit, then the 4, and so on. As soon as the run is broken, the cards after the break do not count, even if they happen to sit in the right column.

Cards in place matter for two reasons. They are your score, in a sense: 48 in place is a win. And they are the only cards a shuffle leaves alone. In our game they carry a small check mark.

The Shuffle

Sooner or later no card can move. All four gaps are blocked, usually by Kings. Now you may shuffle:

1. Leave every card that is in place exactly where it is.
2. Pick up all the other cards.
3. Shuffle them well.
4. Deal them back into the empty places, row by row, but leave one gap in each row, right after the last card in place. In a row with nothing in place, the gap is the first column.

After a shuffle every row has its gap in the most useful spot: the place where its next card belongs. A row with 2-3-4 of Clubs in place gets its gap in the fourth column, ready for the 5 of Clubs.

In the standard game you get three shuffles. When no card can move and no shuffle is left, the game is over. In our game the Shuffle button shows how many remain, and it asks you to confirm if you press it while cards can still move. Shuffling early is allowed, but it is rarely wise.

Winning and Losing

• You win when all four rows run from 2 to King in a single suit each.
• The game ends without a win when no card can move and you have no shuffles left.

There is no score to add up at the table. Many players simply count how many cards they got in place when a hand stalls. Our game shows that count all the time ("In place: 31 of 48") and keeps a record of your wins, winning streak and the fewest moves you have needed.

A Short Worked Example

Here is the left end of a table a few moves into a game. Only the first five columns are shown.

1. The gap in Row 1 follows the 3 of Spades, so it takes the 4 of Spades. That card is in Row 2. Move it up. Row 1 now has three cards in place.
2. The 4 of Spades left a gap in Row 2, right after the 9 of Clubs. That gap now takes the 10 of Clubs, wherever it is.
3. The gap at the start of Row 2 takes any 2. The 2 of Hearts is close by. Move it to the first column, and Row 2 becomes the hearts row.
4. Row 2 now reads 2♥, 9♣, (gap), (gap), K♣. The first of those two gaps follows the 9 of Clubs and takes the 10 of Clubs. The second follows a gap, so it waits. And the 3 of Hearts in Row 3 would love to sit next to its 2, but the 9 of Clubs is in the way. That will have to wait until the 9 of Clubs can move, or until a shuffle.

Notice the pattern: each move is tiny, but each one changes which cards can move next. Reading one step ahead is most of the skill. Our strategy guide goes into that.

Playing on This Site

• Tap a gap with a bright outline and the card that fits moves in. Or tap a card, and it moves to its gap if it has one.
• Every gap is labeled with the card it takes, with "any 2", or with "Blocked".
• Tap a card that cannot move and the game tells you where it would go and what is in the way.
• Undo is unlimited and also takes back a shuffle. Hint suggests a move and says why.
• Deal numbers. Every deal has a number. Type the same number in Settings to play the same deal again, or share it with a friend.
• On a phone the table is turned a quarter, so each suit runs down the screen instead of across. "Left of" becomes "above". Everything else is the same.
• House rules. In Settings you can play with unlimited shuffles or none. See rule variations.

Quick Reference

If you enjoy open games like this one, where you can see every card, you might also like FreeCell.