Clock Solitaire Rules: How to Play Clock Patience

Clock Solitaire is one of the first card games many of us learned as children, often from a grandparent at the kitchen table on a rainy afternoon. You lay the cards out like the face of a clock, turn them over one at a time, and hope the four Kings stay hidden until the end. It is also known as Clock Patience, and you may have heard it called Travelers or Sundial.

There is one thing to know before you start: this is a game of pure luck. You never have a choice to make. That is exactly why it is so restful, and why it is a lovely game to teach a young grandchild. This page explains the standard rules step by step, the same rules our free Clock Solitaire game uses.

What You Need

• One standard deck of 52 playing cards, with the jokers taken out.
• A table with room for a circle of twelve small piles and one more pile in the middle.
• About five minutes. A game is quick, and many end sooner than you would like.

The Deal

Shuffle the deck well. Deal all 52 cards face down into 13 piles of four cards each.

• Twelve piles go in a circle, placed where the numbers 1 to 12 sit on a clock face.
• The thirteenth pile goes in the center of the circle.

It does not matter how you deal them. Some people deal one card at a time around the clock, and some deal four cards to a pile before moving on. As long as the deck was shuffled, the result is the same. In our game the cards are dealt one at a time around the clock and then to the center, four times around.

Where Each Card Belongs

Every card has a home, and it is the hour that matches its rank. Suits do not matter at all in this game.

An easy way to remember the picture cards: the Jack and Queen finish the clock at 11 and 12, and the King, being the most important, sits in the middle.

Good to know: on our table every pile has a label on the clock face, such as "A = 1" and "Q = 12", so you never have to count hours or squint at a card.

How to Play

1. Turn the first card

Turn over the top card of the center pile. That is always the first move.

2. Put it at its hour

Place the card face up at its home pile. At a real table you slide it face up underneath that pile, or lay it beside the pile, so the face-down cards stay on top and ready to turn.

3. Turn the top card of that same pile

Now turn over the top face-down card of the pile where you just put a card. That new card tells you where to go next. Put it at its own hour, turn the top card there, and so on.

4. Keep traveling around the clock

You hop from pile to pile, wherever the cards send you. Sometimes a card belongs on the very pile it came from. A 5 turned up at 5 o'clock simply stays there, face up, and you turn the next card from the same pile.

5. The Kings

When you turn a King, it goes to the center, and you turn the next card from the center pile. The center started with four cards, and you used one of them for the very first turn. Each of the first three Kings uses up one more. So when the fourth King arrives, the center has no face-down card left, and the game stops right there.

A Short Example

Here is how the first few turns of a game might go.

1. You turn the top card of the center pile. It is the 9 of hearts. You put it face up at 9 o'clock.
2. You turn the top card at 9 o'clock. It is the Jack of clubs. Jacks live at 11 o'clock, so that is where it goes.
3. You turn the top card at 11 o'clock: the King of spades. It goes to the center. That is one King found out of four.
4. You turn the next card in the center: the 3 of diamonds. Off it goes to 3 o'clock.
5. The top card at 3 o'clock is the 3 of clubs. It is already home, so it stays at 3 o'clock face up, and you turn the next card of that same pile.

And so it continues. You are not deciding anything. You are simply following the trail the shuffle laid down, a little like following a treasure map.

Winning and Losing

• You win if every card on the table is face up, with each pile showing four of a kind: four Aces at 1 o'clock, four 2s at 2 o'clock, and so on, with the four Kings in the center. This happens only when the fourth King is the very last card you turn.
• You lose if the fourth King turns up while any other card is still face down. There is nowhere left to turn, so those cards stay hidden.

You can never get stuck in any other way. Whenever a card sends you to a pile, that pile is guaranteed to have a face-down card waiting, because the number of visits a pile gets is the number of cards of its rank, and that is four. Only the center runs short, because the game began by taking a card from it.

How Often Can You Win?

About 1 game in 13, which is a little under 8 percent. It does not matter who is playing or how carefully. The cards are, in effect, turned in a completely random order, and you win only when the last of the 52 happens to be a King. Four of the 52 cards are Kings, and 4 out of 52 is 1 in 13.

So please don't be discouraged by a run of losses. They are the normal result, and they say nothing about you. Many people enjoy the game as a little fortune-teller: "If the clock comes out, it will be a good day." Our odds and strategy page explains the numbers in more detail.

Keeping Score

Clock Solitaire has no points. A game is simply won or lost. If you would like something to measure, count the cards still face down when the fourth King appears. The fewer, the closer you came. Our game shows two running counts in the corners of the table, Kings found and cards still face down, and the end-of-game message tells you how many of the 52 cards you turned.

The One-Swap House Rule

Because the strict game is won so rarely, many families play with a second chance. In our game it is an option in Settings called One swap for the fourth King.

House rule: when the fourth King turns up while cards are still face down, you may, once per game, tuck that King face down underneath any pile around the clock that still has face-down cards. You then take the top face-down card of that pile and carry on as usual. If the King comes back before everything else is face up, the game is lost.

This gives you one real decision, which pile to choose, and it raises the chance of winning from 1 in 13 to better than 1 in 3 if you choose well. The variations page describes the rule in full, and the strategy page explains which pile is best.

Helpful Features in Our Game

• Tap or drag. Tap the pile marked "Turn" to turn its top card. Then tap the pile where the card belongs, or drag the card there.
• One big button. The button under the table always does the next step for you, so you can play the whole game without aiming at small cards.
• Auto-play. Sit back and watch the deal play out at a calm pace. Pause whenever you like.
• Hint. Shows where the card in your hand goes. With the one-swap rule, it also suggests the best pile and tells you your chances.
• Undo. Takes back the last card. The one thing it will not take back is a swap, because by then you have seen the card you received.
• Deal numbers. Every deal has a number. Replay a deal you liked, or share the number with a friend so you both play the same cards.
• Saved automatically. Close the page and your game will be waiting when you come back.

Clock Solitaire Rules at a Glance

That is the whole game. If you enjoy it but would like a solitaire where your choices decide the result, try classic Klondike solitaire or FreeCell, where nearly every deal can be won with careful play. And if you are curious about other ways people play around the clock, see the Clock Solitaire variations.