Penguin Solitaire

In Penguin Solitaire, 49 cards are dealt face up into 7 columns of 7 cards each. 3 cards of the same value are dealt into the foundation. The player may build the columns down, by suit, and built the foundations up by suit. Both the columns and the foundations may be wrapped from King to Ace in the foundations or from Ace to King in the columns. 7 reserve piles appear at the bottom of the game screen, and each may hold a single card taken from the columns. Once the player has moved all cards to the foundations he has won the game.

How to play Penguin Solitaire

Game Basics

This game utilizes 7 columns of cards with 7 cards in each. All the cards are dealt facing up, starting on the left side and going across one card to each column until 49 cards are placed.

Unlike many other solitaire games, in Penguin the foundation piles do not always start with an Ace. The foundations may start with 8's in one game and Jacks in another. In this online version, the foundation cards are randomly selected by the computer and 3 are placed in the foundation area. It is up to the player during the game to access and move the 4th into the area.

Game Play

Columns are built in descending order according to suit, and the foundations are built in ascending order by suit. The cards wrap from Ace to King in columns and from King to Ace in the foundations.

In other words, when the foundation gets to the King, the next card will be an Ace and then a Deuce after that. In the columns, when the Ace is played the King will follow; in columns Aces are played on Deuces.

To help get the suits sorted, there is a reserve area at the bottom of the columns that holds 7 cards. This is basically a temporary holding area to help the player organize the column cards into descending suit order. These 7 reserve cards are referred to as "the flipper."

The last card played onto the foundation will be the card just lower in rank as the starting foundation card. Cards in suit can be moved in blocks among the columns. A single card above a group of suited sequenced cards can be viewed even though it is not a part of that block of descending cards. However, on the card above it, the suit is not revealed.

For example, if there is an 8, 7, and 6 sequence block of cards at the bottom of a column in Hearts, you can grab the top card of the sequence and drag it with the mouse to see the suit of the card above. Any other cards above that are not visible.

The single card at the bottom of each column can also be dragged with the mouse to view the suit only of the card right above it. This poses a challenge in knowing which card you want to target if you cannot tell if a card is an 8 of Spades or Clubs.

Cards must be moved individually to the foundation area. Cards can be moved individually among the columns or in suited descending value sequences, as in Q-J-10-9-8 of Clubs for example.

Unlike many other solitaire games, when a column becomes empty it can be filled with a card other than a King.

The object of Penguin solitaire is the same as most other games in the family, and that is to form four complete suits in ascending order in the foundation piles.

Strategies

Be careful not to abuse the reserve area. It is easy to fill it up fast and find yourself without any further moves to make. Try to keep as few cards there as possible at one time and only those that allow you to make plays. As the game progresses and more cards make their way to the foundation area, game play will become easier and the player will be less reliant on the reserve area.

There is some amount of guesswork when determining columns to target for accessing buried cards in that viewing the suit is not always possible. You might think you are clearing the way to a 9 of Hearts only to discover it is actually the 9 of Diamonds. That makes it important to view ALL of the cards possible before pursuit. It might be that the 9 of Diamonds is in view already which allows the player to deduce that the 9 they are after is actually the 9 of Hearts.