Play Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 Online for Free

Play unlimited games of Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 online for free. No download or email registration required – play in full screen mode on desktop, tablet, or mobile. Engage with the traditional Draw 3 rules and challenge your solitaire strategy!

What is Klondike Solitaire Turn 3?

Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 (also known as Draw 3 Solitaire) is the traditional, more challenging version of classic Klondike Solitaire. While the goal remains the same—building four foundation piles from Ace to King—the key difference lies in how you draw cards from the stock pile. Instead of drawing one card at a time, you draw three cards at once. However, only the top card of the three is active and accessible. You must play that top card before you can access the card underneath it.

How to Play Klondike Solitaire Turn 3

Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 is played with a standard 52-card deck without jokers. The game layout consists of four main areas: the tableau, the stock pile, the waste pile, and the foundation piles. The goal is to build all four foundation piles up by suit from Ace to King. In this Turn 3 variation, you draw three cards at a time from the stock, which requires deep planning, memory, and tighter card management.

Understanding the Playing Area

The layout of a Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 game is designed to challenge your strategy and memory. At the start of a deal, the tableau is set up with 28 cards dealt into seven columns from left to right. The first column contains a single face-up card, while the remaining columns contain one face-up card on top of an increasing number of face-down cards. The remaining 24 cards are placed face-down in the stock pile, ready to be drawn three at a time into the waste pile during gameplay.

Understanding this initial setup is key to planning your opening moves. The four foundation piles in the top-right start empty and act as the final destination for all cards. To win, you must transfer all cards from both the tableau and the waste pile to these foundations, starting with the Aces and building up in ascending sequence to the Kings.

• The Stock (Deck): Located in the top-left corner, this pile contains the 24 cards that were not dealt into the tableau. Clicking the stock draws three cards and places them face-up onto the waste pile.
• The Waste: Positioned next to the stock, this pile displays the cards drawn from the deck. Only the top card of the waste pile is active and available to be played onto the tableau or foundations. Playing the top card reveals the next card in the stack of three.
• The Foundations: The four empty slots located at the top-right of the board. Each foundation pile corresponds to one of the four suits (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades) and must be built in ascending order from Ace to King.
• The Tableau: The main playing area featuring seven columns of cards. It holds the majority of the cards at the beginning, with only the top card of each column facing up. You move cards here to reveal hidden face-down cards.

Basic Tableau Rules

The core gameplay of Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 revolves around manipulating the tableau columns to reveal the face-down cards underneath. In the screenshot above, you can see how cards are moved between columns to build descending sequences. To move a card (or a sequence of cards) onto another column, the target card must be exactly one rank higher and of the opposite color. For example, a red Queen can only be placed on a black King, and a black Seven can only be placed on a red Eight.

As you clear face-up cards, you will expose the face-down cards underneath, which must be immediately flipped over to become active. Additionally, creating empty columns is a critical tactical goal. A completely empty tableau column is a valuable slot that can only be filled by a King (or a sequence starting with a King). Managing these empty spaces carefully allows you to reorganize entire columns and unlock stuck cards from the deck.

Building the Foundations

The ultimate objective of the game is to move all cards to the four foundation piles, as shown in the screenshot above. Each foundation pile is dedicated to one suit—Spades, Clubs, Hearts, or Diamonds. You must build each pile in ascending order, starting with the Ace, followed by the 2, 3, 4, and all the way up to the King. The game is won when all 52 cards are successfully arranged in these four piles.

In our free online solitaire game, you can drag cards directly to the foundations, or simply double-click a card to send it to its valid foundation pile automatically. An important advanced tactic to remember is that foundations are not “one-way streets”. If needed, you can drag a card back from the foundation onto the tableau to help build a sequence or free up a card of opposite color. This flexibility is highly useful in Turn 3 play.

Klondike Turn 3 vs. Turn 1 vs. Double Klondike

To help you understand the differences between Klondike Solitaire Turn 3 and other related Klondike variations, here is a comparison table outlining their core rules:

Advanced Strategies to Win Turn 3

Winning Turn 3 requires memory and planning. Because you skip past cards, you need to think ahead:

• Memorize the Stock: Before making major moves, cycle through the entire stock pile once without playing any cards. Memorize the order of the cards so you know what is available.
• Delay Playing from the Waste: If you play a card from the waste pile, it shifts the order of all subsequent 3-card draws. Sometimes, it’s better to wait and play a card on the next cycle if shifting the order would hide a card you desperately need.
• Prioritize the Tableau: Because the stock is restricted, making moves within the tableau to expose hidden face-down cards is even more critical than in Turn 1.