Klondike Turn 1: the draw-one baseline for everything on this site
solitaire-turn-3.com is about the three-card draw, and a three-card figure means little without the one-card figure beside it. This page is that baseline. It plays Klondike turning one card from the stock at a time, with unlimited trips through the stock. The deal, the seven columns and the building rules are identical to the Turn 3 game on our home page; only the number of cards per turn differs.
We played the same 10,000 numbered deals both ways with the same simple bot, one that sees only face-up cards and never undoes. Turning one card, it won 42.3% (95% range 41.3–43.3%). Turning three, it won 10.6% (10.0–11.2%). Real players on another site, solitairex.io, won 44.8% of 913,106 Klondike games in a month in 2025, close to our bot's Turn 1 figure, though that is a different population and not a check on our method.
At a glance: Turn 1 next to Turn 3
| Measure | Turn 1 (this page) | Turn 3 (home page) | Deals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple bot: won | 42.3% (41.3–43.3%) | 10.6% (10.0–11.2%) | 10,000 each |
| Thoughtful solver: solved | 76.6% (73.9–79.1%) | 66.2% (63.2–69.1%) | 1,000 each |
| Thoughtful solver: proven impossible | 2.1% (1.4–3.2%) | 9.5% (7.8–11.5%) | 1,000 each |
| Thoughtful solver: undecided | 21.3% (18.9–24.0%) | 24.3% (21.7–27.1%) | 1,000 each |
| Stock passes in the bot's wins | 2.34 (2.32–2.36) | 3.81 (3.73–3.90) | 4,229 / 1,063 wins |
| Bot moves in won games, incl. draws | 126.2 (125.9–126.4) | 111.2 (110.5–111.8) | 4,229 / 1,063 wins |
| Published winnable share (Blake and Gent, 2026) | 90.48% (±0.116%) | 81.945% (±0.084%) | — |
The bot is a floor and the thoughtful solver, which sees every hidden card, is a ceiling. Because the solver ran out of budget on some deals, the winnable share lies between 76.6% and 97.9% at Turn 1 and between 66.2% and 90.5% at Turn 3. Both published figures fall inside those ranges.
What one card per turn buys you
At Turn 1 every stock card becomes playable on every lap. At Turn 3 only every third card does, and which ones depends on what you took earlier. The bot needed fewer laps to win at Turn 1 (2.34 against 3.81) and won four times as often. The solver's clearest signal is the proven-impossible share: 2.1% of deals at Turn 1 against 9.5% at Turn 3, even when every card is known. Interestingly, the bot's Turn 1 wins took more moves (126.2 against 111.2); the Turn 3 deals it managed to win seem to be the ones that came out quickly.
What we did not measure: a limit on stock passes. On this site redeals are unlimited in both modes, so we have no Klondike figure for one pass or three passes. The only pass-limit figure we have is for Pyramid.
The opening deal at Turn 1
Deal inspection over 10,000 deals: 88.0% start with at least one Ace face down (87.4–88.7%), 1.60 Aces on average (1.59–1.62), and 8.6% have no move among the seven face-up cards (8.1–9.2%). The bot won 44.5% of deals with no Ace face down (41.7–47.3%, n = 1,196) and 41.6% with two or more (40.3–42.9%, n = 5,333). Buried Aces cost a little; the draw rule costs far more.
Klondike Turn 1 rules on this site
- Deck: one standard 52-card deck.
- Tableau: seven columns of 1 to 7 cards, the top card face up; 24 cards in the stock.
- Stock: one card per turn, unlimited redeals.
- Building: down in alternating colors; any face-up run may move.
- Spaces: only a King or a King-led run.
- Foundations: Ace to King by suit; a card may come back down to the tableau.
Tips that carry over to Turn 3
Uncover before you tidy
Moves that turn over a face-down card, especially in the tallest columns, open the game up. This matters at both draw rates.
Do not empty a column without a King
Only Kings fill spaces, so an empty column with no King ready is a wasted move.
Practice here, then switch
If Turn 3 feels hopeless, play some Turn 1 to learn the tableau, then take that habit to Solitaire Draw 3 and the Klondike Turn 3 guide.
Count your laps
Our bot averaged 2.34 passes through the stock in its Turn 1 wins. If you are on your fifth or sixth lap with nothing new happening, the game has probably stalled; look for a tableau move you skipped, or use Undo.
Play the waste card when it helps the tableau
At Turn 1 there is no cost in timing: the next card will come round again. So only play a waste card when it frees something, not just because it fits.
Playing on solitaire-turn-3.com
Klondike is free in any current browser on computer, tablet or phone, with no account. Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart and Auto Play are included, with zoom, fullscreen, drag or tap moves, a counter for wins, time and moves, and sound and table-color settings. The Draw 1/Draw 3 switch moves you between this page and /klondike-turn-3.
How the figures were made
- Rules read from this site's Klondike code; Turn 1 and Turn 3 share it.
- Numbered deals, seeds 1 to 10,000 for the bot and 1 to 1,000 for the solver, the same deals at both draw rates.
- Bot with fixed priorities, face-up cards only, no undo; thoughtful solver that knows hidden cards, up to 150,000 positions per deal.
- 95% ranges: Wilson intervals for percentages, normal intervals for averages. Published figures from Blake and Gent (2026); player data from solitairex.io.
Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic, helped write and review the code and draft this page. It produced no figures, and the team checked every number.
Questions
Is Turn 1 the easier game?
Yes, on every measure we took. See the table above.
Where are all the games?
On the games page; longer articles are on the blog.
By Admin, solitaire-turn-3.com (Forty Media). Research run September 2026.