Yukon Solitaire

Yukon sits between the familiar comfort of Klondike and the complexity of Spider. The setup looks almost identical to Klondike — seven tableau columns, four empty foundation piles — but key differences transform the whole experience: columns 2-7 have face-down cards beneath a set of face-up cards, and there is no stock pile.

That single change has enormous consequences. In Klondike, hidden cards create uncertainty; you move cards partly to see what lies beneath. In Yukon, all face-up cards are visible from the first moment, though face-down cards in the lower parts of columns remain hidden until uncovered.

Yukon also has a relaxed movement rule. You may pick up any face-up card — or any group of face-up cards resting on a face-up card — and move them as a unit, even if they are not in sequential order. That freedom sounds like a big advantage, but it is a double-edged gift. You can move awkward piles to reach cards you need, but disorganized columns can tangle quickly and require careful thought to unravel.

The missing stock pile is Yukon's most distinctive quality. Every move matters right now. There is no "draw from the stock and see" safety valve. If no productive moves exist, the game ends. This gives Yukon a focused, concentrated feel that many players prefer over Klondike.

Win rates hover around 20-30% with skilled play, making Yukon a moderately challenging solitaire game. But losses tend to be decisive — you can usually look back and see exactly where things went wrong.

Setup: Shuffle a standard 52-card deck and deal all 52 cards into seven tableau columns. Column one gets one card face-up. Columns two through seven each receive their base Klondike-style cards (some face-down) plus four extra cards dealt face-up on top. The face-down cards remain hidden until uncovered by removing the face-up cards above them. There is no stock pile and no waste pile.

On each turn:

1. Move cards in the tableau. Move any face-up card from one column to another, provided the destination card is one rank higher and the opposite color. For example, a black 6 goes on a red 7. You may also move any group of face-up cards sitting on a valid card — even if those cards are not in sequential order. The whole stack moves as a unit.
2. Build the foundations. Move any Ace directly to a foundation pile. Then add cards of the same suit in ascending order (2, 3, 4 … King). Cards on the foundation cannot return to the tableau.
3. Fill empty columns. An empty column may only be filled with a King or a group of cards whose bottom card is a King. The game is won when all 52 cards are on the four foundation piles, each complete from Ace to King in a single suit.

Yukon takes its name from Canada's Yukon Territory, sharing the geographical inspiration of Klondike — both names evoke the remote, rugged landscape of the Canadian north. The game appears in card game collections from the mid-20th century as a variant designed to fix one of Klondike's most criticized features: the chance element introduced by the stock pile and hidden cards.

By removing the stock pile and dealing all cards at the start, Yukon shifts firmly toward skill. The result attracted a devoted following among players who found Klondike too luck-dependent and wanted a game where careful analysis could consistently overcome a hard deal.

The digital era brought Yukon to wider audiences through computer solitaire collections, where it became a staple alongside Klondike, Spider, and FreeCell. Its reputation as the "thinking person's Klondike" has made it a favorite among players who treat solitaire as a logic puzzle. Several solitaire researchers have used Yukon as a test bed for studying sequential decision-making under full information.

• Every card is visible, so every mistake is foreseeable. Trace the consequences of each move at least two or three steps ahead. Moving disordered groups is tempting — resist it unless you can see a clear benefit.
• Uncover Aces and low cards systematically. These are your foundation starters and drive the whole game. Work toward them deliberately rather than making local moves that look good but don't advance the position.
• Guard empty columns carefully. An empty column is a temporary holding space for Kings and a tool for reorganizing scrambled piles. Only fill an empty column when you have a concrete plan that requires a King there.
• Use adjacent columns as sorting space. Move a disorganized pile to a free column, rearrange the remaining cards into proper sequence, then rebuild. This shuffling technique often unlocks a stuck position.
• Keep foundation building balanced across suits. Sending one suit far ahead strands cards of other suits in the tableau longer than necessary.