How to Play Bristol Solitaire
Bristol is a solitaire game with a unique setup of three waste piles.
Objective
Your goal is to move all 52 cards to the 4 foundation piles by suit from Ace to King in ascending order. You do this by moving and organizing cards from the stock pile and tableau.
The Setup and Play Area
Foundation piles: These are the 4 piles where you aim to move playable cards in order from Ace to King by suit. Successfully placing all 52 cards in the foundation wins the game.
Tableau piles: This area consists of 8 columns, with 3 face-up cards in each column, totaling 24 cards.
Stock pile: The rest of the cards, or 28 in total, go into the stock pile. 3 cards are dealt at a time into 3 waste piles. You only get one pass through the deck. On the first 9 deals, 3 cards go into each waste pile. On the tenth deal, one card remains, and it goes into the first waste pile.
Waste pile: The top card of each of the 3 waste piles may be played into the tableau or the foundation if allowed.
Available moves
- Foundations must be built in ascending order by suit. For example, a foundation pile will start with an Ace of Hearts, followed by a 2 of Hearts, and so on until it ends with a King of Diamonds.
- The last card of each tableau column can be moved to the foundation if it is playable.
- Tableau cards can be moved by sequencing them in descending order, regardless of suit. For example, a 7 of Spades can be placed on top of an 8 of Clubs, Hearts, or Diamonds.
- You cannot move multiple cards at one time.
- Cards cannot be placed in empty columns.
- You win when all cards have been moved to the foundation.
Strategy
- Move aces to the foundations as soon as they’re available. This will clear the card from the tableau, enabling you to build more.
- Make sure there are no more useful moves before drawing from the stock pile.
- Try to free up lower-ranking cards. Because foundations are built from Ace to King, try to make low cards available so you can move them out of the tableau into the foundation and make other cards playable.
- Try to build the foundations evenly. If one foundation is built immediately in the game, you now have fewer cards of numbers you may need to help you sequence.
- The first visible sequence may not always be the best one. With all the cards face-up, plan out your moves to remove as many cards as possible from the tableau.
- If you get stuck, use the undo button. You may not always make the right moves, and you may need to reverse some to win the game.
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