There are many variations of solitaire and many of them fall into the category broadly thought of as “hard solitaire”. Solitaire in general can be tricky at first, but there are some forms which are hard no matter how well-versed in card games you are; today, we’re going to look at a quick description of some of the versions of solitaire known as hard solitaire games.
Some hard solitaire card games include:
Also known as “Demon” solitaire, Canfield is so difficult as to have a probability of winning of only 1 in 30, assuming you play as well as you possibly can. A single card is dealt to the foundation pile of its suit, and forms the lead rank; the other foundation piles must start with the same card and get all the cards of that suit into the pile.
Famously played by Napoleon himself during his exile on St Helena, Forty Thieves is another of hard solitaire variations to play. Played with two decks, you must build sequences in the tableau by suit. Estimated odds of winning are only 1 in 10, and success often depends on a single column.
In Scorpion Solitaire, you cannot move cards into the foundation whenever you please; you must build up the full sequences of cards in the tableaus themselves. This makes Scorpion Solitaire a very hard solitaire variation.
These are hard solitaire versions in their own right, but there are also ways to play hard solitaire which are just tougher variations of other, established games.
There are many variations of easier solitaire games which are made a lot harder:
Spider Solitaire is among the most commonly played forms of solitaire, and gives you a reasonably good chance of winning. Four-suit Spider Solitaire, though, makes the game considerably harder by doubling the number of suits which it is played with. This means you have to build double the number of foundation sequences.
Klondike is most likely the form of the game you are already familiar with. One very simple way to make the classic form a lot harder is to play it with multiple decks. With more decks, you must again build more sequences and so your opportunities to get stuck are far more common.
Solitaire is a game of both luck and skill, and it is in both of these elements that the game can be made more difficult. The best hard solitaire is difficult not simply because it gives you a very low chance of winning but also because it requires especially strategic thought