Free Aces Up Solitaire Online
Aces Up is a fast one-deck solitaire where you discard every card except the four aces: deal four cards, throw away any card that is beaten by a higher card of its suit, and try to finish with one ace in each column. Solitaire Play offers Aces Up in your browser for free, with Hint, Undo and a daily challenge, and no download or sign-up.
Official Rules & Scoring
The goal is to discard all 48 non-ace cards so that only the four aces are left, one in each of the four columns. The game uses one 52-card deck and aces rank highest. At the start one card is dealt face up onto each of four columns; the other 48 cards form the stock.
- Top cards: only the top card of each column can be played.
- Discarding: if another column's top card has the same suit and a higher rank, the lower card is discarded. It flies to the discard pile and the card below it is revealed. An ace is the highest card, so it discards any other card of its suit, and an ace itself can never be discarded.
- Empty columns: when a column is empty you may drag the top card of any other column into it (any card, not only an ace).
- Dealing: tap the stock to deal one card onto each of the four columns, on top of what is there; an empty column receives a card too. There are 12 deals after the opening one and no redeal. You may deal at any time.
- Winning: you win when the stock is used up and each column holds exactly one card, an ace. If nothing can be discarded or moved and the stock is empty with other cards left, the deal is lost.
Strategy & Tips
- Discarding is automatic. A card that is beaten by a higher card of its suit can only get in your way, so the game discards it for you, with a flying card and a sound so you can follow what happened.
- Your real choices are few. They are when to deal and, once a column is empty, which top card to move into it.
- Move before you deal. Each deal covers the card you were working with, so check for a useful move into an empty column first.
- Do not move a lone card. Moving the only card of a column into an empty column just swaps one empty column for another.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can every Aces Up deal be won?
No, and most are not winnable. Aces Up is one of the hardest solitaire games: with ordinary play only about 3% of games are won. New games and the daily challenge only use deals that our solver has proved winnable. In our screening, the solver proved about 18.5% of 12,000 random deals can be won (2,215 of them), and only those are kept. Because the library is small, you may meet a repeated deal. Winnable does not mean easy: the solver sees the whole stock, and you do not.
Can any card go into an empty column?
Yes. In this version an empty column accepts the top card of any other column, not only an ace.
Is an ace higher or lower than a King?
An ace is the highest card. It discards a King of its suit, and it can never be discarded itself.
Can I deal before I run out of moves?
Yes. You can tap the stock at any time. There is no redeal, and each deal puts one new card on every column.
Where are the other solitaire games?
Klondike is on the home page, and FreeCell, Spider, Pyramid, TriPeaks, Golf and Yukon have their own pages.
Want to play better? Read our Aces Up strategy guide.