Klondike Turn 1 vs Turn 3: How Often Can a Deal Be Won?
Turn 1 and Turn 3 are the two common ways to play Klondike, and people often ask which one has the better win rate. We do not have a human win rate to quote, and we will not invent one. What we do have is a solver run over thousands of numbered deals on this site, so this page states exactly what that run found and what it cannot tell you.
What we measured
Solitaire Play numbers its deals. We took 12,000 of them and asked our solver to search each one for a complete winning line, once with the Turn 1 rule and once with the Turn 3 rule. Every line it found was then replayed move by move to confirm it really wins.
| Rule | Deals proved winnable | Share of 12,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Turn 1 | 8,834 | 73.6% |
| Turn 3 | 8,207 | 68.4% |
In this sample Turn 3 comes out 5.2 percentage points lower than Turn 1.
What these numbers are not
- Not a human win rate. The solver sees every face-down card from the start. A real player does not, so people win fewer deals than the table suggests. We have not measured a human win rate and do not publish one.
- Not an upper limit. A deal the solver failed to prove within its search budget may still be winnable. The percentages are lower bounds on how many deals can be won, not exact counts.
- Not the whole world of Klondike. They come from our own 12,000 numbered deals and our own solver, so other sources that count differently will report different figures.
Why Turn 3 is lower
Turn 1 turns a single card, so every card in the stock eventually becomes playable. Turn 3 turns three cards and lets you play only the top one, so the two beneath stay locked until it is used. A card you need can sit under one you cannot play, and that is the mechanism that makes some deals unwinnable. The size of the gap above is what our sample shows; we do not claim it holds for every set of deals.
For tactics on each rule, read the Klondike strategy guide.
What about Vegas?
The Vegas mode in Solitaire Play uses three-card turns and allows at most three passes through the stock, and it scores 5 per card sent to a foundation against a 52 buy-in. Our proven-winnable library was built without a limit on the number of passes, so it cannot promise that a Vegas deal is winnable. Vegas games therefore use random deals, and we do not publish a win-rate figure for them.
Which one should you play?
If you are learning, start with Turn 1: you can plan around the whole stock. If you want a harder game where memory and the order of waste plays matter, choose Turn 3. You can switch at any time from the mode button or the menu, and a new game starts.
Play Klondike on Solitaire Play.
Frequently asked questions
What is the win rate of Klondike Solitaire?
There is no single figure. In our own run of 12,000 deals the solver proved 73.6% winnable with Turn 1 and 68.4% with Turn 3 when every card is known. These are lower bounds, and a human who cannot see the face-down cards wins less often. We do not have a measured human win rate.
Is every Klondike deal winnable?
No. With a random shuffle some deals have no winning line at all. That is why Solitaire Play deals Turn 1 and Turn 3 games, and the Daily Challenge, only from deals that a solver has already won.
Does Solitaire Play only deal winnable games?
For Turn 1 and Turn 3 and for the Daily Challenge, yes: they are drawn from the library of deals the solver proved winnable and replayed. Vegas uses random deals and does not carry that promise.
Why is Turn 3 harder than Turn 1?
Only the top of each three-card group is playable, so cards underneath stay locked until the top one is used. That makes ordering matter far more, and it is also why fewer Turn 3 deals could be proved winnable in our sample.