Easthaven Solitaire

How to Play Easthaven Solitaire

What Is Easthaven Solitaire?

Easthaven is a lively one-deck solitaire game that blends two of the most famous card games in the world. The building rules come from Klondike: cards in the columns go down in rank and alternate between red and black. The dealing comes from Spider: when you click the stock, one new card lands on every column at the same time. In older card game books, Easthaven sometimes appears under the name 'Aces Up'. Your goal is simple to say and tricky to do: move all 52 cards onto the four foundations, building each suit up in order from Ace to King.

The Layout

Easthaven is played with one standard deck of 52 cards. The table has three areas:

• The tableau. Seven columns spread across the middle of the screen. Each column is dealt exactly 3 cards: 2 face down and 1 face up on top. That is 21 cards on the table at the start. The face-down cards stay hidden until you uncover them by moving the cards above.
• The stock. The remaining 31 cards sit face down in a single pile, usually in a corner of the screen. Clicking the stock deals fresh cards onto the tableau. There is no waste pile in Easthaven; every stock card goes straight onto the columns.
• The foundations. Four empty spaces, one for each suit. Each foundation starts with the Ace of its suit and builds up in strict order: Ace, 2, 3, and so on, all the way to the King. You win when all four foundations are complete.

How to Move Cards

The face-up cards in each column are your working material. You can move them in these ways:

• To a foundation, if the card is the next one needed for its suit. If the hearts foundation shows a 6, you may place the 7 of hearts on it.
• Onto another tableau column, if the card is one rank lower than the card it lands on and the opposite color. A red 7 can go on a black 8, and a black Queen can go on a red King. Suits do not matter in the tableau, only color and rank.
• As a group. You may move several cards together, but only if they already form a proper sequence: going down in rank and alternating in color, with no gaps. A loose pile of mixed cards cannot be dragged as one unit.
• To an empty column. When a column has no cards left, any card or any legal sequence may be placed there. You do not need a King. This is a friendly difference from Klondike and one of your most useful tools.

Whenever you move the last face-up card off a face-down card, the hidden card flips over and joins the game. Uncovering these hidden cards is a big part of making progress.

The Stock Deal, and Why It Is Dangerous

When you run out of good moves, click the stock. One card is dealt face up onto every column at once, seven new cards in total. This is the Spider-style twist that gives Easthaven its character, and it cuts both ways. New cards mean new chances, but each deal also drops a random card on top of every column, burying the neat sequences you worked to build.

Two important rules control the stock:

• Every column must have at least one card before you may deal. If a column is empty, you must fill it first. The game will not deal onto a gap.
• You go through the stock only once. There are no redeals. The 31 stock cards give you four full deals of 7 cards each, plus one final short deal of just 3 cards onto the first columns. Once the stock is gone, the cards on the table are all you have.

Because each deal buries every column, the moment just before you click the stock matters a great deal. Tidy your columns first, and only deal when you truly have no better move.

How to Win

You win when all 52 cards have been moved to the foundations, each suit stacked in perfect order from Ace to King. Easthaven is harder than it looks: with sensible play you can expect to win roughly 3 deals out of 10. Luck plays a part, since the stock falls where it will, but careful play decides a great many borderline games. When a loss teaches you something, that seed can be replayed and beaten.

Playing on This Site

You can drag and drop any card or valid sequence, or simply double-click (double-tap on a touch screen) a card to send it automatically to the foundation when it fits. The buttons above the table give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint when you are stuck, and Auto-finish to sweep the remaining cards home once the game is clearly won. Undo is unlimited, so you can rewind a bad stock deal decision and try again. Every deal also has a seed number, so you can replay the exact same shuffle later or share it with a friend and compare results.

Easthaven Solitaire Strategy & Tips

Flip the Face-Down Cards First

Fourteen of your 21 starting cards are face down, and you cannot plan around cards you cannot see. Early in the game, the most valuable moves are the ones that turn hidden cards face up.

• When two moves are both legal, prefer the one that uncovers a face-down card.
• Watch for cheap flips: a column whose only face-up card can move somewhere useful gives you a new card for free.
• The sooner your hidden cards appear, the sooner you can plan the whole deal instead of guessing.

Tidy Up Before Every Stock Deal

This is the single most important habit in Easthaven. Each click of the stock drops a card on top of every column, so anything left out of order gets buried one layer deeper.

• Before dealing, make every move you reasonably can: send cards to the foundations, join sequences together, and flip face-down cards.
• Think of each deal as a small storm. You cannot stop it, but you can bring everything indoors first.
• Never click the stock as a reflex. Ask first: is there truly nothing left to do?

Use Empty Columns Before You Deal

An empty column in Easthaven accepts any card or sequence, which makes it a wonderful sorting space. But remember: the game will not let you deal while a column is empty, so an empty column is a resource with a time limit.

• Use an empty column to break apart a messy pile, then rebuild it in proper order elsewhere.
• When you must fill the gap to deal, choose the filler with care. A high card such as a King or Queen makes a good base, since it can hold a long sequence later.
• Filling a gap with a low card just to satisfy the deal rule often creates a stranded card you will regret.

Do Not Rush the Foundations

It is tempting to fire every possible card up to the foundations, but low and middle cards still have work to do in the tableau.

• A red 5 sitting in play can hold a black 4 that has nowhere else to go. Send that 5 to the foundation too early and the 4 may be stuck for good.
• Aces and 2s can nearly always go up safely. From 3 upward, pause and check what might still need to land on that card.
• Try to raise all four foundations at a similar pace rather than racing one suit ahead.

Count the Stock and Keep the Long View

• You get four full deals of 7 cards, then a final short deal of 3. Knowing how many deals remain tells you how much rescue material is left.
• Late in the game, before the last deals, keep at least one column short and orderly so new cards have somewhere sensible to land.
• Use Undo freely. Dealing the stock, seeing the damage, and undoing to prepare better is a fair and smart way to learn a deal.

Frequently Asked Questions

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