How to Play

A deterministic one-deck patience: the Aces sit as foundations and the other 48 cards are dealt into 12 four-card piles, playable up by suit to foundations or down by suit between piles, with an ordered (non-shuffling) redeal when stuck.

Cruel is a one-deck patience in which the four Aces are set aside as foundations and the remaining 48 cards are dealt face up into twelve four-card piles. You move one top card at a time, either onto the next higher same-suit card on another pile or onto its foundation. The distinctive feature is the redeal: when you are stuck, gather the piles in order (not shuffled) and lay them out again four at a time. Redeals are unlimited but deterministic, so skilled play is a pure puzzle where every move shapes the layout you will see after the next redeal.

Players

Solitaire for one player. Because the game is information-complete and deterministic, it is sometimes played as a puzzle race between two solvers using the same seed.

Card Deck

• One standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• All four Aces are removed at the start and placed in a row as foundation bases: .A♠A♥A♦A♣
• The other 48 cards form the twelve face-up play piles (four cards per pile).
• Ranks for building: foundations go up in suit (Ace low, King high); tableau piles build down in suit (one rank lower, same suit).A♠K♠

Objective

Build each foundation pile up by suit from Ace through King (13 cards per suit) so that all 52 cards are on the foundations. The game is lost when no legal move exists and a redeal produces the same layout as the previous position.

Setup and Deal

1. Shuffle the 52-card deck.
2. Remove the four Aces and place them as a row of foundation bases.
3. Deal the remaining 48 cards face up into 12 piles of 4, one card at a time, left-to-right and top-to-bottom.
4. Only the top (last-dealt) card of each pile is available. Buried cards are fully visible but not playable until exposed.

Gameplay

1. Step 1 (play to foundation): If a top card of any pile is the next rank up of its foundation's suit (for example, the 2 of hearts when the heart foundation shows an Ace), move it to that foundation. Foundations build up strictly by suit: Ace, 2, 3, ..., King.2♥
2. Step 2 (play to another pile): A top pile card may be moved onto the top of another pile if the destination card is the same suit and exactly one rank higher. For example, place the onto a . Only one card moves per action; you never move a stack.5♣6♣
3. Step 3 (repeat): Keep making moves in any order as long as legal options exist. Freeing low cards onto foundations often unblocks middle cards that can rearrange several piles in sequence.
4. Step 4 (redeal): When no legal move remains, perform a redeal. Gather the piles in a fixed order (the standard is: pick up pile 12 onto pile 11 onto pile 10 ... onto pile 1, preserving each pile's internal order). Then deal the stack back out four cards at a time into piles, left to right. The redeal does not shuffle; the final pile on the table may be short if cards have been played off.
5. Step 5 (end): If the redeal leaves the layout identical to the previous one, the game is blocked and lost. Otherwise continue play.

Scoring

• Binary win or loss: all 52 cards on the foundations is a win; a blocked redeal is a loss.
• Progress score (for session play): count cards on foundations when the game ends; 52 is a win, anything less is a loss.
• Optional move-count score: track the total number of tableau and redeal moves used; fewer is a cleaner win.

Winning

The game is won when all four foundation piles reach King. It is lost when a redeal produces the same layout as the previous position, meaning no future move can improve the board. Expert play on a random deal reaches an estimated win rate between 15 and 30 percent, varying with patience and willingness to plan redeals.

Common Variations

• Perseverance: Same mechanics, but the piles are fanned so all cards are visible at once; identical logic, easier to plan.
• Ripple Fan: Redeals distribute cards one at a time across fans rather than in groups of four, changing the deterministic pattern.
• Royal Family: Same layout, but the tableau builds up alternating colours (like Klondike) instead of down by suit.
• Limited Cruel: A house rule capping redeals at three or five to convert the game from a puzzle into a risk decision.
• Seeded challenge: Two players solve the same starting deal (recorded seed) and race to the lowest move count.

Tips and Strategy

• Before every move, check what the next redeal will produce. A sub-optimal move now might leave the board one card short of a stall after the redeal; the right move often is the one that sets up the redeal rather than the one with the biggest immediate effect.
• Foundations are the main progress meter. Any move that plays to a foundation is almost always worth taking, even if it appears to close a pile.
• Avoid moving a card that unblocks nothing. Moving a 7 onto an 8 is only useful if either the exposed card beneath is needed or the new pile top is needed.
• Plan for emptying a pile. An empty pile is not refilled by the redeal (you just deal fewer piles), so emptying a pile is rarely helpful; do it only as a last step before a redeal that otherwise stalls.
• If a redeal looks like it will stall again, try a small earlier rearrangement. Moving one card between piles before the redeal is often enough to change the pattern entirely and reopen the board.

Glossary

• Foundation: One of the four Ace-to-King suit piles at the top of the layout.A♠K♠
• Pile: One of the twelve tableau stacks of up to four cards.
• Top card: The last-dealt (and only playable) card of a pile.
• Redeal: A deterministic gather-and-redeal of all pile cards that preserves their order.
• Block: A state in which no move is legal and a redeal produces the same layout; a loss.