How to Play

Sir Tommy is one of the oldest known solitaires: deal cards one at a time to four waste piles while building four foundations Ace to King regardless of suit.

Sir Tommy (also Old Patience or Try Again) is widely regarded as the oldest single-player solitaire card game. It is also the conceptual ancestor of every patience game with reserve waste piles, including Calculation, Strategy, and modern Klondike. The rules are simple: turn cards from the stock one at a time and either send each card to a foundation (built up Ace through King regardless of suit) or place it onto one of four open waste piles of your choice. Once a card lands on a waste pile, only the top card of that pile is available for play, and waste piles can never be moved into one another. After the stock is exhausted, you continue playing waste-pile tops onto foundations until you either win or get stuck. Around 7-10 percent of deals are winnable with optimal play.

Players

Single-player patience. Sometimes played as a race between two players using identical shuffled decks; the first to win the deal (or the player with more cards on foundations when both are stuck) wins the round.

Card Deck

One standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Suits are completely irrelevant for foundation building (unlike most modern solitaires). Foundations build up from Ace through King across all 13 ranks; whether the card is a heart, club, diamond, or spade does not matter.

Objective

Place all 52 cards onto the four foundations, each built up from Ace through King regardless of suit. The game is won when no cards remain in the stock or any waste pile.

Setup and Deal

1. Shuffle the 52-card deck thoroughly.
2. Place the entire shuffled deck face down to one side as the stock.
3. Designate four spaces in front of you for the foundations (initially empty).
4. Designate four spaces below the foundations for the four waste piles (also initially empty).

Gameplay

1. Turn a card: Flip the top card of the stock face up. You must immediately decide where it goes (no holding it).
2. Foundation play: If the card is an Ace, start a new foundation pile. If it is the next-needed card on any existing foundation (regardless of suit; e.g., any 2 plays on any Ace), play it there.
3. Waste pile placement: If the card cannot be placed on a foundation (or you choose not to place it there), place it face up on any one of the four waste piles. You choose which pile.
4. Waste pile rules: Only the top card of each waste pile is available. The card you placed becomes the top of that waste pile, covering whatever was beneath. Waste pile cards may move only to a foundation, never between waste piles or back to the stock.
5. Stock play: Continue turning cards from the stock and resolving each one (foundation or waste) until the stock is exhausted. After each placement, you may also play any current waste pile top to a foundation if it now fits.
6. End game: Once the stock is empty, continue playing waste-pile top cards onto foundations as the foundations grow. The game ends when either all 52 cards are on foundations (win) or no more legal moves are possible.

Scoring

• Win: All 52 cards on the four foundations.
• Loss: Stock exhausted and no waste pile top can be played on any foundation.
• Progress measure: Count total cards on foundations as a final score (out of 52); useful for comparing close losses on the same shuffle.
• Win rate: Approximately 7-10 percent of random deals are winnable with optimal play.

Winning

• Win: All 52 cards reach the foundations in correct ascending order.
• Loss: Stuck after stock is empty with at least one card buried in a waste pile under an unplayable top card.
• Comparison play: In two-player races, higher number of foundation cards wins if neither player has solved the deal.
• Streak tracking: Players sometimes track winning percentage across 50-100 deals; 8-10% is considered above-average performance.

Common Variations

• Strategy: Allows waste-pile-to-waste-pile moves, making the game considerably easier. Same setup otherwise.
• Numerica: Foundations must be built strictly from left to right; you cannot start a new foundation on the second pile until the first is started.
• Calculation: Uses the same 4 waste piles but foundations build by different intervals (Ace by 1s, 2 by 2s, 3 by 3s, 4 by 4s) wrapping at King.
• Puss in the Corner: Aces are placed in corners as foundation starters; Kings are removed from the deck before play.
• Sir Tommy with Redeal: Allow one redeal of the waste piles into the stock at the end; raises the win rate to roughly 30 percent.

Tips and Strategy

• Reserve one waste pile for high cards (Jacks, Queens, Kings). They cannot reach the foundations until very late, so segregating them prevents buried low cards.
• Spread low cards (2s, 3s, 4s) across multiple waste piles to keep options open for the next foundation tier.
• Play to foundations the instant a card fits. There is almost never a reason to delay a foundation play.
• Pay attention to which cards have already appeared. If three Aces are out and the fourth is still in the stock, plan accordingly for the second-tier 2s.
• Never bury a 2 under a 3 in the same waste pile until both Aces are already on foundations; otherwise the 2 becomes locked.
• When two waste piles are roughly equal in their high cards, prefer the pile that already has a same-rank or one-up card on top (so the new card builds a useful late-game stack).

Glossary

• Stock: The face-down draw pile holding cards not yet seen.
• Waste pile: One of the four face-up open piles on which non-foundation cards rest. Only the top card is available.
• Foundation: One of the four target piles built up from Ace to King regardless of suit.A♠K♠
• Build up: Place a card one rank higher than the current top of a foundation, ignoring suit.
• Trail: Place a card on a waste pile rather than a foundation.
• Buried card: A card in a waste pile with one or more cards on top of it; cannot be played until the cards above are removed.
• Redeal: Optional house rule to gather waste piles back into the stock once.