Help me identify a solitaire game

The Game Room
1

I learned a solitaire game in the early-'70s. I think one of my grandparents taught it to me, so the game was known in either California or Minnesota.

It goes like this (hope I get the terminolgy right): Shuffle together two decks of cards. Deal the cards face up into thirteen piles in the tableau. As you deal the cards, say (or think) the name of each pile, “ace”, “two”, three", etc. The following rules apply:

  • If the card you dealt was an ace or king, deal the next two cards face down to the draw pile.
  • If the card you dealt matches the pile (a 7 onto the 7 pile, for example), deal the next card face down to the draw pile.
  • After dealing a card to the king pile, deal the next card face down to the draw pile.

Once all 104 cards are dealt, you have a tableau of 13 face-up piles, and a face-down draw pile. The goal is to create 8 foundation piles by suit, 4 building up from ace to king, 4 building down from king to ace. You take the top card from the draw pile, and pick up that pile from the tableau. You can play the top card from any pile in the tableau, or any card in your hand. Then place the cards in your hand back to the tableau, draw the next card, and pick up that pile from the tableau. Continue until all the foundations are complete, or you finish the draw pile.

Dos this ring a bell with anyone? I don’t know why it’s stuck with me all these years, maybe because it was the first solitaire game I ever learned. I don’t know what it’s called, or if it even has a name.

I’ve searched for it online, and I’ll keep looking, but if anyone knows this game please let me know.

2

My Daddy called it “Two-deck race”
I think part of the point was to do it as fast as you could.
He used one red back and one blue back decks to play it. He was really fast.
To us kids.

3

I never played it for speed. I left out a couple details.

After the draw pile is exhausted, you gather up all the cards in the tableau, shuflle them, and re-deal. The game is won if you complete all the foundation piles with three deals.

When I play, I re-order the cards that I’m holding in my hand, in the order I’m likely to need them. Maybe there’s a 2 or a queen; I can’t play it to the foundation yet, but I know I’ll need it soon. When I place that pile back in the tableau, the queen or deuce will be on top, 7s or 8s will be at the bottom. I can’t remember if that was how I was taught the game, or if I made that part up on my own.

Is that still the game you’re thinking of, Beck?

(The strategy is a little trickier than that. If I already have a queen of hearts on the top of one of the tableau piles, and the pile in my hand has the other queen of hearts, I’ll move it to the bottom. I’ll need one of them right away, building down from king to ace, and the other one at the end, building up.)

4

I’m thinking Daddy’s game was some simpler. I remember when he got two of the same suit face card it was always a problem.

I was a kid tho’, I’ve tried to recreate it in my solitaire games but I get messed up quick.

Have you looked for the exact game on a solitaire site?

Look at descriptions of Klondike.

5

Sounds like it might be the same, except not re-ordering the pile in your hand. Having two of the same face card (or ace, 2, or 3) showing is a problem because you need one of them very early and the other very late.

The thing is, without re-ordering there really isn’t much strategy. Just play every card you can, and there aren’t very many choices to make.

Wikipedia has a list of two-deck solitaire games. I’m working my through it, but haven’t found my game yet.

6

Another fine source for information about card games is https://www.pagat.com/ .

7

I have an old paperback of 225 solitaire games. I took a quick look through the section on two-deck games and didn’t see anything where you dealt 13 cards across. But I was mostly looking at the illustrations – some game descriptions have diagrams of the tableau, and some don’t. I’ll have to do a more thorough read-through when I have some time, and see if I can find this game.

8

I don’t deal the tableau 13 across, although I suppose you could. I deal one row ace-6, then another row 7-queen, then a third row with just the king pile. The draw pile goes in a fourth row below the king.
The foundation piles (once they started) will go next to the kind and draw piles.

9

Thanks for the clarification. Still not seeing anything that sounds like what you described, but I’ll keep looking.

It’s surprising how many two-deck games in this book start with “Remove (some specific cards) from the deck.” I assume those are not your game, but I’m reading through the descriptions anyway just to make sure.

10

Okay, this one sounds close. It’s called “Leoni’s Own”, or “Weavers”.

Foundations: Remove from the deck one A and one K of each suit, and put these foundations in two rows. [Although the illustration shows those eight cards in a single row.] Build A’s up in suit to K, and K’s down in suit to A.

Tableau: Deal the rest of the deck in rotation to thirteen piles forming the tableau. Number the piles from 1 to 13, or A to K. When a card turned from the stock would land on a pile of the same rank, put it instead to a 14th pile, face down. These cards so cast out are called the “exiles”. Do not skip any tableau piles when dealing; if a card is exiled, deal the next card to the pile the exiled card would have been dealt to.

Play: After the deal is complete, spread out the 13th (King) pile. All the cards of this pile, including any cards added later, are available for play on the foundations. The top card of every other pile is also available. Play up what you can.

Whenever play comes to a standstill, turn up the top card of the exile pile. If this card is playable on a foundation, it must be played. If it is not playable, put it under the pile of its own rank, remove the top card from that pile, put it under the pile of its rank, etc. Continue shifting cards in this manner until a playable card is on top of a pile. Play that card, and continue making any additional plays.

When an exile card, or any card uncovered during shifting is a K, shifting ends. Put the K under its pile and turn over the next exile card.

Reversal: When two foundations of the same suit meet (the top card being in sequence), any or all cards from one pile may be reversed to the other, except for the K or A at the bottom.

The rule that an exile card or card revealed by shifting must be played if possible, does not apply to two foundations at the reversible stage. (For the reason that you could circumvent it by reversing some cards on these foundations to avoid the play, then later reversing back.)

Redeals: Two redeals are allowed. To form the new stock, pick up the piles in reverse order so that pile 13 will be at the top of the stock. Any unplayed exile cards go on the bottom.