While it is rare to win Clock Solitaire, the game is still loads of fun. What makes it so hard to win is that it is a card game that is entirely driven by luck. Clock Solitaire is also known as Four of a Kind, Hidden Cards, Sun Dial, and Travelers.
How to Play Clock Solitaire
Players: Requires only one playerDeck: Standard 52-card deckGoal: Complete all other four-of-a-kind sets before the fourth king is revealed.
Setup
Shuffle the deck and deal the cards, face down, into 13 piles of four cards each. The piles should be arranged as if they are the numbers on a clock with the extra pile in the middle of the circle. The “numbers” of each of the piles (1 through 12 on the clock and the middle pile as the No. 13) are important.
Gameplay
Turn the top card on the 13th pile face up (that’s the pile in the middle of the circle). Place the card, still face up, under the pile of that card’s number. For example, a 4 would go under the 4 pile. An ace would go under the one pile. Face cards are placed as follows: jack under 11, queen under 12, king under 13. Then, turn the top card on that pile face up and place it, still face up, under the appropriate pile. Continue in this manner until the game ends. If the final face-down card in a pile belongs to that same pile, continue the game by turning the next (moving clockwise) face-down card face up.
How to Win
You win if all 13 piles become face-up piles of four-of-a-kind. However, you lose if the fourth king is turned face up before all the other sets are completed. Clock Solitaire is only won about 1% of the time because it is entirely based on chance.
Variations on Clock Solitaire
If regular Clock Solitaire is not challenging enough for you, there are some variations that you might like. In some versions of the game, the goal is not just to stack each card in four-of-a-kind piles but to alternate the card color as you do. This would mean you could only place a red ace on top of a black ace and so on. As you can imagine, this variation makes the game even more challenging. If you are following this rule, then you might want to introduce a waste pile for when you can not place a card yet. Usually, players are allowed to reuse the waste pile a maximum of two times before the game ends. Although, most games end before the waste pile is used.
