How to Play Aces Up Solitaire
Deal four cards face up in a row. When two top cards share a suit, discard the lower — Aces are high. Move any top card into an empty column if you like. When nothing more can go, deal four more cards from the stock, one on each column. Repeat until the 48-card stock is empty. You win if only the four Aces remain.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal four cards face upOne card to each of four columns. The other 48 cards form the stock, face down.
- 2Discard the lower card of a suitA top card goes to the discard pile when another column's top card is a higher card of the same suit. Aces rank high.
- 3Fill an empty column with any top cardWhen a column empties, the top card of any other column may move into it, uncovering the card beneath.
- 4Deal four more when nothing can goOne card from the stock onto every column, empty ones included — but not while a discard is still waiting.
- 5Play until the stock is emptyTwelve deals of four empty the 48-card stock. Keep discarding and filling gaps after the last one.
- 6Win with only the four Aces leftEvery other card has gone to the discard pile. Anything else left on the table is a loss.
Try it — the rules above, running
New game deals a fresh shuffle, Hint highlights a legal move, and the three-dot menu at the end of the bar holds redo, auto-finish, today’s deal, the keyboard shortcuts and the rule set.
Your statistics
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
Kept in this browser, on this device only. Abandoning a deal in progress counts as a loss, so the win rate means something.
Today’s deal
Everyone playing Aces Up Solitaire today gets the same deal. It changes at midnight UTC.
Track the month on the daily challenge page.
Replay a deal
Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.
Keyboard
- U / Z
- Undo
- R
- Redo
- H
- Hint
- N
- New deal (asks first)
- F
- Full screen
- Space
- Turn the stock
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
What can be discarded in Aces Up?
| Top cards showing | What goes |
|---|---|
| Seven of Hearts, King of Hearts, Two of Clubs, Nine of Spades | The Seven of Hearts |
| Four of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, Ace of Clubs, Six of Diamonds | The Four and the Jack of Clubs |
| King of Spades, Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts, Ten of Diamonds | The King of Spades |
| Three of Hearts, Five of Clubs, Eight of Diamonds, Jack of Spades | Nothing — deal |
What happens when a column empties?
It may take the top card of any other column — any rank, any suit. That is optional, but the next deal puts a card into the gap anyway, so it is almost always worth using first. Moving a column's only card into another gap changes nothing you can see, so Hint never suggests it.
How do you win more often?
- Put Aces at the bottom of columnsAn Ace can never be discarded, so an Ace lying on other cards buries them for the rest of the game. An empty column is the only way to lift it off.
- Fill the gap before you dealThe deal puts a card into an empty column whether you use it or not. Moving a card there first uncovers one more card for nothing.
- Dig the tallest columnWhen the choice is otherwise even, move the top card of the tallest column: it has the most cards buried under it, and each deal adds another.
- Never spend a gap on a lone cardMoving a column's only card into another empty column uncovers nothing — it only changes which cards the next deal lands on. Fill a gap from a column with cards underneath.
Common questions about aces up solitaire
- How many times do you deal in Aces Up?
- Thirteen in all: the first four cards, then twelve deals of four from the 48-card stock. There is no redeal.
Ready to stop reading? Play aces up solitaire on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.