Place by suit, move the whole tail.
Australian Patience starts with four face-up cards in each of seven columns and 24 cards in a draw-one stock. Tableau placements build down in suit, but any chosen face-up card can carry the cards above it, even when they form an unordered tail. That combination changes how you reach a card buried in a column.
Last updated: September 2026
Choose the lead card, then inspect its tail
A group can move if its chosen lead card is one rank below the top card of the same suit at the destination. Every face-up card above that lead card travels with it, regardless of whether those cards are in sequence. Only a King-led group can enter an empty column. The top card of the moved tail remains the new visible top at the destination, so check what it will block or expose next.
One column ends with a 9 of hearts beneath a jack of clubs. A second column ends with 10 of hearts. Move the 9 of hearts, carrying the jack of clubs, onto the 10 of hearts. The 9 makes the placement legal because it is one rank lower in the same suit. The jack still comes along. Compare the newly uncovered source card with the jack now covering the destination before making this move.
Manage one pass through the stock
Each draw turns one card onto the waste. There is no redeal after the stock is empty. Before drawing again, inspect whether the top waste card can usefully go to a foundation or tableau column. A covered waste card can become available if cards above it are played, so covering it is a loss of immediate access rather than proof it can never be used.
An accessible Ace can start its foundation, but a legal foundation move may remove a same-suit tableau landing card. Check what other cards depend on that rank before sending a middle card upward.
How this relates to the family
Klondike also uses a stock and suit foundations. Australian Patience starts with an open tableau, uses same-suit destinations instead of alternating colors, permits unordered face-up tails, and allows only Kings in empty columns. Its access decisions are closer to Yukon’s group moves, while its one-pass stock creates an additional timing constraint.