Somerset gives you everything at once — the puzzle is ordering it.
All 52 cards are face-up before the first move, so Somerset is never about discovering information. It is about finding the one move order that frees your Aces and low cards before the chain of legal moves runs out. There is no stock to bail you out.
Last updated: May 2026
History and background
Somerset belongs to the class of open-packer patience games, a family that strips away the stock and waste pile and deals every card face-up before play begins. Its closest relatives are Beleaguered Castle (rank-only sequences, no free cells) and FreeCell (alternating-colour sequences, four free cells). Somerset occupies the more Klondike-flavoured branch of that family: ten columns, alternating-colour descending sequences, and empty columns that accept Kings only.
The name points to a regional patience tradition rather than a single inventor. Like most classic open packers, Somerset gained popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a game demanding methodical calculation rather than luck. Its defining characteristic is that the outcome of each deal is determined entirely at the moment of the deal — with perfect play, you either win or you never could.
How the game is set up
One 52-card deck is dealt face-up across ten tableau columns. All cards are visible from move one. Only the top card of each column is available to play.
- Tableau sequences. Build downward in alternating colours (red on black, black on red). Any legal top card may be moved to a tableau column whose top card is one rank higher and the opposite colour.
- Empty columns. Accept Kings only. Once a column empties, only a King (or a King-headed sequence) may enter it.
- Foundations. Build up by suit from Ace to King. An Ace goes to the foundation as soon as it is the top card of a column.
- No stock, no redeal. There is no additional source of cards. Every card you will ever play is already on the table.
The complete-information advantage — and its cost
In Klondike you work with incomplete information and accept some luck. In Somerset you can see every card and therefore have no one to blame for a loss but the move order you chose. That completeness is the game’s central challenge: not “what might be under there?” but “among the thousands of legal move sequences, which one actually works?”
The first move you should always make is no move at all: scan the full layout for every Ace and Two. Note which column they sit in and how many cards lie on top of each. These are your excavation targets. Every other move in the game is a means of uncovering them.
Somerset is played backwards. Identify the low card you need most urgently, then design the sequence of moves that removes the cards sitting on top of it — before you make any move at all.
Strategic priorities in order
- Locate every Ace and Two before touching anything. Write them down if it helps. They are your objectives; every other card is either a tool to reach them or an obstacle in the way.
- Excavate the deepest-buried low cards first. An Ace three cards down is a harder problem than an Ace one card down. Attack the hardest one first while you have the most flexibility on the board.
- Prefer moves that expose useful cards. A move that shifts a 9 onto a 10 is only worthwhile if the card now on top of that column helps you. Ask what the move reveals, not just what it places.
- Create empty columns deliberately. An empty column accepts only Kings, so emptying a column costs you generality. Plan which King you will move there and what that frees up elsewhere before you commit.
- Build foundations steadily once Aces are free. Foundation progress removes cards from the tableau permanently, which opens new tops. Do not rush foundations prematurely, but do not defer them either once they are clearly available.
Decision walkthroughs
A buried Ace with two options above it
An Ace of clubs sits one card down under a 7♥. The 7♥ could go on either an 8♠ or an 8♣. You have only one of those 8s currently on top.
Take the move that exposes the Ace regardless of which 8 you use. Once the Ace is home on the foundation, the clubs foundation begins and the 2♣ becomes your next target. The choice of which 8 matters for what you reveal beneath the 7 after the move, not for getting the Ace out — but if one destination also exposes a low card you need, that destination is strictly better.
Empty column appears: King choice
A column clears. You have three Kings available, each with different cards beneath them in their columns. Moving any King to the empty column reveals the card below it.
Move the King that reveals the most useful card. If one King sits on top of a buried 2, moving it is far more valuable than moving a King whose revealed card is a high-rank card with no immediate use. The empty column is a tool for excavation, not decoration.
Same rank, two columns, which to clear first?
Two columns each have a blocking card of the same rank on top. You can only clear one of them right now.
Look at what each column hides. Clear the column whose revealed card is lower in rank (closer to foundation order) or one that is itself blocking another low card. The principle is simple: prefer excavations that compound — where removing one blocker reveals another that immediately enables a second excavation.
Common mistakes
- Making the first legal move without scanning the full board. Somerset gives you complete information. Spending thirty seconds on the layout before touching a card is the single highest-value action in the game.
- Emptying a column without a specific King and follow-up planned.An empty column locked to Kings is not useful in the abstract — only when you know which King goes in and what that reveals.
- Building long alternating-colour runs that bury foundation cards. A tidy descending run looks good but if it has stacked a 3 beneath a 9-8-7-6-5-4, the 3 is unreachable until the run is dismantled.
- Sending cards to foundations prematurely when they are needed as maneuvering tools. A 5 on a foundation cannot help unblock a buried 4. Hold cards in the tableau when they are actively useful; send them home when they are not.
Recognizing a losing position early
Somerset deals can become unwinnable while the board still looks active. These signals mean you should undo to an earlier branch:
- Every Ace or Two is buried, and the cards on top of each one cannot move because all their destinations are also blocked — a circular dependency.
- All empty columns are filled with Kings that sit over high-rank cards, so the columns provide no path to low cards.
- You have made many moves but the deepest-buried Ace or Two has not moved one card closer to the surface — a sign you have been reshuffling high cards around each other rather than excavating.
Because there is no stock, losing positions in Somerset have no recovery mechanism other than undoing. The good news is that the complete information means the root mistake is always identifiable: look for the move that buried the key card in the first place.