What is Tournament Solitaire?
Tournament Solitaire is a two-deck patience game built around an unusual structural rule: no tableau-to-tableau building is allowed. Cards in the tableau can only move to the foundations or to reserve slots — and reserve cards can only move to foundations. This makes Tournament an access-management puzzle rather than a sequencing game.
Progress comes from knowing when to spend a reserve slot to unblock a foundation-ready card, and when to deal a new row of eight tableau cards without burying the cards you need. The entire game is decided by these two timing decisions.
Full rules
Two standard 52-card decks (104 cards) are used. Eight reserve slots sit above the tableau. Six tableau columns are dealt four cards each; only the top card of each column is available. No tableau-to-tableau building is permitted.
Available top cards may move to: a foundation pile (if the card fits the current foundation sequence) or an empty reserve slot. Reserve cards may only move to foundations. Eight foundations build by suit — four ascending from Ace to King, four descending from King to Ace. Deal a new row of cards to all tableau columns when stuck. Up to two redeals of the full tableau are permitted after the stock is exhausted.
Bidirectional foundations
Tournament’s most distinctive feature is its dual foundation structure: for each suit, one foundation builds upward (Ace to King) and one builds downward (King to Ace). At any moment, a card is useful if it fits either direction for its suit.
This doubles the number of cards that are immediately foundation-playable compared to a standard single-direction game. Strong Tournament play requires tracking both foundation directions for all four suits simultaneously — players who only track the ascending foundations miss roughly half their available moves.
Read the full Tournament strategy guide →
Reserve and row-deal timing
Each reserve slot holds one card. With eight slots and a four-suit layout, four slots per run of cards is the practical maximum. Filling all eight reserve slots with cards that are far from foundation-ready creates a paralyzed board: no new cards can be temporarily parked, so no blocking card can be moved out of the way.
Row deals add eight cards simultaneously — one to each tableau column. A premature row deal buries accessible cards that were one move away from foundation play. Always exhaust all available foundation and reserve moves before dealing a new row.
Related two-deck games
- Canfield — reserve pile, base-rank foundations, wraparound sequences; similar pressure dynamic
- Napoleon at St Helena — two-deck Klondike relative; allows tableau building
- Crescent — two-deck fan layout with bidirectional foundations and no reserve slots
Related games and reference