Yukon rewards access and board mobility.
Yukon looks like Klondike without a stock, but the ability to move any face-up card and everything piled on top of it — regardless of sequence order — creates a completely different strategic puzzle. Almost every decision is about revealing hidden cards, not building pretty sequences.
Last updated: May 2026
History and background
Yukon Solitaire is named after the Yukon territory of northwestern Canada — part of the same naming tradition that gave us Klondike, reflecting the gold-rush geography that popularized patience games in North America in the late nineteenth century. The game is a direct descendant of Klondike, sharing its layout, its alternating-color build rule, and its four-suit foundations, but it removes the stock pile entirely and replaces it with a modified deal.
In the Yukon deal, after the standard seven-column Klondike triangle is laid out, the remaining 24 cards are dealt face-up across columns 2 through 7 in groups of four. This means each column except the first has several face-up cards that are not in sequence order and cannot be moved as a group under Klondike rules — which is where Yukon’s distinctive rule comes in.
How the game is set up
The 52-card deck is dealt into seven tableau columns in a modified Klondike layout:
- Column 1 receives one face-up card.
- Columns 2 through 7 receive the standard Klondike face-down cards (one in column 2, two in column 3, and so on), with four additional face-up cards dealt on top of each.
The result is that columns 2–7 have several face-up cards in non-sequential order at the top. There is no stock and no waste pile. The four foundations build up by suit from Ace to King.
Any face-up card can be moved to another column, bringing every card piled on top of it along for the move — regardless of whether those cards form a valid sequence. The destination must still be a card of the correct rank and alternating color.
Empty columns can receive any card or group of cards.
Why the group-move rule changes everything
In Klondike, you can only move a properly sequenced alternating-color run as a unit. In Yukon, you can move any face-up card with whatever sits on top of it, regardless of sequence validity. This has two major consequences:
First, it gives you far more flexibility to reorganize chaotic groups of face-up cards. A pile of four cards in arbitrary order can be moved as a unit to place whatever card is at the bottom of that pile where it needs to go.
Second, it makes the choice of which card to move to more complex. When you move a card along with several others, you are choosing not just where the bottom card goes, but also what the top of the source pile reveals and what formation you create at the destination.
Column 3 has a face-down card at the bottom, then a face-up 9 of hearts, then a face-up jack of clubs sitting on top. The jack of clubs can move to a queen of diamonds or queen of hearts, bringing the 9 of hearts with it. If moving it reveals the face-down card in column 3, that reveal is almost certainly worth it — even if the destination is not ideal for sequencing purposes.
Strategic priorities in order
- Reveal face-down cards first. Hidden cards are the main constraint in Yukon. Every face-down card is an unknown blocker. The game almost always rewards spending extra moves to flip a buried card over, even if the card revealed is not immediately useful.
- Identify which columns are blocking low cards. Before making any moves, locate the Aces and Twos. Trace which face-down cards are in the path to each one. Build your first few move sequences around freeing those columns.
- Prefer group moves that reveal vs. group moves that just reshuffle.Two group moves may both be legal. The one that flips a face-down card is almost always better than the one that just redistributes visible cards.
- Create empty columns deliberately.Unlike Klondike where an empty column opens naturally when you clear a short column, Yukon’s deeper columns make empties harder to achieve. When you have a clear path to clearing a column, pursue it even if other moves look attractive.
- Use empty columns for King groups, not for parking.Moving a King with its group into an empty column creates a new building sequence. Parking a random face-up card in an empty column to “get it out of the way” is usually a mistake.
Decision walkthroughs
Choosing between two revealing moves
You can make move A, which reveals one face-down card in column 4, or move B, which reveals one face-down card in column 2. Column 2 already has an Ace visible one card above its face-down card. Column 4 has no low cards visible anywhere.
Make move B. The face-down card in column 2 is more likely to be strategically important because the column is already producing foundation progress. Concentrating your reveal effort around active foundation paths is usually right.
When to stop building and start emptying a column
Column 6 has only three cards remaining, all face-up. Several other moves are available elsewhere on the board. Should you clear column 6 now or continue building sequences?
Clear column 6. An empty column in Yukon is rare and genuinely powerful. The moves available elsewhere are unlikely to be as valuable as a free column, and once more cards are dealt (this game has no deals, so column 6 will not refill), the opportunity is gone.
How Yukon differs from Klondike and Scorpion
Players who know Klondike are sometimes confused by two things in Yukon: the absence of a stock, and the group-move rule. Understanding these in contrast helps:
- No stock. In Klondike, you draw from the stock when stuck. In Yukon, there is no draw — you must find a tableau move or lose. This means planning further ahead matters much more. You cannot bail out of a bad position with a stock draw.
- Group move is freer than Klondike but stricter than Scorpion.Klondike requires the moved group to be a valid alternating-color sequence. Yukon removes that restriction for face-up cards. Scorpion allows moving face-up groups but requires the group to be same-suit to count as a completed run. Yukon cares only about the card at the bottom of the moved group — it must land on a valid alternating-color rank.
Common mistakes
- Building long alternating-color sequences for their own sake.A clean-looking sequence is not progress if it has not revealed a face-down card or freed a foundation card. Cosmetic tidiness is Yukon’s most common trap.
- Moving groups that bury the source column’s face-down cards deeper.If moving a group to column B makes column A harder to reveal, and column A had a face-down card you needed, you have traded visibility for sequence length.
- Ignoring the King problem. Empty columns in Yukon must receive a King (or a group topped by a King). If all four Kings are buried or already placed, creating an empty column is less valuable than it would otherwise be.