Most Winnable Solitaire Games: 12 Ranked by Odds

Short answer: of the 12 solitaire games we tested, FreeCell is the most winnable by a wide margin. Our solver finished 99.68% of 10,000 deals and never proved a single deal impossible. Four-suit Spider comes next on published research figures, followed by Klondike Turn 1, Yukon, Alaska and Golf. The toughest game in our set was Baker's Solitaire with Kings-only empty columns, at 31.8%.

Those numbers are ceilings — what a perfect player who could see every card would win. Your own win rate will be lower, and that is normal. Here is the full ranking, how we measured it, and what it means when you sit down to play a hand.

By Admin, for the solitaire-online.us team.

The ranking: solitaire odds by game

Games are ranked by their ceiling — the highest share of deals that could be won with perfect play. Where some deals were left undecided, we show a range and never squeeze it into one number.

#	Game	Ceiling (winnable deals)	Source
1	FreeCell	99.68% solved; no deal proven impossible	Our study, 10,000 deals
2	Spider, 4 suits	98.487% ± 1.513%	Blake & Gent, JAIR 2026
3	Klondike, Turn 1	76.6%–97.9%	Our study, 10,000 deals
4	Yukon	67.0%–96.6%	Our study, 10,000 deals
5	Alaska	75.6%–92.8%	Our study, 10,000 deals
6	Golf (King–Ace wrap)	92.7% exact	Our study, 10,000 deals
7	Klondike, Turn 3	66.2%–90.5%	Our study, 10,000 deals
8	Pyramid (3 passes)	62.2%–86.0%	Our study, 10,000 deals
9	Baker's Solitaire (Kings-only spaces)	31.8% exact	Our study, 10,000 deals
10	Spider, 1 suit	Not measured yet	—
11	Spider, 2 suits	Not measured yet	—
12	Diplomat	Not measured yet	—

To be straight with you: we have not measured a ceiling for Diplomat, one-suit Spider or two-suit Spider on our rules. Players find the easier Spider modes far more forgiving than four suits, but we will not put a percentage on them until we have run the deals ourselves.

How we measured it

In September 2026 the team ran simulations in Python on this site's own rules: 10,000 fresh random deals per game, with a solver that can see every card (that gives the ceiling, or best possible result) and a simple player that sees only the face-up cards and never undoes a move (that gives the floor, or worst realistic result).

An AI assistant — Claude, made by Anthropic — helped us write the simulation code. Every number above came from actually running that code on real deals, not from an estimate or from another website.

Why some games get a range instead of one number

Card games like Klondike and Yukon have an enormous number of possible move orders. On most deals the solver quickly finds a win or proves that no win exists. On a stubborn minority it runs out of its search budget and finishes undecided — not proven winnable, not proven impossible.

So the honest answer is a range. For Klondike Turn 1, the solver proved 76.6% of deals winnable and could not rule out wins on the rest, which puts the true ceiling somewhere between 76.6% and 97.9%. Rounding that to a single figure would be guessing, so we do not do it.

For context, the most careful academic work to date reports Klondike's "thoughtful" winnability — where the player knows every card — as 81.945% ± 0.084% (Blake & Gent, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2026). That sits comfortably inside our range, which is a good sign that our setup behaves sensibly.

Game by game: what the numbers mean for your play

1. FreeCell — almost always winnable

Every card is face up from the start and you get four free cells to park cards in. Nothing is hidden, so nothing is luck. If you lose a FreeCell hand, the win was there and you missed it — which is exactly why it rewards patience. Keep at least one free cell empty whenever you can, dig out low cards early, and try FreeCell or the bigger two-deck version at FreeCell Two Decks.

2. Spider, 4 suits — high ceiling, brutal in practice

The research ceiling is 98.487% ± 1.513% (Blake & Gent, JAIR 2026), but that assumes seeing every card. In real play, four-suit Spider punishes a single careless deal of the stock. Build same-suit runs, empty a column as early as you can, and avoid burying a card you will need in three moves.

3–5. Klondike Turn 1, Yukon and Alaska — the sweet spot

These three are where most people have the most fun: winnable often enough to feel fair, hard enough to matter. In Klondike Turn 1, the ceiling range is 76.6%–97.9%; Yukon runs 67.0%–96.6% and Alaska 75.6%–92.8%. Yukon and Alaska deal every card to the tableau with no stock at all, so the whole game is about the order in which you unpack the columns.

6. Golf — fast, and friendlier than it looks

With the King-to-Ace wrap turned on, our runs put Golf at exactly 92.7% winnable over 10,000 deals — a clean number, because Golf is simple enough for the solver to settle every deal. A hand takes two or three minutes. The skill is looking one card ahead in the stock before you take the obvious move.

7. Klondike Turn 3 — the classic, made harder

Drawing three cards at a time cuts the ceiling to 66.2%–90.5%. You only ever see every third card of the stock unless the cycle shifts, so the stock becomes a memory game. If a run of losses is wearing you down, switch to Turn 3 only when you want the extra challenge, and go back to Turn 1 when you want to relax. Both are the same deck — only the draw rule changes.

8. Pyramid — three passes, and every choice counts

With three passes through the stock, Pyramid came out at 62.2%–86.0%. Pair cards to 13, and before you clear an easy pair, check whether you will need one of those cards to release a blocked card lower down.

9. Baker's Solitaire — the hard one

With empty columns reserved for Kings only, Baker's Solitaire is winnable on just 31.8% of deals — an exact figure over 10,000 deals. Losing two hands out of three here is not bad play; it is the game. Treat a win as an achievement, not an expectation. If you want a same-suit challenge with kinder odds, try Simple Simon or Eight Off.

Ceilings versus what real people win

A ceiling is not a promise. It is the score of a player who can see through the face-down cards, never rushes and never regrets a move.

Real-world results are much lower. SolitaireX.io published figures from its own database showing 913,106 games of classic solitaire in a single month, with 409,374 wins — an overall win rate of about 45% (SolitaireX.io, data insights). So a Klondike ceiling near 80–90% and a typical human result around 45% tell you the same thing from two directions: most deals are winnable, and most of the gap is decisions, not luck.

Three habits close that gap faster than anything else:

Flip face-down cards first. Information beats tidiness. A move that reveals a new card is usually better than one that only looks neat.
Do not rush Aces up. Once a low card is on a foundation, it can no longer help you build in the tableau.
Empty a column on purpose. In Spider, Yukon and FreeCell-style games, an empty space is the most valuable thing on the table — spend it, do not fill it by accident.

How to play these games here

Everything on solitaire-online.us is completely free, with no paywall. There is nothing to download or install, no sign-up, no account and no email address needed — open a game and the cards are dealt. The games run in any modern browser on a desktop, tablet or phone.

We built the site simply for enjoyment: no gambling, no in-app purchases and no timer pushing you to hurry. The playing cards are large and the text is easy to read, which matters if your eyes get tired, and a zoom control makes the board bigger still.

Every feature is available to everyone, always:

Hint when a hand looks stuck.
Unlimited Undo — take back as many moves as you like.
Restart to replay the same deal, which is the best way to learn from a loss.
Auto Play to finish a hand once the outcome is decided.
Drag and drop or a single tap to move cards, whichever suits you.
Wins, time and moves tracked for the game you are playing.
Sound you can switch off, a fullscreen mode, and table color settings.

Klondike is offered in both Turn 1 and Turn 3 draw modes, and you can browse the whole collection from the home page or the games list. The site is run by Solitairen OOD; more about us is on the about page.

Frequently asked questions

Which solitaire game is the easiest to win?

FreeCell. In our September 2026 runs the solver won 99.68% of 10,000 deals and did not prove any deal impossible. Because all the cards are face up, a careful player can win the large majority of hands without guessing.

Is every game of Klondike winnable?

No. Some Klondike deals cannot be won no matter how well you play. Our solver proved 76.6% of Turn 1 deals winnable, with the rest undecided, so the ceiling lies between 76.6% and 97.9%. Published research puts thoughtful Klondike at 81.945% ± 0.084% (Blake & Gent, JAIR 2026).

Should I play Turn 1 or Turn 3?

Turn 1 has the higher ceiling — 76.6%–97.9% against 66.2%–90.5% for Turn 3 — so pick Turn 1 for a relaxed game and Turn 3 when you want the harder version of the classic.

Why is Baker's Solitaire so much harder than FreeCell?

Both give you free cells, but in Baker's Solitaire an empty column can only be filled by a King, and building follows suit rather than alternating colors. Those two rules remove most of your flexibility, which is why the figure falls to 31.8%.

Is one-suit Spider easier than four-suit Spider?

Most players find it much easier, because suit never blocks a move. We have not yet measured a ceiling for one-suit or two-suit Spider on our rules, so we are not quoting a percentage — when we run those deals, the numbers will appear on our blog.

Do Hint and Undo count as cheating?

Not here. There is no score to protect and nothing to buy, so use them freely. Undoing a move and replaying the same deal with Restart is how most people learn to read a tableau — and it is also close to how a "thoughtful" solver plays.

The takeaway

If you want to win, play FreeCell. If you want the familiar game with fair odds, play Klondike Turn 1. If you want a quick hand before dinner, play Golf. And if you want to be humbled, Baker's Solitaire is waiting. All of them are free, all of them are one click away, and none of them ask you for a thing.

Which Solitaire Games Have the Most Winnable Deals? We Ranked 12