Klondike Turn 3 technique: working the three-card stock

Klondike Turn 3 is the same game as ordinary Klondike with one rule changed: when you click the stock, three cards come over instead of one, and only the top one of the three is yours to play. That single change turns the stock from a friendly supply into a puzzle of its own.

This page is a hands-on playbook. It explains exactly how the three-card turn works, which stock cards you can reach and when, and the techniques that make those hard-to-reach cards come loose. For our research on how many Turn 3 deals can be won at all, see the Solitaire Turn 3 page, which has the full results.

It plays in your browser for free, with nothing to install and no account needed.

The mechanics of drawing three

The layout is standard Klondike: seven columns of one to seven cards with the top card face up, and 24 cards left in the stock.

• Each click on the stock moves the next three cards onto the waste, face up. Only the top card of the waste is playable.
• If you play that top card, the one underneath it becomes playable.
• If the stock has fewer than three cards left, you get whatever remains.
• When the stock is empty, click it to turn the whole waste back into a new stock. There is no cap on how often you recycle the waste here.

Everything else is ordinary Klondike: build down in alternating colors, move whole runs, put only Kings into empty columns, and build the foundations up by suit from Ace to King.

Why some cards feel impossible to reach

With 24 cards in the stock and three turned at a time, one full pass shows you eight groups of three. If you play nothing from the waste, the same eight cards come to the top pass after pass: the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th, 21st and 24th cards in the stock. The other sixteen stay buried.

That is the heart of Turn 3. A card is not really "in the stock." It is in a group, and whether you can reach it depends on what sits above it in that group.

The key technique: shifting the groups

Every time you play a card from the waste, the stock is one card shorter. On the next pass, all the groups after that point slide by one position, so different cards come to the top.

• Play one waste card and the next pass changes. Even a single play shifts which cards you will see on the following pass.
• Play two and the groups shift by two. Each card you take out of the stock moves the lineup again.
• Play none and nothing changes. A pass with no waste plays shows you the same eight top cards again.

So when you are hunting for a particular card, look for a waste play you can make earlier in the pass. Taking one card out of the lineup can be exactly what brings the card you want to the top.

Example: freeing a red 5

Suppose you need the red 5 to free a column. On this pass it turns over as the first card of a group, so it lands at the bottom of the three, under two cards you cannot use.

1. Finish the pass, but note any waste card earlier in the stock that you could play, say a 2 onto its foundation.
2. On the next pass, play that 2 when it comes up. The stock is now one card shorter.
3. Every card after the 2 has moved up one place. The red 5 now ends the group before, so it is the third card of its three, which is the top card. It comes up where you can play it.

If the card you want is second in its group instead, you need two earlier waste plays to bring it to the top.

This is the whole art of Turn 3 in miniature: you do not wait for the card, you rearrange the stock so the card comes to you.

When to play from the waste and when to hold

Play when it reveals a hidden card

A waste card that lets you turn over a face-down tableau card is almost always worth playing. Hidden cards are the real enemy in any Klondike game.

Play when it reshapes the stock usefully

If you know which card you need, count ahead. A waste play earlier in the stock may bring it to the top on the next pass.

Hold when it only blocks you later

Playing a card onto a column just because it fits can cover a card you need. If the move reveals nothing and does not help the stock, it can often wait.

Dig the tableau first

Before you start cycling the stock, make every tableau move that turns over a card. The stock is slow in Turn 3; the tableau is where most games are won or lost.

Three numbers worth knowing

From our tests on this site's rules: a simple rule-based program that never looks ahead won 10.6% of 10,000 Turn 3 deals, compared with 42.3% at Turn 1. In the games it won, it went through the stock 3.8 times on average. And even a solver that sees every card proved 9.5% of 1,000 Turn 3 deals impossible. The Solitaire Turn 3 page has the full comparison.

The lesson for the playbook: expect to go round the stock several times, and do not read too much into a single loss.

A Turn 3 checklist

• Make every tableau move that turns over a card before you touch the stock.
• Note the top card of each group on your first pass.
• Use one well-timed waste play to shift the groups toward the card you need.
• Keep empty columns for Kings.
• Take cards back off a foundation if you need them to catch a lower card; the site allows it.
• Use Undo to test a line, then back out if it goes nowhere.

How we tested Turn 3

The solitaire-online.us team ran the Turn 3 tests in September 2026. The detailed results are on the Solitaire Turn 3 page. The outline is:

1. Rules from our code. This page runs the same game code as the Solitaire Turn 3 page: three cards per turn and unlimited redeals.
2. Rebuilding the game. We wrote Klondike, with its Turn 3 stock, as a Python program and checked it plays only legal moves.
3. Numbered deals. Each deal comes from a numbered seed, so the tests can be repeated exactly.
4. Floor and ceiling. A rule-based program that sees only face-up cards gives the floor. A solver that sees every card, and knows the stock order, gives the ceiling.
5. Published comparison. Blake & Gent (2026) report 81.945% of Turn 3 deals winnable with perfect knowledge, which sits inside our range.

Software and tools

Everything is written in Python 3.11 using only the standard library. The Turn 3 logic is part of klondike.py, whose solver models which stock cards can actually be reached with the three-card turn. A shared runner spreads the deals across processor cores with Python's multiprocessing, and each 95% range is a Wilson score interval.

An AI assistant, Claude by Anthropic, helped us write and check the code and draft this playbook. It did not produce any results: every figure comes from running the programs, and the team checked them against published research.

By Admin, solitaire-online.us (Solitairen OOD). Updated September 19, 2026.

Three-card stock FAQ

Why is only one of the three waste cards playable?

That is the rule that defines Turn 3. The other two cards are visible, but you must play the top one before the next one is free.

Does this page play differently from Solitaire Turn 3?

No. It is the same game with the same rules. This page focuses on technique, while the other one covers our research.

How do I bring a buried stock card to the top?

Play a waste card from earlier in the stock. The stock gets one card shorter, and the groups after it shift, so a different card lands on top.

Should I switch to Turn 1 when learning?

It is a good place to start. Klondike Solitaire plays Turn 1 and is much more forgiving while you learn the basics.

Is going through the stock many times a bad sign?

Not at all. There is no limit on passes here, and in our tests even winning games used several.