Triple Solitaire Turn 3
Added 02/2026
Triple Solitaire Turn 3: The Ultimate Endurance Test
By Martin Petroff
If standard Triple Solitaire is a sprawling marathon, adding the strict "Turn 3" (or Draw 3) mechanic turns it into a grueling, highly strategic triathlon. You are still wrangling a massive 156 cards across a giant 13-column tableau, but now, the forgiving nature of a one-by-one card draw is completely gone. By forcing you to draw three cards at a time from a massive 65-card stockpile, this variation demands intense concentration, a fantastic memory, and the patience to cycle through a giant deck without making a single mistake. It is the ultimate test for hardcore Klondike fans who want a game that will genuinely challenge them for a solid hour or more.
How to Play
The board setup is exactly the same as standard Triple Solitaire. You will need three standard 52-card decks and a massive amount of table space (or a very large monitor). The entire complexity of this variation comes from how you manage your colossal stockpile.
The Objective: Your goal is to move all 156 cards into the 12 "Foundation" piles at the top of the board. You must build these piles up by suit (three piles for Hearts, three for Spades, etc.), starting from the Ace and ascending all the way to the King.
The Setup (The Massive Tableau):
Shuffle three standard 52-card decks together (156 cards total).
Deal the cards into 13 columns from left to right.
Follow the classic stair-step pattern: Column 1 gets 1 card face up. Column 2 gets 1 face down, 1 face up. Continue this pattern all the way to Column 13, which will receive 12 cards face down and 1 card face up.
This massive tableau uses 91 cards. The remaining 65 cards form your face-down Stockpile.
Reserve plenty of space above the tableau for your 12 Foundation piles.
How to Play:
Building the Columns: You build down the 13 tableau columns in descending order and alternating colors (e.g., placing a red Jack onto a black Queen).
Moving Stacks: You can move entire sequences of face-up cards together, provided they are correctly stacked in alternating colors.
Empty Columns: If you manage to completely clear one of your 13 columns, you can only move a King (or a valid sequence starting with a King) into that empty space.
The Turn 3 Draw: Here is where the game gets brutal. When you need cards, you must draw three cards at a time from your 65-card Stockpile, placing them face-up in a Waste pile.
The Top Card Rule: You can only play the top, fully exposed card of the three you just drew. The two cards sitting beneath it are locked. If you successfully play that top card onto the tableau or a foundation pile, the card immediately beneath it unlocks and becomes available.
Cycling the Giant Deck: Because your Stockpile has 65 cards, you will pull 21 sets of three, plus a final set of two. If you cycle through the entire deck without playing a single card, your next pass will yield the exact same groupings. You must strategically pull cards from the Waste pile to shift the order of the remaining deck!