🕰️ Clock Solitaire
19 playsClock Solitaire
Thirteen piles laid out as a clock face, and a race to turn every card before the fourth King.
About Clock Solitaire
Clock is the oldest kind of patience: a game of pure chance, played for the small suspense of watching it unfold. The deck is dealt into thirteen face-down piles of four, twelve arranged as the hours of a clock and one in the centre for the Kings. Play begins at the centre; each card turned is tucked beneath the pile of its own hour — Aces at one o'clock, Jacks at eleven, Queens at twelve — and the next card is turned from that pile. The fourth King stops the clock. Turn all fifty-two before that happens and the game is won, which it will be roughly once in every thirteen deals. There are no decisions to make, only the pleasure of the ritual, and it can be left to play itself.
How to Play
Tap the glowing pile, or press Turn card, to turn its top card. Each card goes beneath the pile for its hour: Ace at one through Queen at twelve, with Kings in the centre. The game ends when the fourth King is turned. Win by turning all 52 cards first. Auto plays the deal for you, at the speed you choose.
💡 Tips & Strategy
Clock is honest about what it is: once the cards are shuffled, the outcome is already settled, and no choice you make can change it. There is only ever one card to turn and only one place for it to go. The odds of success are exactly one in thirteen, a figure that can be proved neatly and that nothing in the way the game is played moves an inch.
It is worth knowing why the game always ends on a King. Play starts from the centre pile, and every card you tuck under another pile sends you to that pile next. You are only ever sent to an hour pile by one of its own four cards, and it began with four cards to give, so it can never be empty when you arrive. The centre is different: you drew from it once at the very start without being sent there, so the fourth King sends you back to a pile with nothing left. That is why a King always stops the clock.
So play Clock for the right reasons. Traditionally it was dealt as a patience for a quiet mind, or as a gentle oracle — a wish would come true if the clock ran its full course. It suits the end of a long day, a few minutes of ritual with no penalty for thinking of other things.
The controls let you choose how much ceremony you want. Turn each card by hand to enjoy the suspense as the Kings appear, or set Auto running at a comfortable speed and simply watch. The statistics keep your long-run record, and over enough deals your win rate will drift steadily towards that one in thirteen.