Play Hypotenuse Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Dig through ten piles stacked face-down but for the top card, played with two full decks, and beat one of the toughest odds on the site: 10%.

Hypotenuse Solitaire takes Eternal Triangle's ten-pile triangular deal and turns most of it face-down, so you can only see the top card of each growing pile until you dig it out. At about 10%, this is a difficult one to close out. Two decks are in play, and skill counts for more than luck here.

Eternal Triangle Solitaire is the game Hypotenuse is built from, and Triple Triangle Solitaire, its three-deck sibling, is worth a look too.

Queue up Spider Solitaire next if you want another patient, digging-through-the-pile challenge.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Enjoy playing!

How to play Hypotenuse Solitaire

Layout:

8 foundation piles: Build up from Ace to King in the same suit.

10 tableau piles: Build down in alternating colors. Groups of cards in sequence can be moved together. A King or a group of cards led by a King fills empty spaces. At the start of the game, 10 cards are dealt to the first pile, 9 to the second, and so on down to 1 card in the tenth. Only the top card of each pile is face-up.

Stock: Click the stock to deal one card onto each tableau pile. There's only one pass through the stock and no redeal.

Foundation:

There are eight foundation piles.

A card can be added to a foundation pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on a J of diamonds is a Q of diamonds. There can be no more than 13 cards in a pile.

The top card of each foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.

Tableau:

Ten tableau piles are dealt, from 10 cards in the first pile down to a single card in the tenth, and only the top card of each pile is face-up.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower and the opposite color of the pile's current top card, so the only cards that fit on a 5 of spades are the 4 of hearts and 4 of diamonds.

Cards on the tableau that are not covered by another card are free to be played onto the foundation or any other tableau pile.

Only Kings may fill empty spots in the tableau.

If the cards are alternately red and black, groups of cards in succession from high to low can be shifted from one tableau column to another.

Stock:

The stock is made up of leftover cards.

When you click on the stock, a card is dealt to the top of each tableau pile. There's only one pass through the stock, so make it count.