Alternations Solitaire - play for free

Alternations is like some bizarre combination of Klondike and FreeCell. In alternation, half the cards on the table are face-up and the other half are face-down, in of all things, an alternating pattern.

To play by hand, you'll need two decks of cards (minus the Jokers). Shuffle the cards completely, then begin to assemble the columns. First, deal 7 cards across face-up. Next, deal 7 cards across face-down. You'll repeat this alternating pattern 5 more times. At the end, you'll have a total of 7 columns and 7 rows. For your rows, your very first and very last rows will both be face-up. Clear enough space on your table for 8 foundation piles and you'll be ready to start.

And of course, if you're playing for free here on the alternations site, all of this is magically taken care of for you so that you can jump right into a new game.

Now that everything's set up, you get to choose your rules; rules that can make this one easy solitaire game or a nightmarish combination of skill and chance. If you're playing online, you'll be able to change the rules under the "prefs" menu and then the "rule prefs" submenu.

Alternations Solitaire Rules

Your objective is to build your foundation piles by suit, in ascending order (meaning starting with an Ace and finishing with a King). As mentioned previously, given that you're playing with 2 complete card decks, you'll have a total of 8 foundations to build.

Traditional rules for the Alternations game are as follows:

on the tableau, sequences are built in descending order by alternating color (think Klondike)
you get one and only chance to go through the stock (think Forty Thieves)
blank columns may be filled with any single card or valid sequence of cards

To make things friendlier, you have some flexibility here with the rules:

build down by any suit (in the preferences, this is called "Regardlss of Suit"). Changing this rule is perhaps the most powerful thing you can do to change your chances of winning. For example, instead of a diamond 7 only being placeable on a black 8, all suits are now available so that red 7 can now be placed on a 8 of diamonds, hearts, spades, or clubs.
give yourself more redeals from the stock. This is another potentially potent game changer. Consider this scenario: all of your Aces are in the stock and all of those cards are near the end of the stock. Meanwhile, your other low cards (2s, 3s, 4s, etc) are all near the front. Granted, lots of other variables come into play, but if you only have a single stock deal allowed, by the time you get to your Aces, those lower cards will be long buried in the waste pile (the name for the pile where unused cards from the stock go after they've been dealt). Having unlimited redeals (or heck, even a single extra redeal) can be the difference between winning and losing here.

On the flipside, if you want to make things super tough, change the tableau rules so that you can only build down by suit (as opposed to the default of alternating color).

Whatever rules you decide to play with, we hope you enjoy your game!