Practice Clock Solitaire with a coach

New to Clock? Read the full rules · All practice games

The Clock Solitaire table

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Coach

Goal: turn all 52 cards face up. Each card you turn goes under the pile of its rank, and the next card comes from that pile. The game ends when the fourth king comes up: if every card is face up by then, you have won.

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About this practice game

One player, one deck of 52 cards, dealt face down into thirteen piles laid out like a clock. You turn a card, put it under the pile of its rank, and turn the next card from that pile. There are no choices to make, so this game teaches where every card goes, and why most deals are lost: only 1 deal in 13 is won. Press Hint to see where a card goes. New to the game? Press Watch a narrated deal above the table to see the computer play a whole deal, with every card's place explained and the face-down cards left hidden, as in a real game.

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How Clock works

One player, one deck. You play against the cards. Cards go in this order: A (ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J (jack), Q (queen), K (king). A card's place in this order is its rank.
The clock. The cards are dealt face down into 13 piles of 4. Twelve piles make a circle, like the hours on a clock face, and the thirteenth sits in the center.
Each rank has its hour. An ace counts as 1, so the aces go at one o'clock. The 2s go at two o'clock, and so on up to the 10s at ten o'clock. A jack counts as 11 and a queen as 12, so they go at eleven and twelve o'clock. The kings go in the center.
Turning a card. Play starts with the top card of the center pile. Turn it face up and put it under the pile of its rank. Then turn the top face-down card of that pile, and put it in its place. Keep going like this.
A card can go back where it came from. If you turn a 5 from the pile at five o'clock, it goes back under that same pile, and the next card comes from that pile too.
The fourth king ends the game. Every king sends you back to the center pile. The center pile gave up its first card without a king, so when the fourth king arrives it has no face-down card left, and the game is over. You win if every card is face up by then; otherwise you lose.
No other pile runs out early. You are sent to the pile at seven o'clock only when a 7 turns up. There are four 7s and four cards in that pile, so a card is always waiting there.
Winning, and how often. There are no choices, so the shuffle decides the game before the first card is turned. Exactly 1 deal in 13 is won, about 8 deals in 100.

How to use this page

Click the pile where the turned card goes. The turned card is in the top-left corner of the table, and the line at the top of the board names it. If you click the wrong pile, the Coach explains where the card goes and why. When you click the right pile, the card goes under it and the next card is turned over for you, from the same pile.
With the keyboard: Tab moves between the piles, and Enter or Space puts the card on the pile you are on. You can also press the card's rank: A, 2 to 9, 0 for 10, J, Q or K.
Hint outlines the right pile in gold and says why it is right. Undo takes back your last card, and you can press it again and again. Auto puts every remaining card in its place for you, to the end of the game. New deal shuffles and starts over.
The counters show how many cards are face up and how many are still face down. There is no timer, and nothing is scored.
To watch instead of play, press Watch a narrated deal above the table. The computer plays a whole deal, and every card's place is explained. Face-down cards stay hidden, as in a real game. Press Next and Back (or the arrow keys) to step, Play to let it run on its own, and Jump to to skip ahead. Back to playing returns to your game exactly as you left it.

Three things beginners miss

The jack and the queen have hours too. A jack counts as 11 and a queen as 12, so they go at eleven and twelve o'clock. Only the kings go in the center.
The next card comes from the pile you just used. Not from the center, and not from the next hour round the clock: from the pile you just put a card under.
A loss is not your fault. Clock has no choices, so nothing you do changes how a deal ends. Twelve deals in thirteen are lost. It is a calm game to play while you think about something else, and a good one for learning the clock face.

Common beginner mistakes

Putting a jack or a queen in the center. Only kings go in the center.
Turning the next card from the center every time. Turn it from the pile where the last card went.
Stopping when a card goes back to its own pile. That is allowed: put it under its pile and turn the next card from the same pile.
Thinking a pile can run out. Only the center pile can run out, and that happens only when the fourth king comes up.

The full rules page →

Coach ↓