Solitaire / Free Alaska Solitaire

Almost two years after Russian Solitaire release, I made a new variant of Yukon Solitaire. If you already understand how to play Yukon or Russian solitaires, then you can easily try Alaska Solitaire. There is just a small variation in the rules to build the Tableau, but it makes a big difference.

With Yukon Solitaire, you can move cards from one Tableau stack to another, provided that the starting and the target cards are built:

• In descending sequence,
• and in alternate color.

So, with the Yukon rule, you can move the 4 of Spades in the last column to the red 5 in the second stack.

The Alaska Solitaire rule says that the Tableau cards can only be built on cards:

• In the same suit (like Russian),
• and in ascending or descending sequence.

In this Alaska Solitaire Tableau, you cannot move a black 4 on top of the 5 of Hearts in the second pile (as you could have done with Yukon). You can move the 4 of Hearts from the column 5 to the 5 of Hearts (build down like the Russian Solitaire rule), and you can also build the 10 of Clubs in column 4 up to the 9 of Clubs!

This slight variation in building Tableau make the game more difficult to win. With Yukon, you can win about 1 in 10 games. With Alaska Solitaire or Russian solitaire, you should expect around 1 in 30 games. Being able to build up or down doesn't seem to have much result on the chances of winning...

Alaska Solitaire is another interesting variation to Yukon and Klondike Solitaire. It’s a highly hard solitaire to win, but if you like challenges, it's definitively a game to compete.

Therefore, if you like to win, you really have to play Alaska Solitaire...

Michel (2020/02/08)