Addiction Solitaire
A sorting puzzle pretending to be a card game. Forty-eight cards are dealt into four rows of thirteen; the four Aces are removed, leaving four gaps. Move cards into gaps such that each row eventually reads 2, 3, 4… Queen, King of a single suit. Three shuffles are allowed for cards that get stuck. Strong play wins around 40% of the time — much higher than most solitaires.
How to Play Addiction
- 52-card deck dealt into a 4-row × 13-column grid (52 positions).
- All four Aces are removed, leaving four gaps.
- Each gap can only be filled by the card that is one rank higher than the card to its left, in the same suit.
- A gap immediately to the right of a King is dead — nothing can fill it.
- Win by arranging each row in order 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K of a single suit (suits are assigned by row).
- Three shuffles are allowed: when stuck, the unsorted cards are reshuffled while keeping the already-sorted prefix of each row.
3 Strategy Tips
- Plan the first card of each row. Each row needs a 2 of some suit on the left. Decide which 2 goes in which row early.
- Don't fill a gap if the move creates a dead gap. If filling a gap immediately produces a gap to the right of a King, you've made the puzzle harder.
- Save shuffles for catastrophes. Burning a shuffle to escape a single dead gap is often unnecessary — try to play through to a real deadlock first.
FAQ
Why is it called Addiction?
Microsoft popularized the name in their bundled solitaire collection. The game was previously called Gaps, Spaces, or Vacancies in older books.
How is it different from regular solitaire?
No foundation piles, no stock pile, no Klondike-style stacking. It's purely a sorting puzzle on a fixed grid.