Osmosis Solitaire Rules

Osmosis SolitaireNumber of Decks: 1

Initial Layout: To begin the game the deck is shuffled, then four piles of four cards each are dealt at the left. The piles form the reserve, and the top card of each is available for play.

One card is dealt to the right of the first reserve, forming the first foundation. As the other cards of the same rank become available, they may be played in a column below the first foundation, forming the other three foundations.

Object: Move all the cards to the foundations.

Play: Cards are dealt from the deck three at a time (or, optionally, one at a time), with only the top card available for play to the foundations.

Foundations are built in suit, regardless of order. On the first foundation, any card of the same suit may built as soon as it becomes available. On each lower foundation, a card may be built only if a card of the same rank has been built on the foundation above it.

For example, if the first foundation card is a three of hearts, then any heart can be played on the first foundation as soon as it becomes available, say, for illustration, the seven and nine. Now suppose the second foundation is the three of clubs. If the seven or nine of clubs become available, they can be played on the second foundation, but no other club can be played until the corresponding heart has been built.

When all cards have been dealt from the deck, you may redeal as often as you like, until either the game is won (by moving all cards to the foundations) or lost (no more moves can be made.

When the "peek" option is used, the reserves are spread out so that all of their cards can be seen. This allows you to spot any potential blocks before beginning the game. The situation to look out for is two cards of the same rank in the same reserve pile, especially is the lower card is of the first foundation suit. If this is the case then the game is hopeless, at least as far as winning, though you can still play it and perhaps even reach a respectable score.

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Games Featuring Osmosis Solitaire

BVS Solitaire Collection
Pretty Good Solitaire
Solavant