Grandfather's Solitaire

a family original
Deal a new game to begin
Deck
Waste
Anchor —

Grandfather's Solitaire

A one-of-a-kind family game with no known published name.

Setup

Four stacks of 4 cards in Column A — 3 face-down, 1 face-up. The next card is the anchor and starts Row 1.

Goal

Play all 52 cards to the board, suit by suit.

Row 1 — Anchor Suit

Any card of the anchor's suit plays to Row 1 freely, in any order. No sequence needed.

New Rows

When a card matching the anchor's rank appears (from Column A or your hand), a new row opens for that suit.

The Permission Gate ⚑

A card can only go to Row 2+ if the same value already exists in the row directly above.

Row 1 ♦: 7, 9, A, Q, 2, 3
Row 2 ♠: 7, Q, 3
→ 6♠ cannot play yet — no 6 in Row 1.

Column A

Top face-up card only. Playing it flips the one beneath.

Hand

Tap deck to flip 3. Only the top waste card is playable. Recycle freely.