Clock Solitaire

What is Clock Solitaire?

Clock Solitaire is a single-player patience game played with one standard 52-card deck. The entire deck is dealt face-down into 13 piles of 4 cards: twelve piles arranged like the numbers on a clock face and one pile in the centre. Cards then shuttle automatically from position to position based purely on their rank, with no choices available to the player. You win only if the fourth King is the very last card revealed, a 1-in-13 chance with every new deal.

Because the outcome is entirely determined by the initial shuffle, Clock Solitaire belongs to the category of patience games called "automatic" or "mechanical" solitaires. Other names you may know it by include Sundial, Clock Patience, and The Clock.

How the Clock Solitaire mechanic works

Clock Solitaire is best understood as a shuttling loop rather than a strategy game. Once the deal is set, every move follows from the last one. Your job is simply to reveal the chain and see whether the Kings arrive in a survivable order.

1. Deal all 52 cards face-down: 4 cards to each of the 12 clock positions (Ace at 1 o'clock through Queen at 12 o'clock) and 4 cards to the centre pile (the King position).
2. Flip the top card of the centre pile face-up. This is your first traveller.
3. Place the traveller face-up under its matching clock position. Ace goes to 1 o'clock, 2 to 2 o'clock, and so on. Queens go to 12 o'clock and Kings return to the centre pile.
4. Flip the top face-down card of that destination pile. It becomes the next traveller.
5. Repeat until the game ends in a win or a loss.
6. Win: all 52 cards are face-up in their correct positions when the 4th King lands at the centre.
7. Lose: the 4th King is revealed before all other positions are complete, ending the chain permanently.

What to pay attention to while you play

Clock Solitaire is a game of pure luck with a fixed win probability of 7.7%. There are no moves to choose and no strategy that can improve your odds. Still, a few viewing habits make each deal more legible and more satisfying:

• Play more deals, not fewer. Each game is independent. On average you will win once every 13 games, so volume is your only lever.
• Watch the Kings. When the 3rd King appears, the next King will end the game. Seeing how many positions are still incomplete at that moment tells you exactly how unlikely a win was from the start.
• Study the reveal after a loss. After the 4th King ends a game, all remaining face-down cards flip face-up automatically here. Tracing where each card would have gone is a great way to understand the shuttling mechanic.
• Use auto-play for a faster experience. If you want to run through the full 52-card chain quickly, auto-play lets the game step through at speed without manual tapping.

Clock Solitaire rules and objective

The objective is to have all 52 cards face-up and correctly placed when the shuttle chain ends. The chain ends the moment the 4th King is revealed. Every card must reach the pile that matches its rank before that happens.

Game setup

Win condition, odds, and difficulty

Clock Solitaire has zero difficulty in the usual skill sense. There are no branching decisions, no risk-reward choices, and no move-order puzzle to solve. The challenge is statistical: most deals fail because the fourth King appears before the outer piles are fully resolved.

What is Clock Solitaire's win percentage?

Clock Solitaire has a win rate of exactly 7.69%, which is 1 win in every 13 deals on average. That makes it one of the lowest win-rate patience games people still play regularly. You are not trying to outplay the deal; you are waiting to see whether the shuffle created one of the rare winning chains.

The 1-in-13 figure comes from the underlying structure of the game. A win requires the bottom card of the centre pile to be a King, and any given hidden position is equally likely to hold one. Losing streaks are therefore normal, not evidence that you are missing a better line.

How Clock Solitaire differs from other shuttling games

Clock Solitaire belongs to a family of shuttling patience games. All share the same core pattern, place a card at its home pile, reveal the next traveller, then continue until the chain stops. Clock stands out because the circular layout and centre-King ending give the game a very different feel from its straight-row relatives.

• Travellers Solitaire is the row-based predecessor to Clock. Piles are arranged in two rows instead of a clock circle, the starting point is a talon rather than the centre pile, and Kings go to a separate pile rather than returning to the centre.
• Four of a Kind Solitaire is a grid variant with sequential pile advancement. You work through piles one by one rather than following the card rank, which changes when and how the game can end.
• Hidden Cards Solitaire uses a 2x6 grid with a reserve pile. Kings form their own pile as they appear rather than returning to a centre slot.
• Grandfather's Clock is a strategic builder game with a clock-face layout. Unlike Clock Solitaire, it requires skill and careful sequencing to complete the foundations in the right order.
• Big Ben Solitaire is a two-deck strategic patience game with inner and outer clock circles. Far more complex and decision-heavy than the fully automatic Clock Solitaire.

What is the difference between Clock Solitaire and Travellers Solitaire?

Clock Solitaire and Travellers Solitaire share the same shuttling idea, but they feel different because Clock starts from a centre pile and sends Kings back to the middle of a clock-face layout. Travellers uses a row layout and a reserve pile instead. The consequence is not just visual; the shape of the board determines how people search for and remember the variant.

Choose Clock Solitaire for the satisfying visual of a clock face and the dramatic moment the 4th King lands at the centre. Choose Travellers for a straight-row layout with the same shuttling excitement.

My take on Clock Solitaire

I like Clock Solitaire because the centre pile gives every reveal a clear purpose. Each King matters, and the run always feels close to the end even when there are still cards left to uncover.

The downside is that it can end very abruptly. Four of a Kind gives the deal more time to keep moving, while Clock can build tension and then stop on one bad King.

Background and alternative names

Clock Solitaire is also called Sundial, Clock Patience, and The Clock. The game was documented in the late nineteenth century as one branch of the wider shuttling-patience family. Those older names all point to the same basic game: a 13-pile automatic deal built around a centre pile.

The visual clock-face arrangement is what let this branch stand apart from older row-based shuttlers. That is why Clock Solitaire remains the dominant name even though the underlying place-and-reveal mechanic is shared with Travellers, Wandering Card, Hidden Cards, and Four of a Kind.

Other solitaire games I recommend

If you want another version of this family, try Travellers Solitaire for a plainer row layout or Four of a Kind for a much softer run.

• Travellers Solitaire
• Four of a Kind
• Hidden Cards
• Hide and Seek
• Wandering Card
• Spoilt Solitaire
• Grandfather's Clock
• Big Ben Solitaire