Play Cruel Solitaire Online for Free (Fan Solitaire, Fans of Four)
What is Cruel Solitaire?
Cruel Solitaire is a fan patience game for one standard deck where the four Aces are placed on foundations first, then the remaining 48 cards form 12 fans of 4. Build fans downward by same suit and send cards to foundations in ascending order by suit. When stuck, you can redeal by collecting all tableau cards in order and re-dealing them without shuffling. Skilled players win around 50 percent of deals.
Cruel Solitaire history
Cruel appears in British patience literature from the early 20th century and gets its name from the deceptive nature of its redeal rule: unlike La Belle Lucie's lucky shuffle, Cruel's redeal preserves card order, so players who hope the redeal will fix a bad position are often disappointed. The game demands planning ahead to create a layout that improves, rather than merely resets.
How to play Cruel Solitaire
All four Aces start on foundations. Your task is to fill each foundation from 2 to King in suit by moving the top cards of 12 fans.
- Check all fan tops for 2s of any suit. Move any available 2 to its foundation immediately.
- Continue building each foundation upward with the next card in suit. Every card sent to a foundation exposes the card beneath it in the fan.
- Move cards between fans to unbury needed cards, building down by same suit only. Only the top card of each fan is accessible.
- When stuck, use a redeal. Cards are collected fan by fan in order and re-dealt into fans of 4 without shuffling.
- Redeals are unlimited but only count if you have made foundation progress since the last redeal. Win when all 48 cards reach foundations.
Strategies to win Cruel Solitaire
- Before every move, check whether that move will improve the fan order for the next redeal. Since the redeal preserves card positions, unproductive shuffles leave a worse tableau than a good sequence of moves before redeal.
- Focus on one or two suits early. Racing all four foundations evenly sounds efficient but spreads your moves thin. Driving one suit to 8 or 9 often collapses the other suits into reachable positions.
- Never move a card that was already on a fan top if it blocks a card needed sooner. Every move has a reorder cost in the next redeal.
- The key insight: because the redeal packs cards left-to-right in fan order, a fan with good bottom-to-top suit order will re-deal into a useful mini-sequence.
Cruel Solitaire rules and objective
Goal: move all 48 tableau cards to foundations (Aces are already placed, build 2 to K per suit). The 12 fans hold 4 cards each. Only the top card of a fan may be moved. Fans build down by same suit. Redeals are ordered (no shuffle) and may be repeated as long as foundation progress occurred since the previous redeal.
Game setup
| Element | Setup |
|---|---|
| Deck | 1 standard 52-card deck |
| Foundations | 4 Aces pre-placed, built 2 to K by suit |
| Tableau | 12 fans of 4 cards (48 cards) |
| Build rule | Down by same suit only |
| Redeals | Unlimited ordered redeals (no shuffle, progress required) |
| Win condition | All 48 tableau cards on foundations |
Cruel Solitaire variants and similar games
La Belle Lucie uses fans of 3 with shuffled redeals instead of ordered ones. Trefoil also pre-seeds Aces but uses 16 fans of 3 and shuffled redeals, making it more luck-dependent than Cruel's skill-heavy ordered redeal. Shamrocks removes redeals entirely but allows up-or-down building.
How difficult is Cruel Solitaire?
Cruel is moderately difficult. It is significantly more winnable than La Belle Lucie or Trefoil because its unlimited ordered redeals give skilled players repeated chances to reorganize, but the lack of shuffling means a bad sequence of moves cannot be undone by luck alone. It rewards careful, analytical play more than any other fan variant.
What is Cruel Solitaire win percentage?
Skilled players win approximately 50 percent of Cruel deals. Because redeals are unlimited and preserve order, the outcome depends largely on whether the initial card distribution creates reachable suit sequences, and skilled play can exploit nearly half of all possible starting configurations.
What is the difference between Cruel and La Belle Lucie?
The two key differences are fan size and redeal type. La Belle Lucie has fans of 3 with shuffled redeals (2 total), so luck plays a larger role. Cruel has fans of 4 with ordered redeals (unlimited), meaning the card positions after redeal are entirely determined by how you arranged the tableau. This makes Cruel a game of sustained skill rather than hoping for a lucky shuffle.
Cruel Solitaire FAQ
Does the Cruel Solitaire redeal shuffle the cards?
No. The redeal in Cruel collects all fan cards from left to right and re-deals them into fresh fans of 4 in the same collected order. No shuffling occurs. This is why skillful play before a redeal can set up better positions.
How many redeals are allowed in Cruel Solitaire?
Unlimited redeals are allowed, but you can only redeal if at least one card was moved to a foundation since the last redeal. If no progress has been made, the game is considered lost.
Why is Cruel Solitaire called Cruel?
The name reflects how the ordered redeal can punish players who move carelessly. Unlike games where a shuffle might save a bad position, Cruel's redeal just rearranges the same cards in the same order you left them. Bad moves before a redeal result in a bad position after.
Can you move more than one card at a time in Cruel Solitaire?
No. Only the single top card of each fan is accessible. You cannot move groups of cards between fans, regardless of whether they form a valid suit sequence.
Is Cruel Solitaire harder than FreeCell?
They are hard in different ways. FreeCell is almost entirely skill because all cards are visible and free cells provide flexible storage. Cruel relies on ordered redeals, so position matters more than flexible movement. Most players find Cruel more frustrating because there is no cell buffer to correct mistakes.
Other solitaire games I recommend
- La Belle Lucie Solitaire - fans of 3 with shuffled redeals
- Trefoil Solitaire - aces out, fans of 3, two shuffled redeals
- Shamrocks Solitaire - up-or-down building, no redeals
- Good Measure Solitaire - 10 fans of 5, high win rate
- FreeCell - open-information strategy with cell buffer