Play Four of a Kind Solitaire Online for Free (All Fours Patience)
What is Four of a Kind Solitaire?
Four of a Kind Solitaire is a single-deck patience game from the Travellers shuttling family. Also known as All Fours Patience, the game uses a distinctive grid layout of two rows of five piles plus one row of three, giving 13 piles of four face-down cards. Unlike Clock Solitaire, which follows a continuous chain of card placements, Four of a Kind advances through piles in strict sequential order, creating a different rhythm that is satisfying to watch unfold.
Four of a Kind Solitaire history
Four of a Kind first appeared in print in Foster's Hoyle (1897), roughly thirty years after Ednah Cheney published the original Wandering Card game in 1869. David Parlett classifies Four of a Kind within the shuttler family because it shares the same core mechanic of placing a card under its home pile and revealing the next one. The game is sometimes listed alongside Clock, Travellers, and Hidden Cards in collections of patience games, but its sequential pile-checking procedure sets it apart from the chain-style variants.
How to play Four of a Kind Solitaire
- Deal all 52 cards face-down into 13 piles of 4 cards each, arranged in two rows of five and one row of three.
- Piles are numbered 1 through 13. Pile 1 is the Ace pile, pile 2 is the Twos pile, through to pile 13 for Kings.
- Flip the top card of pile 1 (the Ace pile). Place it face-up under the pile matching its rank (for example, a Seven goes under pile 7).
- Move to pile 2 and flip its top card. Place it under its matching pile. Continue advancing through piles 3, 4, 5, and so on.
- When a pile is complete (all four cards are the correct rank), skip it and move to the next pile in order.
- After reaching pile 13, loop back to pile 1 and keep cycling. The game ends when all 13 piles hold four cards of their designated rank.
Strategies to win Four of a Kind Solitaire
Four of a Kind is a purely mechanical game with no player decisions once the cards are dealt. The outcome is determined entirely by the initial shuffle. Because you advance through piles in a fixed sequence and cannot choose which card to move, there is no strategy that changes the result. Some players enjoy watching the grid gradually sort itself; others speed through with auto-play. If you prefer a shuttler variant where you can at least pick the starting pile, try Hide and Seek Solitaire.
Four of a Kind Solitaire rules and objective
The objective is to sort all 52 cards so that each of the 13 piles contains exactly four cards of its designated rank: four Aces in pile 1, four Twos in pile 2, and so on through four Kings in pile 13. Cards are always placed face-up under (at the bottom of) their home pile. You take cards from the top of each pile in sequential order and keep cycling until every pile is complete.
Game setup
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Deck | Standard 52 cards |
| Layout | 13 piles in a grid: 2 rows of 5 + 1 row of 3 |
| Card facing | All dealt face-down |
| Start | Top card of pile 1 (Ace pile), advancing sequentially |
| Kings | Go to pile 13 (no special king rule) |
| Objective | Each pile holds 4 cards of its designated rank |
| Player decisions | None; purely mechanical sequential shuttling |
Four of a Kind Solitaire variants
Four of a Kind belongs to the shuttler family of patience games. Each variant shares the core place-and-reveal mechanic but changes the layout, starting procedure, or King handling.
- Clock Solitaire: circular clock-face dial with Kings sent to the centre pile. Uses chain shuttling instead of sequential advancement.
- Travellers Solitaire: 13 face-down piles in rows with chain shuttling from the reserve. Kings return to the reserve pile.
- Hidden Cards: deals face-up in a 2x6 grid. Kings form a separate pile in the centre, and the reserve provides fallback cards.
- Hide and Seek: 13 face-down piles in rows of seven and six. Starts from the Ace pile and uses chain shuttling.
- Wandering Card: the 1869 original with a unique dealing phase where matching cards are set aside during the deal.
- Spoilt: a 32-card variant using suit-and-rank placement in a 4x7 grid. Sevens receive special handling.
How difficult is Four of a Kind Solitaire?
Four of a Kind is one of the easier shuttler games to complete. Because the sequential mechanic processes every pile in turn rather than following a single chain, cards cycle through the grid repeatedly until each pile accumulates its four correct cards. Most deals will resolve themselves given enough cycles, though some shuffles require many passes before every pile settles.
What is Four of a Kind Solitaire's win percentage?
Four of a Kind Solitaire has an estimated win rate of about 95%. The sequential advancement ensures that cards keep circulating until they find their correct piles, so very few deals result in a permanent block. This is dramatically higher than the roughly 1% win rate of Clock Solitaire or Travellers, which use chain shuttling and can lock up when the fourth King appears early.
What is the difference between Four of a Kind and Clock Solitaire?
Four of a Kind and Clock Solitaire both belong to the shuttler family, but they differ in layout, card-flow mechanic, and win rate. Clock arranges 13 piles in a circular dial and follows a continuous chain: place a card, take the top of the destination pile, and keep going until the chain dead-ends. Four of a Kind lays out 13 piles in a rectangular grid and advances through piles one at a time in numerical order. This sequential approach avoids the instant-loss scenario of the fourth King blocking the centre pile, producing a much higher completion rate.
| Feature | Four of a Kind | Clock |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | 2x5 + 1x3 grid (13 piles) | 12 piles in a circle + centre |
| Card flow | Sequential: one card per pile visit | Chain: follow destination's top card |
| Kings | Go to pile 13 like any other rank | Go to centre pile (4th King = loss) |
| Starting pile | Pile 1 (Ace pile) | Centre pile (reserve) |
| Win rate | About 95% | About 1% |
| Player input | None | None |
Four of a Kind Solitaire FAQ
What does "sequential" mean in Four of a Kind Solitaire?
Sequential means you process piles in numerical order (1 through 13) rather than following a chain from destination to destination. After placing a card from pile 3, you move to pile 4 instead of following the top card of the destination pile. This keeps all piles active and prevents a single bad card from ending the game early.
Can Four of a Kind Solitaire end in a loss?
Losses are rare but possible. The sequential cycling almost always resolves the grid, but some shuffles can cause cards to loop between piles without making progress. In practice, the vast majority of deals complete successfully, giving Four of a Kind one of the highest win rates in the shuttler family.
How many moves does a Four of a Kind game take?
A typical game takes between 60 and 150 moves, depending on how quickly the cards sort into their correct piles. Some deals resolve in a single pass through all 13 piles, while others require five or more cycles. Using auto-play, a full game finishes in under two minutes.
Why is Four of a Kind easier to win than Clock Solitaire?
Clock Solitaire uses chain shuttling, where the fourth King arriving at the centre pile instantly ends the game. Because Kings block the only source of new cards, roughly 99% of games are lost. Four of a Kind has no special King rule and visits every pile in turn, so cards keep circulating until they settle into the right positions.
Is Four of a Kind the same game as All Fours Patience?
Yes. "All Fours" and "Four of a Kind" refer to the same patience game. The name "Four of a Kind" reflects the goal: each pile must contain four cards of one rank. Some older sources also list it under "Hunt" or simply as a variant of Travellers.