Playing Solitaire Klondike well
In brief
The 21 hidden cards determine the outcome: prioritize moves that uncover them, especially in the longest columns. Only empty a column if a king can move into it, and avoid sending cards to the foundations too soon while the tableau still needs them.
1. Uncover the face-down cards
A hidden card cannot be played and can block an entire suit. When choosing between two possible moves, prefer the one that turns a card face up, and start with the columns on the right: column 7 has 6 hidden cards at the start.
In deal KL1-D1N-AAAAAAG, the first move of the winning game sends the A♥ from column 7 to its foundation: it earns 10 points, turns over one of the 6 hidden cards in that column (another 5 points), and brings the score to 15. There are then 20 hidden cards left.
Stock: 24 cards; waste empty. Cards on the foundations: 0 spades, 0 hearts, 0 diamonds, 0 clubs. Column 1: 0 face down, then jack of spades; column 2: 1 face down, then 10 of clubs; column 3: 2 face down, then 7 of diamonds; column 4: 3 face down, then 5 of spades; column 5: 4 face down, then 7 of clubs; column 6: 5 face down, then jack of hearts; column 7: 6 face down, then ace of hearts.
2. Keep the empty column for a king
An empty column accepts only a king. Emptying it too early, without a king ready to move into it, serves no purpose and can even get in the way: the card that occupied it could have held a sequence. Empty a column when a king is waiting, preferably a king sitting on hidden cards. The Examples page shows the 7♦ being rejected on an empty column.
3. Don’t send everything to the foundations too soon
Aces and 2s can go up without risk. Higher up, a card placed on a foundation can no longer receive a card on the tableau: a 5 of hearts moved up too fast is then missing to take a black 4. The app never moves anything up on its own, precisely to leave you that choice. If needed, the top card of a foundation can be taken back to the tableau.
4. With Draw 3, consider the order
With Draw 3, only one card in three is directly playable on each pass. Playing a card from the waste shifts the cards that follow: on the next pass, different cards reach the top. In the winning games on the Examples page, the same deal required 2 passes recycling the waste with Draw 1 (KL1-D1N-AAAAAA5) and 4 with Draw 3 (KL1-D3N-AAAAAA5).
5. In Vegas, just one pass
In Vegas, only one pass through the stock is allowed. Before each tap on the stock, make all useful tableau moves: a waste card that gets covered will not come back. The score starts at -$52: you need 11 cards on the foundations to get above zero. The Vegas game on the Examples page (KL1-D1V-AAAAAFB) drew its 24 cards just once and ends at +$208.
6. Use undo
The app remembers the last 100 actions. When two moves look equally good, try one, look at the card it uncovers, and undo it if that card does not help: undoing also removes the points earned by the move.