Shamrocks Solitaire
How to play Shamrocks
Shamrocks is a one-deck solitaire game dealt face up into eighteen fans of at most three cards, with Kings moved to the bottom and fans built up or down regardless of suit.
Eighteen fans of up to three cards, built up or down in any suit.
The goal of Shamrocks
Move every card onto the four foundations, building each one up by suit from Ace to King.
How to set up Shamrocks
The whole deck is dealt face up into seventeen fans of three cards, and the last card makes an eighteenth fan on its own. Any King dealt higher up a fan is moved to the bottom of it. The four foundations start empty, and there are no free cells and no stock.
Shamrocks rules
Fans build up or down one rank at a time regardless of suit, and a fan can change direction as it grows. No fan can ever hold more than three cards, so a full fan takes nothing until its top card moves.
Only the top card of a fan moves, one card at a time, onto its foundation or onto a fan where it builds. An empty fan can never be filled, and a card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to play it: to its foundation if it fits, otherwise onto a fan. Drag a card to choose where it goes yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Shamrocks
You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. Once every fan is in descending order, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, moves the remaining cards up for you. The game is stuck when no card has a legal move left.
Shamrocks strategy tips
At the start every fan is full except the last, which holds one card. Until a card leaves a fan, the only builds are onto that one-card fan, so the opening moves are Aces going home and the two cards it still has room for.
Cards build up and down in any suit, so a card often has several places to go. Pick the one that leaves the card you need next on top.
A full fan takes no more cards, so moving a card off one is often the only way to make room for another.
A card that can go home never has to. You may leave it on its fan to hold a card of any suit one rank above or below it, as long as that fan has fewer than three cards.
A King has just two ways off its fan, since no card ranks above it: its foundation, or a Queen on top of a fan with room.
Shamrocks questions and answers
How do you play Shamrocks solitaire?
Deal the deck face up into seventeen fans of three and one single card, with every King moved to the bottom of its fan. Move the top card of a fan onto a card one rank higher or lower of any suit, or up to its foundation, one card at a time. No fan may hold more than three cards, and an empty fan stays empty.
How many cards can a fan hold in Shamrocks?
Three at most, the number it is dealt. A full fan takes no card until its top card moves away, onto a foundation or onto another fan.
Can every Shamrocks deal be won?
Most can. Of 100 shuffled Shamrocks deals, the solver proved 61 winnable and 2 lost within the search it runs while dealing, and 69 winnable within the Hint button's longer search; the rest it could not settle. Those wins are a floor, not the odds. Winnable in the menu beside New deal reshuffles until the solver proves a board, at most five shuffles in testing.
Is there a daily Shamrocks game?
Yes. Shamrocks has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. You need to be logged in to play it.