Streets and Alleys Solitaire
How to play Streets and Alleys
Streets and Alleys is a one-deck solitaire game that deals all 52 cards face up into eight rows, Aces included, with rows built down regardless of suit and no free cells.
Beleaguered Castle with the Aces shuffled into the deal.
The goal of Streets and Alleys
Move every card onto the four foundations, building each one up by suit from Ace to King.
How to set up Streets and Alleys
The whole deck is dealt face up into eight rows, shown here as columns: the first four get seven cards and the last four get six. The Aces are shuffled in with the rest, so the four foundations start empty. There are no free cells and no stock.
Streets and Alleys rules
Play follows Beleaguered Castle. Rows build down one rank at a time whatever the suit, the top card of a row can move onto its foundation, onto a row where it builds or into an empty row, and any card can fill an empty row.
A run already built in order moves as one move if it is no longer than one card doubled for each empty row. When it moves into an empty row, that row does not count. 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 row, and only then into an empty row. Drag a card or a run to choose where it goes yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Streets and Alleys
You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. Once every row 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.
Streets and Alleys strategy tips
With no free cell and no Ace at home, the opening moves matter most. Look for a short row with an Ace in it: emptying that row frees the Ace and gives you an empty row, the only spare place this game has.
With no free cells, an empty row is the only spare space, and each one doubles the run you can move. Emptying one early makes the Aces easier to reach.
Suit does not matter when you build on a row, but a long build over an Ace or a Two keeps it buried until the whole run can move.
In the first four rows the bottom card lies under six others, one more than in the last four, so an Ace dealt there is the slowest to free.
Streets and Alleys questions and answers
How do you play Streets and Alleys solitaire?
Deal the whole deck into eight rows and move the top cards, building down regardless of suit. Each foundation takes its Ace first and builds up by suit to the King. Any card can fill an empty row, and a run can move in one go when enough rows are empty.
What is the difference between Streets and Alleys and Beleaguered Castle?
Only the deal. Beleaguered Castle puts the four Aces on the foundations before dealing the other 48 cards into rows of six. Streets and Alleys shuffles the Aces in and deals all 52 cards, seven to each of the first four rows and six to the rest, so you have to dig the Aces out first.
Can every Streets and Alleys deal be won?
Many cannot. The solver proves fewer of these deals than of any of their relatives: of 100 shuffled Streets and Alleys deals, it proved only 22 winnable and 37 lost within its dealing search, and 35 winnable and 39 lost within the deeper search the Hint button runs. The buried Aces are the difference: Beleaguered Castle, the same game with the Aces starting home, came out at 53 and 65. Winnable in the menu beside New deal reshuffles until a win is proved, which took up to 23 shuffles in testing.
What is the difference between Streets and Alleys and Stronghold?
Stronghold is the same deal with one free cell added. That single cell matters a great deal: in the same solver test, 69 of 100 Stronghold deals were proved winnable at the dealing search, against 22 of 100 deals of Streets and Alleys.
Is there a daily Streets and Alleys game?
Yes. Streets and Alleys 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.