Solitaire Rules

Solitaire Poker is a fairly simple poker game that requires just one player and a deck of cards. If you get the urge to play a little poker and don’t have any friends around, this is just the game for you. Although today, online poker makes it possible to play from just about anywhere in the world.

If online poker isn’t an option, Solitaire Poker is a good bet. It’s an easy game to learn and it doesn’t require any other players. The object of the game is to get as high a score as possible. There is no winning or losing unless you are trying to beat some specific score.

How to Play Solitaire Poker

Find a normal deck of cards, shuffle the deck and then place it on the table. From that deck, you will draw cards and place them on the table one at a time until you have formed a 5 x 5 grid. As you draw each card, you can place that card anywhere on the grid. Once you place a card on the grid, that card cannot be moved.

After you have formed the 5 x 5 grid, it is now time to add up your score. Each row and each column of five cards counts as one poker hand, so you’ll have a total of 10 poker hands. Each poker hand is worth the number of points listed on the chart below. Add up your total score and write it down. Now you can play again and try to beat your best score.

Solitaire Poker Hand Values

Each poker hand in Solitaire Poker is worth the following number of points:

Hand Points
Royal Flush 100
Straight Flush 75
Four of a Kind 50
Full House 25
Flush 20
Straight 15
Three of a Kind 10
Two Pair 5
Pair 2

Alternate Rules

There’s another variation of the game that allows for more flexibility in designing your grid. Rather than each card having a fixed position on the grid, the only rule is that each card is fixed relative to its neighbor cards. This makes so that after you place your first few cards, you can place the other cards anywhere you want. The only rule is that you still end up with a 5 x 5 grid.

For example, if you lay down a card using the first set of rules, that card is locked in a specific position on the grid. When you lay down a card in this alternate variation, that card cannot be moved but it doesn’t correspond to any specific position on the grid. Instead, the grid will be formed around that card as you lay down more cards. Depending on how you place the rest of your cards, the first card you place might end up being the top left corner of the grid, the bottom right corner or anywhere else.