Why it is harder
With draw three, two of every three stock cards are hidden behind the top one. You have to cycle the whole stock to reach them, and each cycle changes which cards sit on top.
Turn 3 Solitaire: rules, odds and strategy
Turn 3 deals the stock three cards at a time, so only every third card is immediately available. The layout is identical to classic Klondike; the difficulty comes entirely from that stock, which is why the win rate drops sharply.
Play Turn 3 SolitaireCounting the cycle
The waste order stays fixed unless you play a card from it. Playing one card shifts every later group by one, which is the single lever you have over the stock — use it deliberately, not by accident.
Board first, stock second
Exhaust every tableau move that turns a face-down card before you touch the stock. A stock card gains you one option; an uncovered column card often gains you several.
Tips that actually help
- Cycle the stock once before committing, so you know which cards are reachable.
- Prefer the move that flips a face-down card over the move that looks tidier.
- Hold low cards in the columns as landing spots rather than banking them early.
- If two plays are equal, take the one that shifts the waste order in your favour.
Common questions
- What percentage of turn 3 games are winnable?
- Around a third of draw-three deals can be won in practice, against roughly eight in ten for turn 1 played perfectly.
- Can I switch back to turn 1?
- Yes, the toolbar on the table swaps between the draw-one and draw-three deals at any time.
- Does undo count as cheating?
- Not here. Undo is unlimited and is the fastest way to learn which stock cycle wins a given deal.