Welcome to Bristol!

Hey there! Have you heard of Bristol? It’s another awesome game in the fan solitaire family. In this game, you get to play with a deck of 52 French cards and put them on the tableau and foundations. The best part? Unlike some other games, you don’t have to worry about matching suits in the foundations, so your chances of winning are even higher!

Let’s Talk about the Cards and the Layout

First things first, you’ll need a standard deck of 52 cards. Give them a good shuffle and then deal out eight fans, each containing three cards. These cards are placed face-up on the table and make up the tableau. Oh, and if any Kings pop up while you’re creating the tableau, just move them down to the bottom of their fan.

Once you’ve dealt with the fans, it’s time to start the reserve piles. Just deal three cards in a row, facing up. These cards will serve as the beginning of your reserve piles.

Let’s Play!

When I want to play a game of Bristol, I start by dealing three cards from the pile, and then I place one card on each of the reserve piles. These reserve piles are where I’ll be able to find cards later on for the foundations and the fan tableau.

Now, here’s the fun part – I can play cards from the foundations and the fan tableau to build up my fans. I can put cards on top of each other in descending order, no matter what the suit is.

The foundations are special because they start with Aces. As I uncover them, I can keep building them up in ascending order all the way to Kings. The suit doesn’t matter here.

Now, here’s something to keep in mind – any spaces that form in the reserve section will only get filled with the next deal. And any spaces that form in the fan tableau will stay empty.

I Win!

Guess what? The game is won when I manage to get all of the cards into the foundation piles. There’s no second chance, so each move counts!