SUSPENSE
Let me introduce you to an intriguing and challenging game called Suspense. As the name suggests, this game is filled with hidden surprises that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s a solitaire game that will put your skills to the test. Are you ready?
In Suspense, you start by building the waste pile. But here’s the twist: only the layout cards that are uncovered are eligible for play. As you uncover more cards, new opportunities will arise. You’ll be able to move cards to the foundation piles and unlock even more possibilities. It’s like uncovering layers of mystery and excitement.
Now, let’s talk about your chances of winning this game. It’s both thrilling and challenging, with a winning percentage ranging from 15% to 20%. Can you beat the odds and claim victory?
THE CARDS & THE DEAL
So here’s how you play this card game. First, mix up all 52 cards in the deck really well. Then, deal out the cards to form a special layout consisting of four piles. Each of these piles will have six cards in it. It’s important to arrange the cards in a specific way.
Let’s start with the first pile. Place one card face down in the center. We’ll call this the “center” card. Then, place one card face up to the left of the center card, and another card face up to the right of the center card. These two cards are known as the “wings”.
Next, take two more cards and lay them face up on top of the first three cards. Make sure to cover them completely. One card should overlap the left wing and the center card, while the other card should overlap the right wing and the center card. Keep in mind that these two cards should be positioned so that they form an upside down pyramid with the previous three cards.
Repeat this process three more times to create four of these upside-down pyramids. Once you’re done, the remaining cards will become the “draw pile”.
LET’S PLAY!
When we’re ready to start the game, we flip the top card from the draw pile over and begin the waste pile. At the beginning, the only moves we can make involve moving uncovered cards to the waste pile. We can build the waste pile in both ascending and descending order, and we can switch the order as much as we want. The suit of the cards doesn’t matter. Once we can’t move any more cards to the waste pile, we flip over the next card from the draw pile.
When I uncover the wings, I have to move them around to create the tableau columns. Remember, I can only have up to eight tableau columns at a time. The columns are built in descending order, based on the suit. So, if I have a column starting with a 5♣ and another starting with a J♣, I can combine them when the J column reaches 6 or the 5 column descends to Q. Combining the columns is a great way to make progress. And don’t forget, I can also build cards from the draw and waste pile onto the tableau columns.
So, here’s the scoop: when a column on the playing table and a stack of cards in the foundation pile have made their way to the same card number, you can move that column onto the foundation pile. The trick is, you have to build the foundation in reverse order. Let me break it down for you. Say the foundation pile is up to the 4 card, and the tableau column is down to the 5 card. In this case, you can take that whole column from the tableau and add the cards one by one in ascending order to the foundation pile. Pretty neat, huh?
Okay, let’s get this game started! We won’t have any foundations to begin with, but don’t worry, we’ll create them as we go along. There will be four center cards that are upside down – these will become our foundations. As we uncover these cards, we’ll move them to a column on the left side of the playing area.
Now, here’s the tricky part. If one of the suits is missing in the foundation piles, we can combine two foundations that have the same suit. We can only join them if they have been built in a way that allows them to be joined, just like we do with the tableau columns. So keep an eye out for those opportunities!
Now, any uncovered card from the layout, as well as the top cards from the draw or waste pile, can be played on the foundations. Just remember, once a card has been played onto a foundation, it can’t be taken off. So choose your moves wisely!
When you’re playing this card game, it’s important to keep in mind a few key rules. First, any suit that doesn’t have a foundation card can only be built up in the tableau. This means that you need to place all the cards for that suit in the tableau to create a complete sequence. However, there’s a catch. You can only move a wing card to the waste pile if another wing card of the same suit is already on the layout.
If one of the suits is missing from either the foundation cards or the wing cards, that suit is completely removed from the game. This happens when those cards are revealed or uncovered, so make sure to keep an eye out for any missing suits.
Once you’ve gone through all the cards in the draw pile, you can flip over the waste pile and start again. You can do this a maximum of two times.
WINNING
The goal is to win the game by building all the cards into piles in ascending order according to suit. The piles can be either foundation or tableau piles, depending on how the cards are initially dealt. Keep this in mind as you strategize and try to come out on top!