Rules, Strategy, and How to Win Advanced Tips

Quick Answer: Aces Up Solitaire (also called Aces High) is played with four columns of cards. When two cards of the same suit are both visible — one in each different column — you remove the lower-ranked one. Aces are the highest rank. You win by reducing all columns to just the four Aces. The game requires careful empty-column management and has a win rate of only about 7–12%.

Aces Up Solitaire has earned a devoted following among patience game enthusiasts who appreciate elegantly simple rule sets that hide brutal difficulty. The entire concept can be explained in two sentences: Aces are the highest-ranked cards. When a lower-ranked card of the same suit appears alongside a higher one, the lower card is eliminated. Yet despite this simplicity, winning Aces Up consistently requires sophisticated strategic thinking.

What Is Aces Up Solitaire?

Aces Up (also called Aces High, Idiot's Delight, or Firing Squad in various traditions) is a single-deck patience game built around a single mechanic: removing dominated cards. A card is "dominated" if another card of the same suit with a higher rank is also face-up and accessible. Since Aces are the highest rank (higher than Kings in this game), the ideal end-state is having only four Aces remaining — one per column.

Definition: In Aces Up, "Ace is highest" means Aces outrank all other cards including Kings. This is the reverse of most card games where Aces are low. An Ace of Spades on the table means every other Spade visible in any column can be removed, since no spade ranks higher.

The game is documented on [Aces Up Solitaire Rules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_(game) and has been played in card game communities across the United States and United Kingdom for over a century. In spite of its nickname "Idiot's Delight," winning Aces Up consistently is anything but easy — less than one in ten randomly dealt games ends in victory even with expert play.

Aces Up Setup

Cards needed: One standard 52-card deck, shuffled.

Layout:

1. Deal four cards face-up, one to each of four columns (piles)
2. The remaining 48 cards form the face-down stock

That is the entire setup — four single cards visible, 48 in the stock. Deceptively minimal.

How to Play Aces Up Solitaire

Objective: Reduce all four columns to a single card each, with each surviving card being an Ace. Win by having the four Aces (one per suit) as the only remaining cards.

On each turn:

Step 1 — Remove dominated cards: Look at the four face-up cards (tops of each column). If any two visible cards are the same suit and one ranks lower than the other, you may remove the lower-ranked one. Continue removing dominated cards until no two visible cards share a suit with the higher card also visible.

Step 2 — Move to empty column: If any column has been emptied (by removing its only card), you may move the top card from any other column to the empty column. Note: you can only move one card to an empty column — the top card. This is a critical strategic move.

Step 3 — Deal four cards: Once no removals are possible and empty columns are managed, deal four more cards from the stock, one to each column (stacking on top of existing column cards). Then return to Step 1.

Dealing: Each deal from the stock adds one card to each of the four columns. After 13 deals (48 cards ÷ 4 per deal = 12 deals, plus the initial 4 cards), all 52 cards will have been played.

Important rule — column tops only: Only the top card of each column is visible and playable. Cards buried beneath other cards in a column cannot be removed until all cards above them are removed first.

Aces Up Solitaire Strategy

Use empty columns strategically. Empty columns are your single most important resource in Aces Up. When a column empties, you can use that empty space to reorder cards — moving one card off a pile to expose a buried card. Always think carefully before filling an empty column, because once filled, you lose that mobility.

Delay filling empty columns. Do not fill an empty column just because you can. Empty columns should be saved for critical rearrangements — moving a blocking card off a pile to uncover a card you need to remove.

Remove dominated cards before dealing. Always exhaust all possible removals before dealing four new cards from the stock. Dealing when removals are still available wastes opportunities to work with fewer cards.

Think ahead when there are multiple removals. When multiple dominated cards can be removed, the order can matter. Removing one card might expose another dominated card. Think through the chain of removals before committing.

Protect cards that can protect themselves. An Ace in a column is permanent — it can never be dominated. Cards immediately below Aces in the same suit are the next most protected (only the Ace of that suit beats them). Burying a non-Ace card in a column with its Ace protects it from removal.

Track which Aces have appeared. Since winning requires all four Aces to surface, tracking which Aces have been dealt (and therefore are already safe as column tops) versus which are still in the stock is important. Late-game, if an Ace is still undealt, you need that column clear to receive it.

Count cards by suit. With 13 cards per suit and Aces as high, you need to clear 12 non-Ace cards per suit (removing 48 non-Aces total). Knowing which suits have many remaining non-Ace cards versus those nearly cleared helps prioritize moves.

For more strategic depth, see our advanced solitaire strategies guide which covers priority thinking applicable to Aces Up.

Win Rate and Why It's Hard

Aces Up is genuinely difficult. Computer analysis estimates the win rate at approximately 7–12% even with optimal play on randomly shuffled decks. Some sources estimate lower, around 3–5% for human players who play less than perfectly.

The core difficulty is the "only top card is accessible" rule combined with the limited empty-column maneuvering space. Cards needed for removal get buried under newly dealt cards, and with only four columns and finite empty-column opportunities, the game frequently reaches unwinnable states.

This places Aces Up among the hardest single-deck solitaire games — comparable to Pyramid Solitaire in difficulty and significantly harder than Klondike or standard FreeCell. See our hardest solitaire games ranked article for a full difficulty comparison.

Despite — or perhaps because of — its difficulty, Aces Up has a dedicated fan base among players in competitive solitaire communities in cities like Seattle and Portland who enjoy the intellectual challenge of near-impossible games.

Variations of Aces Up

Aces High (or Firing Squad): Same game, different name. The name "Aces High" is arguably more descriptive of the core mechanic.

Three-Column Aces Up: Uses only three columns and a proportionally smaller deck, dramatically increasing difficulty.

Five-Column Aces Up: Five columns of cards, making the game somewhat easier by providing an extra column for maneuvering.

Aces Up with suits: Some variants add a rule that empty columns may only be filled with Aces, making empty-column management even more restrictive.

Compare Aces Up to other challenging games in our hardest solitaire games ranked guide and discover what makes each variant uniquely difficult. For a contrasting easy solitaire experience, visit our easiest solitaire variants ranked guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you play Aces Up solitaire?

Deal one card to each of four columns, then remove any visible card that shares a suit with a higher-ranked visible card in another column (Aces are highest). Move cards to empty columns for maneuvering. Deal four more cards and repeat. Win when only the four Aces remain. The game has no stock redeals.

Are Aces high or low in Aces Up solitaire?

Aces are the highest-ranked cards in Aces Up — higher than Kings. This is the reverse of most card games where Aces are played as 1 (low). An Ace visible in any column means all other cards of the same suit visible in other columns can immediately be removed from the game.

What is the win rate for Aces Up solitaire?

The win rate for Aces Up solitaire is approximately 7–12% with optimal play. Human players typically win fewer than 10% of games. The game is considered one of the harder single-deck patience games due to the restricted movement mechanic and limited empty-column maneuvering space.

When should you fill an empty column in Aces Up?

Do not fill an empty column unless doing so directly enables a critical card removal that would otherwise be impossible. Empty columns are your primary maneuvering tool — moving the top card of one pile to an empty column exposes the card beneath. Hold empty columns open as long as possible for maximum tactical flexibility.

What happens when you can't make any moves in Aces Up?

If no removals are possible and no empty columns exist (or using them creates no useful removals), you deal four more cards from the stock, one to each column. If the stock is exhausted and no moves remain, the game is lost. There are no redeals in standard Aces Up.

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💡 Variant Strategy Note (2026)

Each solitaire variation demands unique table space management. In column-heavy formats like Spider or Yukon, prioritize unlocking hidden columns early to act as temporary staging areas.