Solitaire Yukon

Yukon is a solitaire card game that plays like a more strategic variant of Klondike. The key difference is that there is no stock or waste pile — all 52 cards are dealt to the tableau at the start, with many face-up. Any face-up card can be moved along with all cards on top of it, even if the stack is not in proper sequence. This freedom of movement makes Yukon more strategic and less luck-dependent than Klondike, while its lack of a stock pile means every move counts.

Rules

1. Tableau: 7 columns are dealt, holding 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 cards. In every column the top 5 cards are face-up (so column 1, with a single card, is entirely face-up) and the rest underneath are face-down.
2. No Stock or Waste: All 52 cards are dealt to the tableau. There is no drawing.
3. Foundations: Four piles, one per suit, built from Ace to King.
4. Moving Cards: Any face-up card in the tableau can be moved to another column, along with all cards on top of it, regardless of whether those cards form a valid sequence. The card being moved must be placed on a card one rank higher and of the opposite color.
5. Empty Columns: Only a King (with any cards on top of it) may fill an empty column.
6. Revealing Cards: When a face-down card becomes the top card of a column, it is turned face-up.
7. Winning: All 52 cards are moved to the foundations.

Strategies

• Expose Face-Down Cards: This is the primary objective. Every move should ideally work toward revealing hidden cards.
• Move Deep Cards: Unlike Klondike, you can move a card buried under an unsorted stack. Look for opportunities to extract useful cards from deep in columns.
• Plan for Kings: Kings can only go in empty columns. Don't create empty columns unless you have a King ready to fill them, or unless the empty column is needed for a key maneuver.
• Build Foundations Gradually: Don't rush cards to foundations if they might be needed on the tableau to facilitate further moves.
• Think Globally: With all cards visible, scan the entire tableau for opportunities before making any move. The best move may involve a card several columns away.
• Avoid Blocking Aces: Keep Aces accessible. An Ace buried under a random stack can only be freed by moving all cards above it.

Yukon's origins are somewhat unclear, but the game is believed to have originated in North America, with the name referencing the Yukon Territory in Canada — similar to how "Klondike" references the Klondike Gold Rush. The game appears in card game literature from the mid-20th century, though it may have been played informally before then.

Yukon was designed as a response to one of Klondike's perceived weaknesses: the heavy reliance on the stock draw. By eliminating the stock entirely and allowing the movement of unsorted stacks, Yukon gives the player much more control over the outcome. This makes it popular with players who find Klondike too luck-dependent.

The game became more widely known through computer solitaire collections in the 1990s and 2000s. Its inclusion in popular solitaire packages for Windows, Mac, and mobile platforms introduced it to millions of players who might never have encountered it in a book of card games.

Yukon has a higher win rate than Klondike — estimated at over 90% of deals being theoretically solvable with perfect play. However, the actual win rate for most players is considerably lower (around 25-35%) because the game's strategic complexity means that suboptimal moves early on can create unsolvable situations. This gap between theoretical and practical win rates is part of what makes Yukon appealing to strategy-minded players.