How to Play Agnes Bernauer Solitaire
What Is Agnes Bernauer Solitaire?
Agnes Bernauer is a one-deck solitaire with an unusual twist: the foundations do not start on an Ace. Instead, a single card is turned up at the deal, and whatever rank it happens to be becomes the starting rank for all four foundations. If that card is the 8 of hearts, then every foundation begins on an 8, climbs through 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King — and then wraps around to the Ace and keeps going up to the 7. Every card is dealt face up, so there is nothing hidden and nothing to guess at; what makes the game hard is that a seven-cell reserve keeps filling with cards you may not be ready for. The goal is to bring all 52 cards onto the four foundations.
The Layout
One standard 52-card deck is dealt into four areas:
- The foundations. Four piles across the top. One of them starts with the base card dealt at setup; the other three sit empty until you find another card of that same rank. Each builds up in suit and wraps from King round to Ace.
- The reserve. Seven cells in the middle of the table, each starting with one face-up card. Only the top card of a cell is available to play, and you can never place a card into the reserve yourself.
- The tableau. Seven columns below the reserve, dealt in a staircase: 1 card in the first, 2 in the second, up to 7 in the seventh — 28 cards in total, every one of them face up.
- The stock. The remaining 16 cards, face down in the corner. Clicking it deals seven cards at a time — one onto each reserve cell, not onto the tableau.
How to Move Cards
- To a foundation, when the card is the next rank that pile needs, in the same suit. Remember the sequence wraps: if the base rank is 8, then after the King of a suit comes the Ace, then the 2, and the pile finishes on the 7. An empty foundation only ever accepts the base rank.
- Onto a tableau column, when the card is one rank lower and the opposite colour — a red 6 onto a black 7, a black Jack onto a red Queen. The columns wrap too, in the opposite direction to the foundations: after an Ace comes a King, so a red King drops onto a black Ace and the run carries straight on down. Only rank and colour matter, never the suit.
- As a group, when the cards already form a proper run: descending in rank and alternating in colour with no gaps. A run may run through the Ace–King turn, so a tidy 2, Ace, King moves as one piece.
- Into an empty column, but only one exact rank: the card one below the base rank. If the base is a 7, only a 6 may fill a gap; if the base is an Ace, only a King may. That card is the very last one its suit needs, so a gap is far more expensive than it looks.
- From the reserve, but only the top card of a cell, and only onto a foundation or a tableau column. Nothing ever goes back into the reserve.
The Stock and the Reserve
The stock does not feed a waste pile. Each click deals seven cards, one onto every reserve cell, stacking on top of whatever is already sitting there. With 16 cards in the stock that gives you two full deals of seven and a final short deal of two, and then the stock is gone — there are no redeals.
This is what gives the game its shape. Every deal buries whatever you left sitting in the reserve, so a card you skipped over may be locked away for good. Clearing the reserve cells before you deal again is not a nicety, it is the whole game.
How to Win
You win when all 52 cards have reached the four foundations, each running thirteen cards from the base rank up and around. Because everything is face up from the first moment, Agnes Bernauer is a game of pure calculation — no luck of the flip, just whether you can see the order the cards have to come out in.
Playing on This Site
Drag and drop any card or valid run, or double-click (double-tap on touch) a card to send it to a foundation when it fits. The buttons above the table give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint when you are stuck, and Auto-finish for the closing stretch. Undo is unlimited, which matters more here than in most games: with everything visible, backing up to test a different order is the natural way to play. Every deal has a seed number, so you can replay a layout or share it with a friend.
Agnes Bernauer Solitaire
Empty the Reserve Before You Deal
Each stock deal drops a new card onto every reserve cell. Anything you left behind gets buried, and there are no redeals to bring it back.
- Treat a full reserve as a deadline. Before clicking the stock, ask which reserve cards you can still use, and use them.
- A reserve card that is one rank below a tableau top is nearly free to play — take it, even if you gain nothing immediately, because the cell it frees is worth more later.
- Two deals is all you get before the short third one. Plan the whole game around three clicks of the stock, not twenty.
Learn the Wrap, Then Use It
The base rank changes every deal, and thinking in Aces will cost you games.
- Read the base card first and fix it in your mind. If the base is a 10, the Ace is the fifth card each suit needs, not the first — an Ace sitting in the tableau early is a low-value card, not a prize.
- The card just below the base rank is the last card of that suit. It will be stuck holding its column until the very end, so plan a home for it early.
- Cards of the base rank are gold: each one opens a new foundation. Dig them out ahead of almost anything else.
Gaps Are Not Free Cells
An empty column here takes exactly one rank: the card one below the base. With a base of 7 that means a 6 and nothing else. Do not clear a column expecting a parking space.
- Count the four cards of that rank before you commit. They are the only keys to every gap you will ever make, and each one is also the card that finishes a foundation.
- Emptying a column with no such card in reach leaves a hole you cannot use — worse than the column you gave up, because the cards that were in it are now sitting somewhere else.
- When you do fill a gap, you have parked a card that a foundation will eventually want back. Plan how it comes out again before it goes in.
- Because gaps are so restricted, the reserve — not the tableau — is where the game is really won. Spend your effort clearing cells, not making holes.
Everything Is Visible — So Actually Look
There are no face-down cards, which means every problem in the deal is solvable at the table rather than discovered later.
- Before your first move, find the base-rank cards and see what is sitting on top of them.
- Trace the order a column has to come apart in. If two cards you need are in the same column in the wrong order, you need a gap or a reserve play to break the tie.
- Use Undo as a thinking tool. Playing a line out and rewinding it is not cheating here — with full information it is simply how the game is meant to be analysed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do the foundations not start with an Ace?
That is the defining rule of Agnes Bernauer. A single card is dealt to a foundation at setup, and its rank becomes the starting rank for all four foundations. If it is a 5, every foundation begins on a 5. The starting rank changes with every new deal.
What happens when a foundation reaches the King?
It wraps around to the Ace and keeps climbing. With a base rank of 8, a foundation runs 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, then A, 2, 3, and finishes on the 7 — thirteen cards in all, exactly one full suit.
How does the stock work?
It deals seven cards at a time, one onto each reserve cell, stacking on top of what is already there. It does not feed a waste pile and it never deals to the tableau. There are 16 cards in the stock, so you get two full deals of seven and a final deal of two.
Are there any redeals?
No. Once the stock is exhausted there is nothing to recycle, so any card you allow to be buried in the reserve may be lost for the rest of the game. Clearing reserve cells before dealing again is the core skill of this game.
What can I place in an empty tableau column?
Only the rank one below the base card, or a run led by that card. If the base rank is a 7, a gap accepts a 6 and nothing else; if the base is an Ace, it accepts a King, because the ranks wrap exactly as the foundations do. This makes gaps far less useful than the free cells of FreeCell — there are only four cards in the whole deck that can fill one.
Can I move cards into the reserve?
No. The reserve only ever receives cards from the stock. You may take the top card of a cell and play it to a foundation or to the tableau, but nothing goes back in.
Are any cards face down?
Only the stock. All 28 tableau cards and all seven reserve cards are dealt face up, so the game is one of calculation rather than luck — you can see every problem in the deal from the first move.
How do I build on the tableau?
Descending in rank and alternating in colour, as in Klondike: a red 6 onto a black 7. The one difference is that the columns wrap — after an Ace comes a King, so a red King may be placed on a black Ace. A properly sequenced run, including one that passes through the Ace–King turn, moves as a single group.
Is Agnes Bernauer hard?
Yes, noticeably harder than Klondike. Full information helps, but a stock that only ever buries your reserve and gives you no redeals is unforgiving. Winning consistently means planning the whole game around your three stock deals.
How is it different from Agnes Sorel?
Both use a dealt base rank with wrapping foundations, but Agnes Sorel has no reserve and deals its stock straight onto the tableau, and it builds down in the same colour. Agnes Bernauer builds down in alternating colours and feeds a seven-cell reserve.
Is it free to play?
Yes, completely free. Nothing to download and no sign-up needed. Open the page and the cards are dealt.
What is a seed?
A seed is the number identifying one particular shuffle. Every deal has its own seed, so you can replay a deal you want another attempt at, or share it with a friend and both play the identical layout.