Penguin (solitaire)

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Penguin is a solitaire card game, invented by David Parlett, which uses a deck of 52 playing cards. Because of its game play, it belongs to the same family of solitaire card games as Freecell and Eight Off.

First, a card is dealt; this is the "beak." The player must take note of this card because while the rest of the deck is dealt, the three cards with the same rank as the beak are immediately placed on the foundations. The beak, on the other hand, is left in the tableau as the bottom card of the first of seven columns, each containing seven cards. While dealing, no column should be left out, so when a card that is the same rank as the beak is placed on the foundations as it is dealt, the next card will take its place.

The object of the game is to build the foundations up in suit up to the card that is a rank lower than the beak. For example, if the beak is a ten, the last card of each foundation should be a nine; if it is an Ace, the last card of each foundation should be a King. It depends on the beak itself.

The cards on the tableau are built down by suit. Cards are moved one a time, unless a suit sequence of cards is formed, which can be moved as a unit. When a space occurs, only a king or a suit sequence starting with a king can be placed on it.

Above each column is a cell (seven in all) which can be used to store a single card to be played later. The seven cells are collectively called the "flipper" and they can only hold seven cards in all, one for each cell.

The game is won when all cards are built onto the foundations. Chances of achieving this are high, but it is generally a good idea to free the beak first.

See also: solitaire terminology