Cruel (solitaire)
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Cruel is a solitaire card game played using a deck of 52 playing cards. Its arrangement and game play are almost like another solitaire card game Perseverance. The game consists about equally of skill and luck.
It was released as part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows 3.0 in 1990, and can also be downloaded for Windows XP.
Play
To start the game, the player must first take all the Aces and put them in a row as bases for the foundations to start the game. The rest of the cards are then put into 12 piles, each with four cards.
Only the top (or exposed) card in each pile is available for play. The cards in the tableau piles are built down by suit, while the foundations are built up by suit up to kings. For example, the 5♣ can be placed on the 6♣ if both cards are on the tableaux. Only one card can be moved at a time.
When no moves are available, all the remaining piles are put together and then put out in piles of four again. It is important not to shuffle these cards and to place one pile on top of the other face-up, starting from the first pile up to the last (this is actually the correct order, but some versions of the game use the opposite). The player can do this in an unlimited number of times.
The game is won when all the cards are put on the foundations. The game is lost if no more moves are possible even after a shuffle.
Note: Many people who play this game or create certain computerized versions thereof erroneously believe that the cards are "shuffled" by taking the last pile and putting it on top of the next-to-last pile and so on, then putting the bottom four cards in the first pile, the next four cards in the second, and so on. The technically correct order is to "shuffle" by taking the cards on the first pile, putting them on top of the cards from the second pile, then on top of the third, and so on, then taking the top four cards and putting them back in the first pile, then the next four cards in the second, and so on. Only about one in six to one in five people can win the game using the incorrect "shuffling" method; however, the chances of winning using the correct method are significantly higher, about one in three or two in five.
See also
- List of solitaires
- Glossary of solitaire