Sir Tommy Solitaire: Victorian Patience Card Game Rules

Sir Tommy is one of the simplest solitaire games ever designed, and also one of the oldest. You flip cards from a shuffled stock one at a time and place each card onto one of four waste piles. No card can be taken back. When Aces appear, they start foundations that you build up through King in any suit. The entire game is a series of decisions about which pile to use for each card, with the knowledge that a wrong choice now can make a later card unplayable.

Victorian origins

Sir Tommy belongs to the tradition of patience games developed in Victorian England, where solo card games were a common leisure activity for evenings at home. The name likely refers to a person, though no definitive historical record connects the game to a specific Sir Thomas. What is documented is its early appearance in late 19th-century patience game collections, where it was presented as an introductory game accessible to anyone who knew the basic card ranks.

The game's simplicity is its appeal. Where Klondike has a complex tableau and Spider requires tracking across 104 cards, Sir Tommy reduces solitaire to its essential question: given a card you did not choose, where is the best place to put it?

Setup

Sir Tommy uses a single standard 52-card deck. The setup is minimal:

• Shuffle the deck thoroughly
• Four foundation piles (empty at the start)
• Four waste piles (empty at the start)
• The shuffled deck as the stock (face-down)

There is no initial deal to the tableau. Everything begins from the stock.

Rules

On each turn, flip the top card of the stock face-up. You must immediately place it in one of two locations:

• On a foundation, if it is the next card needed there
• On any one of the four waste piles, in any order or pile you choose

Once a card is placed, you cannot move it until it can go to a foundation. There is no take-back, no shuffling of waste piles, and no second chance.

Foundations start with an Ace. When an Ace appears from the stock, place it immediately on a foundation pile. Foundations build upward in rank (Ace, 2, 3, up to King) regardless of suit. You do not need to match suits when building foundations. Any 2 can go on any Ace, any 3 on any 2, and so on.

Only the top card of each waste pile can be played to a foundation. Cards deeper in a pile are inaccessible until all cards above them have been moved to foundations.

Win by getting all 52 cards onto the four foundation piles.

The pile management challenge

The entire strategic depth of Sir Tommy comes from deciding which waste pile to use for each card. The problem is that you are playing with imperfect information: you know what card you are placing now, but you do not know what cards are coming next.

The four waste piles function as a buffer between the stock and the foundations. Cards you cannot immediately use go into the buffer. The goal is to keep the buffer organized enough that as foundations grow, the cards needed next are accessible from the top of a pile.

The core tension: if you put a 7 on top of a pile containing an 8, 9, and 10, you have blocked those higher cards. When the foundation needs an 8 later, it cannot get to the one on that pile without first using the 7. If the 7 cannot go to a foundation yet (because you are still waiting for a 6), that pile becomes a problem.

Strategy tips

1. 1

   Keep pile tops spread across different ranks

   A useful general principle: try to keep the top cards of your waste piles distributed across different ranks. Four piles all topped with high cards means any low card you draw will have nowhere useful to go, and will inevitably bury something important.
2. 2

   Reserve one pile for low cards

   Consider keeping one waste pile dedicated to cards in the range of 2 through 5. These low cards reach the foundation early, which frees the pile quickly and keeps your options open.
3. 3

   Send Aces and 2s to foundations immediately

   Never place an Ace or 2 on a waste pile if you can help it. These cards are almost always directly playable to a foundation. Holding them in a pile wastes a slot.
4. 4

   Think two cards ahead

   Before placing a card, ask what card would be blocked if this card went on each pile. The pile with the least harmful blocking is usually the right choice.

Frequently asked questions

How old is Sir Tommy Solitaire?

Sir Tommy is considered one of the oldest named patience games in the English-speaking world. It appears in early patience game references from the late 19th century, making it over 130 years old. Its simplicity suggests it may have existed informally even earlier under different names.

Can I move cards between waste piles?

No. Once a card is placed on a waste pile, it stays there until it can be played to a foundation. You cannot rearrange cards between waste piles or take a card back. Every placement is permanent.

Do foundations need to be built in suit?

No. Foundations in Sir Tommy are built by rank only, regardless of suit. Once an Ace is moved to a foundation, you build 2, 3, 4, and so on up to King on that pile using any suit. The four foundation piles each need one Ace to start, and then build A through K in any suit order.

What is the win rate for Sir Tommy?

Roughly 30% of deals are winnable with good play. The limiting factor is the card order in the stock. Some deals present cards in an order where no distribution across four waste piles can avoid burying critical cards. Good pile management improves your results but cannot overcome every bad deal.