By Arnar Arinbjarnarson · Last reviewed October 19, 2026

Aces Up Solitaire: rules and how to play

Aces Up is a quick, one-deck card game with four piles. You deal one card to each pile, then discard any top card that has a higher card of the same suit showing on another pile. You win when the deck is used up and only the four Aces remain on the table, one in each pile. Aces count as the highest card, which is how the game gets its name.

A hand takes only a few minutes. You can play Aces Up here and follow along with this guide. The rules below describe exactly how our board plays, and where common rule books differ, we say so.

What you need

One standard deck of 52 cards. On this site the shuffling and dealing are done for you, so you only need to start a new game.

Cards rank in the usual order from 2 up to King, with one change: the Ace is the highest card, above the King. Suits matter for discarding, but colors do not.

The layout

The table has two parts.

• Four piles in a row. At the start, each pile has one face-up card.
• The stock, the remaining 48 cards face down. On this board it is the button labeled Deal 4.

Each time you deal, one new card goes on top of every pile. Only the top card of each pile is in play. The cards underneath wait until the ones above them are gone.

How to play

There are just three kinds of move.

1. Discard. Look at the four top cards. If two of them share a suit, the lower one can be discarded. With the 5 of hearts and the Jack of hearts both on top, the 5 of hearts goes. The higher card stays where it is. On this board you simply select the lower card and it is removed.
2. Move into an empty pile. When a pile has been emptied, you may move the top card of any other pile into it. Select the card, then select the empty pile. This is the only way to move a card from one pile to another, and it is the most important move in the game.
3. Deal. When you have done what you can, select Deal 4. One card goes onto each pile from the stock. There are twelve deals in all.

You do not have to discard just because you can. But in practice there is rarely a reason to wait, because the next deal will cover the card you meant to remove.

Where our board differs from some rule books

Many printed rules say you must fill every empty pile before you are allowed to deal again. Our board does not insist on this: Deal works whenever the stock has cards, and an empty pile just receives a new card like the others. You lose nothing by following the stricter rule yourself, and you often gain, because an empty pile is so valuable.

Winning and losing

You win when the stock is empty and each of the four piles holds a single Ace and nothing else. That means discarding all 48 other cards.

Having all four Aces on top is not quite enough. If an Ace is sitting on top of other cards, those cards are trapped: an Ace can never be discarded, and nothing can be discarded from under it. The only way to free them is to move that Ace into an empty pile. So part of the game is getting each Ace on its own.

The game is lost when the stock is empty and you cannot discard anything or make any useful move. Aces Up is mostly luck, so most deals end this way. A win is a treat, not a test.

A worked example from a real deal

Here is the start of a real deal produced by this site’s game engine (deal number 42). The four piles open with:

3♠ · 9♠ · 2♦ · K♦

Two discards right away. The 3 of spades goes, because the 9 of spades is a higher spade. The 2 of diamonds goes, because the King of diamonds is higher. Two of the four piles are now empty.

Now we deal. The new cards are K♠, 9♣, 7♥ and J♠, one on each pile, so the tops read:

K♠ · 9♣ · 7♥ · J♠

The Jack of spades is lower than a King of spades, so it is discarded. That uncovers the King of diamonds in the fourth pile. No two tops now share a suit, so we deal again: 10♣, 5♠, J♦ and 3♥. Still no matching suits, so we deal once more, and this time the cards are A♦, 4♦, 2♠ and Q♠. The tops are:

A♦ · 4♦ · 2♠ · Q♠

This is where the game opens up. The 2 of spades goes, under the Queen of spades. The 4 of diamonds goes, under the Ace of diamonds, which reveals the 5 of spades, and that goes too, under the Queen. Then the Jack of diamonds that was under the 2 of spades is discarded against the Ace of diamonds. Four cards gone in one turn.

Now look at the first pile: the Ace of diamonds is sitting on top of the 10 of clubs and the King of spades. Those cards are stuck there until the Ace moves. This is exactly why you want an empty pile. As soon as one opens up, moving the Ace of diamonds into it frees both cards below. We did have two empty piles at the very start, but there was nothing worth moving into them then, since every other pile held a single card. Empty piles become valuable once the piles grow deep, so when one appears later in the game, think before you deal over it.

Tips for your first games

• Discard everything you can before you deal. A new card can cover the one you needed to remove.
• Treat an empty pile as gold. Use it to lift a high card that is hiding a lower card of the same suit, or to give an Ace a pile of its own.
• Move Aces early. An Ace on top of other cards locks them in. If you have an empty pile, an Ace is often the right card to put there.
• Use Undo to learn. Trying a different choice and stepping back shows you quickly how one move changes the next deal.

Ready to play?

Aces Up is small enough to learn in one hand and varied enough to keep you coming back. Each deal is over in a few minutes, so there is always time for one more.

Related games on this site

• Monte Carlo: another quick discard game, pairing cards of the same rank on a five-by-five grid.
• Golf: a fast one-deck game where you clear cards by playing them up or down by one.