Double Klondike Solitaire: Play Online & Free

How to play Double Klondike Solitaire?

The rule set and the difference with Klondike Solitaire

Double Klondike Solitaire borrows most of its rules from the original Klondike Solitaire – the most popular version of a Solitaire card game that gained its most recent popularity surge after being embedded in most Windows versions for the past two decades. There are only two noticeable differences in the rule set for Klondike and Double Klondike – the latter uses two standard 52-card decks (no jokers) with a total of 104 cards (as such, there are eight fields in the Foundation instead of four). The number of columns on the tableau is nine instead of seven.

The objective is to place all the cards in a specific order, starting from Ace to King, in the Foundation. The Foundation is one of the three main components of the game field. Winning a Double Klondike Solitaire game requires a set of single-type cards (spades, diamonds, hearts, clubs) stored within each Foundation column in ascending order.

The primary playing field is called the Layout or Tableau. At the beginning of the game, 45 cards are placed on the layout in ascending order, with the leftmost column having one card, the next column with two cards, and so on. Only the topmost card in each column is revealed, and the remaining cards can only be revealed similarly as the game progresses.

The remaining cards are stacked randomly in the Pile, from which you draw cards. You can only reveal one card from the pile at a time, with every subsequent card placed over the previous card in the pile. The second card pile that is created from the cards you went through already (near the first Pile) is technically called the Waste pile, but it is a lot easier to treat both as a single Pile element of the board.

Variations of Double Klondike Solitaire

Variations are a rather strange topic for Double Klondike Solitaire since the game itself is a variation of a Klondike Solitaire card game. However, there is one version of the game that offers two minimal changes for the entire game – with these changes alternating both the rules and the difficulty in a significant fashion.

Double Secret Klondike Solitaire

Double Secret Klondike Solitaire (or Secret Double Klondike Solitaire) is an alteration of the original Double Klondike rule set with a different approach to the “Tableau” side of the gameplay. The first change is the card positioning – there are now eight columns of cards, seven cards per column. However, this is far from the most prominent difference so far.

The second and most unusual change is the card layout. Unlike Double Klondike, Secret Double Klondike Solitaire reveals every second card in each column from the start (for example, the card placed the lowest on the column is revealed, the third card in the same column is also revealed, and the same goes for the fifth and seventh one).

It is not possible to move these revealed cards from the start, the original rule of only the uppermost card in each column being movable (unless there is the correct combination of cards) still applies.

Both of these changes bring a surprisingly large difficulty spike to what could be called a relatively simple game, meaning that Double Secret Klondike Solitaire would be much more interesting to players who are looking for a more significant challenge in the first place.

Double Klondike Solitaire vs Solitaire Social

Solitaire Social is a card game platform that uses the rules of the traditional Klondike Solitaire with a multiplayer twist, offering a multitude of different challenges and approaches to the same concept of a card game – with daily challenges, leaderboards, collectibles, power-ups, and even a customizable garden.

One of the most significant additions to Klondike Solitaire that Solitaire Social can offer is power-ups. They can be either earned or purchased using the in-game store. Here are the examples:

• Magic Wand reveals a card.
• Freezer prevents opponents from playing for 20 seconds.
• Shuffle creates new moves.
• Joker works as another card.
• Freeze Shield prevents the player from being frozen.
• Time Bubble is the ability to skip the waiting time after losing a card game.

All of Solitaire Social’s changes revolve around the multiplayer aspect – including identical card setups, scoring systems, power-ups, and the overall layout. Of course, a traditional Klondike Solitaire rule set differs from the one used in Double Klondike. Still, the differences are not that significant to begin with, mainly concerning the total number of cards and the appropriate modifications to Foundation and Tableau to accommodate the increased card pool.

Examples of Double Klondike Solitaire

There are many websites that offer the ability to play different Solitaire versions, and Solitaire Social is far from the only player on this market. Here are five examples of websites that offer the ability to play Double deck Klondike Solitaire for free.

Solitr

Solitr is a relatively simple website with plenty of card games to choose from. It supports classic Klondike Solitaire, as well as Spider, FreeCell, Mahjong, and Double Klondike. Each page provides not only the game itself, but also plenty of information about it, be it the original rule set, several best practices, or tips about game mechanics.

The Double Klondike Solitaire page has the ability to revert the entire game to a full-screen mode, and there is also an option to choose between drawing one or three cards per draw from the Pile. The game itself works as intended but lacks any kind of visual customization options aside from the ability to turn off the game sound.

FreeCell.io

FreeCell.io is a card game website with dozens of games to choose from. Its main page provides access to all of its games in a single place, and the games themselves are also categorized using certain factors – be it the stylistic choice of creating games that look like their old Windows counterparts or a simple categorization based on the game type (Solitaire, Klondike, etc.).

Specific game pages are not particularly complex, either. The Double Klondile Solitaire page offers the game itself (no download required), as well as a short introduction into the game itself in terms of its ruleset and goals. What’s interesting here is the fact that the game itself seems to be identical to the one located on the Solitr website, with both the identical aesthetic and the “Powered by gameboss.com” tag at the bottom of the game window.

Solitaired

Solitaired is a website that offers numerous Solitaire variations, including both popular and lesser-known options such as Klondike, Pyramid, FreeCell, TriPeaks, Yukon, and many others. Each game page includes a brief introduction to the game’s basic rules and answers to frequently asked questions, including basic strategies for the game in question.

The Double Klondike page on Solitaired has a very convenient interface and occupies the entire screen by default, providing a better overall user experience. It uses the traditional Double Klondike rule set (with the possibility to switch between 1-turn and 3-turn card reveals from the Pile) and can track the amount of time and number of moves spent on each game.

Solitaire Bliss

Solitaire Bliss is an online platform that offers highly customizable Solitaire games for free. The website is well-known and offers a dozen different field backgrounds and several card set options. You can customize the game according to your preferences, such as turning on or off additional elements like time and score. You can also adjust sound, animations, and more.

Moreover, Solitaire Bliss offers daily challenges, statistics, a variety of Solitaire versions to choose from, and a dedicated rule set for each game. They also provide helpful strategies to learn and improve your gameplay. Solitaire Bliss supports dozens of different Solitaire variations, including the ability to play Double Klondike Solitaire and many other versions of the game for free.

Solitaire King

Solitaire King is another example of an online platform that provides multiple card games to play online. It supports several dozen different games, be it FreeCell, Spider, Klondike, or some of the lesser-known versions, such as Easthaven or Eight Off.

This is another interesting case of a card game website looking similar to one of its competitor – the Solitaire Bliss website looks very similar to this one, with the biggest difference being the overall website interface style. Nevertheless, Solitaire King provides plenty of options to choose from, including style modification, statistics, rule sets, and more.

Conclusion

Double Deck FreeCell Solitaire is a card game that can be considered relatively unpopular compared to other Solitaire variations. It can be customized to a certain degree, but the overall challenge is still much higher than with other versions of the same game, such as Klondike Solitaire.

Nevertheless, Double Deck FreeCell is one of many options available for users who may be somewhat tired of the original formula or just looking for something new in their card game journey. Not all of these journeys have to be between different card game variations, either – Solitaire Social is an excellent alternative to the existing Klondike Solitaire formula with a multiplayer twist and a multitude of exciting additions to it.