Play Scorpion Solitaire

How the Scorpion deal is laid out

The deal uses one standard deck of 52 cards. It goes into 7 columns of seven cards each.

The first four columns each get three face-down cards with four face-up cards on top. The last three columns are face up all the way down. That leaves three cards, which sit face down in a small reserve.

So most of the deck is visible from the first move. Twelve tableau cards are face down, all of them in the four left-hand columns, plus the three in the reserve. That one fact shapes most of the game.

Scorpion Solitaire rules

These rules follow Pretty Good Solitaire’s Scorpion page, this site’s main rules reference. The full walkthrough, with examples, is on the Scorpion Solitaire rules guide.

• Building. Place a card on the next-higher card of the same suit. The 8 of hearts goes on the 9 of hearts, and nothing else does.
• Moving. Pick up any face-up card, wherever it sits in its column. Every card on top of it comes along. The cards you carry don’t need to be in order.
• Empty columns. Only a King can go into an empty column, either alone or with the cards stacked on it.
• Face-down cards. When you uncover one, it turns face up and becomes playable.
• Aces. Nothing goes on an Ace. It is the bottom of a run.
• The reserve. Click it to deal its three cards, one each onto the first three columns. You get this deal once.
• Winning. Build four full runs, King to Ace, each in one suit.

How Scorpion differs from Spider Solitaire

Scorpion looks like Spider at a glance, and Pretty Good Solitaire lists the two as related. They play very differently.

	Scorpion	Classic Spider
Decks	1	2
Columns	7	10
Building	Down in suit only	Down in any suit
What you can move	Any face-up card plus the cards on it	Only a run in one suit
Empty column	Kings only	Any card or run
Cards held back	3 in the reserve, dealt once	A stock dealt one row at a time

The move rule is the big one. In Spider, a mixed stack is stuck until you untangle it. In Scorpion you can grab the 6 of clubs from the middle of a column and carry the four cards above it, whatever they are. That move rule comes from Yukon, which is why people describe Scorpion as a cross between Spider and Yukon.

The building rule pulls the other way. Spider lets you place a red 7 on a black 8 to make room. Scorpion doesn’t. Every card except a King has exactly one legal home on the board: the next-higher card of its own suit. When that card is buried, the card you want to move has nowhere to go.

Scorpion Solitaire strategy

Dig out the left side first

All 12 face-down cards sit in the first four columns. Pretty Good Solitaire’s main tip is to uncover them as soon as possible, and it’s right. A card you can’t see is a card you can’t plan around. Look for moves that lift a whole chunk of cards off a face-down card, even if the move does nothing else useful yet.

Treat Kings as blockers

Only Kings can fill an empty column. That cuts two ways.

A King sitting deep in a column, with useful cards under it, is a problem you have to solve. You can only move it to an empty column. So count your Kings early and note which ones are buried.

An empty column is also worth less than it looks. In Spider an empty column is a free parking spot for anything. In Scorpion it’s only useful if you have a King, plus whatever’s on it, that you want to move. Clear a column when you have a King ready to drop into it.

Look for the “trapped card” problem

Say the 9 of spades sits under the 10 of spades in the same column. The 9 can never be placed on its own 10, because it’s underneath it. Pretty Good Solitaire calls Scorpion difficult. Knots like this are one reason. The fix is to get the 10 off the 9, which usually means moving the 10, with everything above it, onto the Jack of spades.

Spot these knots at the start. A deal with two or three of them needs a plan before you make your first move.

Hold the reserve until it helps

The three reserve cards land on the first three columns. That covers whatever is on top there, including cards you might want to move. Wikipedia’s description of Scorpion deals them when no more moves are possible, and that’s usually the right time. Before you click, check what’s on top of columns one to three. If a dealt card would bury a card you need, make that move first.

Think a few moves ahead

Because you can move any face-up card, the number of possible moves is large. Pretty Good Solitaire says it pays to work through the options. Before you move a card, ask what it uncovers, and whether the card it uncovers has a home. A move that opens up a face-down card beats a move that just tidies a run.

Use undo freely

This site gives you unlimited undo. In Scorpion that’s a real tool. Try a line of play, see where it leads, and step back if it buries something.

Playing the Scorpion Solitaire game on this site

The board above runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or desktop. It’s free, with no sign-up and no download.

• Hints help when you’re stuck.
• Auto-complete helps you finish a solved game.
• Numbered deals let you replay a deal or share the link so a friend plays the same cards.
• Big-cards mode and left-hand mode are there when you want them, along with themes and fullscreen.
• Stats are saved in your browser, so your record stays on this device.

Want a gentler start? Easy Scorpion deals fewer face-down cards. Wasp Solitaire uses the same deal but lets any card fill an empty column. For a longer game, Double Scorpion uses two decks and ten columns.

Where Scorpion comes from

Pretty Good Solitaire traces the first reference to Scorpion to the 1949 book The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games. Its move rule matches Yukon, and its goal of building full suit runs in the tableau matches Spider. That mix is why it sits in the Spider family on this site.

Rules source: Pretty Good Solitaire (Goodsol)