Great Wheel

About Great Wheel

by Thomas Warfield

Screen shot of the game Great Wheel from Pretty Good Solitaire.

Great Wheel is an unusual and interesting solitaire game. It is a two deck game with all the Kings removed.

How to Play

This game features 17 foundation piles. You build eight piles up in suit by twos starting with 2 (that is, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, Queen), eight piles up in suit by twos starting with 3 (3, 5, 7, 9, Jack), and one pile with Aces built by alternate color.

The tableau consists of eight piles with four cards dealt face up to each. The remainder of the cards form a stock, which is dealt one card at a time to a waste pile. There are no redeals. Whenever a space is created in the tableau, it is filled by four cards dealt out face up from the waste.

There is no building in the tableau until the stock is empty. Once the stock is empty, the tableau piles are built down in suit, only one card moved at a time.

You begin by getting as many Twos and Threes out as possible to begin building on the foundations. Try to get the low cards played to the foundations quickly. Clearing out a tableau column is helpful since that brings four more cards into play and reduces the number of cards buried in the waste. Keeping the waste from getting too many cards is key to victory.

Once you have gone through the stock, then you can begin moving cards in the tableau to free buried cards. If you can create an empty space in the tableau after the waste is empty, you can then move any card to the empty space. If you can get to that point, you will probably win the game.

Great Wheel is one of the 850 games in Pretty Good Solitaire.

Variations of Great Wheel