Klondike Turn 3: the one game here that never comes in a two-deck form
Most games on this site either use two decks or have a two-deck cousin. Klondike Turn 3 does not. When you pick three-card draw in Solitaire Double, the site sends you here, to the single 52-card deck. So this page is about what one deck and a three-card draw do together, with nothing extra to soften them.
The simple program that won 81.5% of two-deck Turn 1 deals and 42.3% of one-deck Turn 1 deals won only 10.6% here (10,000 deals; 95% range 10.0%–11.2%). A planning search that knows every hidden card proved 66.2% of 1,000 deals winnable (63.2%–69.1%), proved 9.5% impossible and left 24.3% undecided.
At a glance: from two decks Turn 1 down to one deck Turn 3
| Game and draw | Simple program won | Planning search, proven winnable |
|---|---|---|
| 2 decks, Turn 1 | 81.5% (80.7–82.2%), 10,000 | not run |
| 1 deck, Turn 1 | 42.3% (41.3–43.3%), 10,000 | 76.6% (73.9–79.1%), 1,000 |
| 1 deck, Turn 3 (this page) | 10.6% (10.0–11.2%), 10,000 | 66.2% (63.2–69.1%), 1,000 |
| 2 decks, Turn 3 | not offered here | not measured |
For Turn 3 the search also proved 9.5% of deals impossible (7.8–11.5%) and left 24.3% undecided (21.7–27.1%), so the true winnable share lies between 66.2% and 90.5%. Blake and Gent (2026) publish 81.945% (±0.084%), inside that range.
Why the three-card draw bites so hard on one deck
Only every third card is reachable
Turning three at a time means the card you need is often under two you cannot use. With one deck there is no twin elsewhere to rescue you.
More passes, same stock
The program's wins went through the stock 3.81 times on average (3.73–3.90), against 2.34 at Turn 1. Each pass shifts which cards come up.
Wins are shorter, not easier
Its Turn 3 wins took 111.2 moves (110.5–111.8, 1,063 wins). The deals that fall early are the ones it could win at all.
Rules here
- Deal: seven columns of one to seven, last card up; 24-card stock.
- Stock: three cards per turn, only the top one playable; unlimited passes.
- Foundations: four, Ace to King.
- Building: down in alternating colors; runs move together.
- Empty columns: Kings only.
- Same game as Solitaire Draw 3; both routes load identical code.
Making a single deck go further
Change the rhythm of the stock
Playing one card from the waste shifts every later triple by one. Use that on purpose to bring buried cards to the top.
Look through the whole stock early
With unlimited passes, the first pass is reconnaissance.
Flip hidden cards before chasing the stock
Tableau cards do not rotate; stock cards will come back.
Undo a pass that went badly
If a waste play spoiled a later triple, step back.
Turn 3 on freecell-two-decks.com
Free in any modern browser on computer, tablet or phone, no sign-up. Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart, Auto Play, zoom, drag or tap, a count of wins, time and moves, and sound, fullscreen and table color settings.
How we measured it
The freecell-two-decks.com team ran these simulations in September 2026 on this site's own Klondike code.
- Rules from the code, including the Draw 3 redirect from the two-deck game.
- 10,000 numbered deals for the program, 1,000 for the search.
- The program sees face-up cards only and never undoes: a floor.
- The search models the exact three-card stock order, knows hidden cards and has up to 150,000 positions per deal: a ceiling.
- Published check against Blake and Gent (2026).
- No two-deck Turn 3 figure exists, because the site does not offer that game.
Python 3.11, standard library only. Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic, helped write and check the code and draft this page; every figure comes from running the code.
Questions
Can I play Turn 3 with two decks here?
No. Three-card draw is single-deck only.
How much harder is Turn 3?
For our program, 10.6% against 42.3% at Turn 1.
What next?
Go back to Turn 1, double the deck in Solitaire Double, or play the site's main game, FreeCell Two Decks. Everything is on the games page.
By Admin, freecell-two-decks.com (Forty Media). Research run September 2026.