Every Klondike player eventually faces the question: Turn 1 or Turn 3? The two games use identical layouts, identical tableau rules, and an identical goal - Yet a single difference in how the stock is dealt separates a relaxing classic from a genuinely demanding puzzle. This guide explains exactly what changes, what it does to your win rate, and how to decide which version deserves your time.
The One Rule That Changes Everything
In Turn 1 (also called "draw one" or "one-card"), clicking the stock deals a single card to the waste pile. Every card in the stock will eventually appear on top of the waste, playable, on every pass.
In Turn 3 ("draw three"), clicking the stock deals three cards at once, fanned so that only the top card is playable. To reach the second card of a fan you must first play the top one somewhere; to reach the third, you must play the top two. If you can't, all three go face down when you keep dealing - And you won't see them again until the next pass through the stock.
That's the entire difference. But its consequences are enormous: in Turn 3, two out of every three stock cards are locked behind another card on any given pass. Accessing a specific card is no longer a matter of patience - It's a planning problem.
Turn 1 vs Turn 3 at a Glance
| Turn 1 | Turn 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cards dealt per click | 1 | 3 (only the top is playable) |
| Stock cards reachable per pass | All 24 | Roughly 1 in 3, unless you unlock fans |
| Theoretically winnable deals | ~80–90% | Substantially lower |
| Realistic win rate (skilled play) | ~43% | Roughly 11–26% |
| Planning horizon | Move by move | Whole stock cycles |
| Typical game length | Shorter | Longer, more redeals |
| Best for | Relaxing, learning, streaks | Challenge, purists, scoring |
What the Win-Rate Numbers Really Mean
Computer analysis of Klondike suggests that with perfect play and full knowledge, roughly 80–90% of Turn 1 deals are theoretically winnable. That number describes an oracle, not a person: it assumes you could see every face-down card and never misstep. Human results are far more modest - Skilled Turn 1 players win on the order of 43% of their games, and casual players considerably fewer.
Turn 3's winnable fraction is substantially lower, and realistic win rates for practiced players tend to land somewhere in the 11–26% range depending on rules (number of allowed redeals, undo or no undo) and skill. In other words: a decent Turn 1 player wins almost every other game, while the same player switching to Turn 3 might win one game in five. If your Turn 3 win rate drops to roughly a third of your Turn 1 rate, nothing is wrong with you - That's simply the size of the handicap.
The gap has one main cause: information and access. In Turn 1, any stock card you need will come to you if you keep cycling. In Turn 3, a card buried in the middle of a fan can stay unreachable for the entire game unless you deliberately engineer a way to shift the deal pattern.
The Core Turn 3 Skill: Stock Cycling
Here is the insight that separates Turn 3 players who win from those who just click: the stock's order never changes - Only your position in it does. When the waste is recycled, the cards return in the same sequence. That means the same cards will land on top of each fan, pass after pass… unless you change something.
Every card you play from the waste shifts the "phase" of every later fan by one. Play one card from the waste early in a pass, and on the next deal the fans regroup differently - Cards that were buried second or third in a fan can rotate up to the top. This leads to the fundamental Turn 3 techniques:
1. Count in threes
On your first pass through the stock, pay attention to which cards fall in the "top of fan" positions and which are buried. The buried cards - Positions you can see but not play - Are your target list for later passes.
2. Change the phase deliberately
If a card you desperately need is second in its fan, you need to remove exactly one card from the waste before that fan is dealt (or a number of cards that shifts the alignment by one, i.e. not a multiple of three). If it's third in the fan, you need to shift by two. Sometimes it's correct to make an otherwise pointless waste play purely to re-phase the stock.
3. Don't spend waste plays carelessly
The mirror image of the same rule: playing a card from the waste when you didn't need to can rotate a critical card out of reach on the next pass. Before playing from the waste, ask what it does to the alignment of everything behind it.
4. Use your redeals wisely
Common Turn 3 rules allow unlimited passes through the stock (as we do), while stricter scoring variants limit you to three. Either way, treat the first pass as reconnaissance: build the tableau, learn the stock, and save your phase-shifting plays for when you know what you're trying to dig out.
Scoring Differences
Because Turn 3 is harder, scoring systems compensate. In classic Windows-style standard scoring, both games award the same move values (5 points for a stock-to-tableau play, 10 for a card to the foundation, and so on), but the redeal penalties differ: Turn 1 deducts points on every pass after the first, while Turn 3 is only penalized after the third pass. In Vegas-style scoring - The descendant of Richard Canfield's casino wager, where you "buy" the deck for $52 and earn $5 per foundation card - Turn 1 traditionally allows only a single pass through the stock, while Turn 3 allows three. Timed modes on most platforms, ours included, also reward the faster, riskier game proportionally.
So Which Should You Play?
Choose Turn 1 if… you're learning the game, you play to unwind, or you enjoy maintaining a win streak. Turn 1 is the better teacher: because every stock card is accessible, your losses are usually traceable to tableau mistakes - Playing to the foundation too early, emptying a column without a King ready - And those lessons transfer directly to every other solitaire game. It's also simply the more relaxing experience, and there is nothing impure about that.
Choose Turn 3 if… Turn 1 has started to feel automatic and you want each deal to matter. Turn 3 rewards memory, counting, and several-moves-deep planning in a way Turn 1 never demands. Wins are rarer and feel correspondingly bigger. Many longtime players describe the switch the way runners describe moving from 5Ks to marathons: same sport, different discipline.
Our honest recommendation: learn on Turn 1, graduate to Turn 3, and keep both in rotation. Play Turn 1 when you want flow, Turn 3 when you want a fight. You can switch between them any time on our Klondike table - Turn 3 is one click away in the game options - And if you want a level playing field against other players, the Daily Challenge gives everyone the identical deal.
Quick FAQ
Is Turn 3 just Turn 1 with extra steps?
No - The constraint that only the top of each three-card fan is playable means some deals winnable in Turn 1 are mathematically lost in Turn 3, no matter how well you play. The games share rules but not difficulty.
Does unlimited redeal make Turn 3 easy?
It helps, but it doesn't dissolve the problem: without phase-shifting waste plays, you'll see the same fan tops on every pass forever. Unlimited redeals give you more chances to apply the technique, not a way around it.
Which one is "real" solitaire?
Both have long pedigrees, and printed rules going back a century describe each. If anything, three-card deals with limited redeals reflect the older gambling tradition, while one-card deals became the friendly digital default. Play the one that makes you want another game - That's the version the last two hundred years of players would recognize. And when you're ready for a different kind of challenge entirely, Spider is waiting.