Turn 3 Klondike, hands on: mastering the three-card stock
Klondike Turn 3 is ordinary Klondike with one change: each click on the stock turns over three cards, and only the top one of the three can be played. That one rule turns the stock from a helpful reserve into a puzzle of its own. This page is a hands-on playbook for that puzzle: how the three-card turn really works, which cards you can reach on each pass, when to take a waste card and when to leave it, and a worked example you can follow.
For the numbers behind Turn 3 (how often it can be won and how it compares with Turn 1) see our Turn 3 odds page. This page is about technique.
What happens when you click the stock
The deal is the same as any Klondike game: seven tableau columns holding 28 cards, and 24 cards in the stock. When you click the stock:
- Three cards move to the waste, fanned so you can see them all.
- Only the top card of the waste is available. The two beneath it only become available if you play the card above them.
- When the stock is empty, the waste turns back over and becomes the stock again. On this site you may go through it as many times as you like.
Everything else is standard Klondike: build down in alternating colours on the tableau, move runs as a unit, fill empty columns with Kings, and build each suit up from Ace to King on the foundations. The full rules are on our Klondike guide.
Which cards can you reach?
This is the heart of Turn 3. Number the 24 stock cards 1 to 24 from the top. If you never play anything from the waste, each pass shows you cards 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24: eight cards out of twenty-four. The other sixteen stay out of reach.
Every time you do play a waste card, the groups of three shift. Play card 3, and the next click turns cards 4, 5 and 6 as before, but on the following pass the stock is one card shorter, so a different set of cards lands on top. That is why experienced Turn 3 players say the stock "moves" when you play from it.
| Situation | What happens to the next pass |
|---|---|
| You play nothing from the waste | The same eight cards come up again, in the same order. Nothing new. |
| You play one waste card | Every later group of three shifts by one card. New cards reach the top. |
| You play two cards from one group | The groups shift by two. Again, a new set becomes reachable. |
| The stock has fewer than three cards left | The last click turns only what remains, which can expose a card that is normally buried. |
The practical lesson: a pass where you play nothing from the waste teaches you nothing new. If you are stuck, a single waste play, even a small one, can be the key that changes the whole stock.
Stock-cycling technique
Pass one: look, don't commit
On your first pass, make the tableau moves you are sure of, and treat the stock as a scouting trip. Note the reachable cards, especially Aces, 2s and Kings. You can always come back for them.
Play from the waste when it changes the stock usefully
A waste play is worth more than its face value because it shifts every later group. Before you take a waste card, ask two questions: does it help the tableau, and is there a card further down the stock I would rather bring to the top? If a card you need sits one place below a reachable card, playing that reachable card is exactly how you reach it.
Hold back when a card is better left where it is
Sometimes the card on top is useful now but would be more useful later, once a column is ready for it. Because the stock repeats, you can leave it and meet it again on the next pass, as long as you do not play anything else from the waste in between.
Keep the tableau moving
Uncovering face-down cards in the tableau is still the most valuable thing you can do in Klondike. A tableau move often creates a home for a waste card that was stuck, which in turn shifts the stock.
Count your passes
Our tests found that winning games at Turn 3 used 3.8 passes through the stock on average; at Turn 1 the figure was 2.3. If you are on your fifth or sixth pass with nothing changing, the position may be blocked: use Undo to go back to the last real choice and try the other road.
Walking through one pass
Suppose your first pass shows these top cards, in order: 9 of hearts, Ace of spades, 4 of clubs, Queen of diamonds, 7 of clubs, 2 of hearts, 10 of spades, King of clubs. On the tableau there is a black 10 and a red 3 showing.
- Click one: the 9 of hearts is on top. It fits on the black 10. Playing it is doubly good: it builds the tableau, and it shifts the stock by one card.
- Click two: because you played the 9, this group of three is not the one you saw on your scouting pass. Look again rather than assuming.
- When the Ace of spades appears, play it straight up. Aces never need to wait.
- The 4 of clubs could go on the red 5 if one appears, and the 2 of hearts could follow an Ace of hearts. If neither is ready yet, leave them for the next pass.
- The King of clubs is only worth taking when you have an empty column, or when you are about to create one. Until then it is safer in the stock.
- End of pass: you played two waste cards, so the next pass will show a fresh set of reachable cards. Repeat the scan.
The pattern to remember is simple: every waste play you make reshuffles what the next pass can reach. Use that on purpose.
Is Turn 3 worth it?
Turn 3 is harder, and our study measured how much. A simple computer player that never looks ahead won 10.6% of 10,000 Turn 3 deals (95% range 10.0–11.2%), compared with 42.3% at Turn 1. A solver that could see every card still proved 9.5% of 1,000 Turn 3 deals impossible. The full breakdown, and how those numbers were measured, is on the Turn 3 odds page. The good news: most of the difference is technique, and technique is what this page is for.
Playing Turn 3 here
This version is free, with nothing to download, install or sign up for. It runs in any modern browser on a computer, tablet or phone, with large cards and a zoom control. Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart and Auto Play are always available, and you can drag cards or simply tap. Your wins, time and moves are tracked for the current game, and you can switch off the sound, go fullscreen or change the table colour. The switch on the game takes you back to Turn 1 Klondike at any time.
How we checked this playbook, step by step
The free-solitaire.nz team wrote this page in September 2026 and checked it against the game as it actually runs on this site.
- Rules from the code. This page runs the game named
klondike-3. The three-card turn, the top-card-only waste and the unlimited redeals are taken from that code. - Same game as our Turn 3 odds page. We compared this page with /solitaire-draw-3: same game name, same script, same rules. Only the Turn 1/Turn 3 switch points somewhere different. So the figures from that page apply here.
- The reachability rule (cards 3, 6, 9 and so on) follows directly from turning three cards from a 24-card stock and is true of any Turn 3 Klondike.
- The three figures on this page come from our simulations, unrounded: 10.6% and 3.8 passes from a computer player that sees only what you see, and 9.5% impossible from a solver that sees every card.
The technical side
The simulations behind those figures are Python 3.11 programs using only the standard library. Klondike is modelled in klondike.py; at Turn 3 the computer player may only use the top card of each group of three, exactly as you can. A shared runner hands deals out to parallel worker processes, every deal comes from a numbered seed so it can be replayed, and the 95% ranges are Wilson score intervals. We used an AI assistant (Claude, from Anthropic) to help write and check the code and to draft this playbook. None of the numbers came from the AI: they come from running the programs, and we compared them with published research before publishing.
By Admin, free-solitaire.nz. Checked: 19 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Why are two of the three waste cards out of reach?
That is the rule that defines Turn 3. The two cards underneath become available one at a time as you play the card above them.
Will the stock show me the same cards next time round?
Not by itself. It only changes because you played cards from the waste, which shifts every later group of three.
Should I always take a card from the waste when I can?
No. Take it when it helps the tableau or brings a card you need within reach. Otherwise leaving it keeps the next pass predictable.
How many laps of the stock am I allowed?
No, redeals are unlimited on this site.
What should I play to practise?
Try Turn 1 Klondike to build tableau habits first, or Golf, which is all about reading a stock.