A card game you can immerse yourself in alone and lose track of time
Don’t you ever wish you had something easy to play when you’ve got a little free time, or when you want to get absorbed in something at your own pace? In this article, we’ll introduce solo card games that enrich those in-between moments using a deck of playing cards.
We’ve gathered a variety of ways to play: brain-teasing games, simple card fortune-telling, and even card tricks that test your dexterity.
Taking a short break from digital screens to enjoy analog play can be a great way to refresh yourself.
If any of these catch your interest, grab a deck of cards and give them a try!
- Single-player games: a roundup of time-killing games
- Recommended ways to kill time that you can do alone at home
- Types of playing cards and how to play
- [Fun For Solo Adults] How to Enjoy Your Time at Home
- A card game for two players
- So Addictive! A Collection of Solo Activities and Ideas to Make Your Free Time More Fun
- Cool playing card magic. Card tricks of various difficulty levels.
- Easy to play! A card game you and your kids can get hooked on together
- [Elementary School] Quick and Easy! Indoor Recreational Activities Perfect for Lower Grades
- [Easy] A Beginner’s Guide to Card Magic: Tricks Even Elementary School Kids Can Do Right Away
- [By Difficulty] Simple Card Magic Tricks Using Playing Cards
- [For Elementary School Students] Cipher Quiz: Fun Puzzle Riddles
- Simple card magic. Tricks you can do with self-working methods or a little sleight of hand.
[Solo Play] Trump Card Games You Can Get Lost In and Forget the Time (1–10)
Solitaire
When it comes to solitaire, many people have probably played it on a computer.
Solitaire is also known as “Klondike” and is a famous single-player card game.
Using all cards except the jokers, you lay out the tableau in a staircase: one card in the first pile, two in the next, then three, and so on up to seven piles.
Only the top card of each pile is face up.
You build cards on the tableau by alternating colors (red and black) and placing them in descending order from higher to lower ranks, flipping the top card of a pile face up whenever the card above it is moved.
When an Ace appears, move it to the foundation, and then stack cards of the same suit in ascending order on that Ace.
You win if you manage to move all the tableau cards to the foundations.
Trump Tower
Many of you probably tried this as a way to pass the time when you were kids.
As its name suggests, a card tower is a game where you stack playing cards to build a tower.
You place two cards together in an inverted V so they support each other, then place another pair beside it, and repeat.
Once the first level is complete, you lay cards across the top, then use that as the base to place another set of inverted V-shaped pairs, continuing the process.
With each added level, keeping the balance becomes harder, and it often collapses halfway through with a sigh…
Try building the tallest tower you’ve ever made!
Monte Carlo
This is a game called “Monte Carlo,” which is also played as a compatibility or love fortune-telling game.
Remove the jokers from a well-shuffled 52-card deck and lay out five cards in a row, then another five beneath them, forming five columns.
Among the laid-out cards, remove any cards that have the same rank aligned vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
When no more cards can be removed, compress the remaining cards in order to fill gaps, then deal more cards beneath them to maintain five columns.
If you clear all the cards on the table, you succeed.
For compatibility fortune-telling, the number of cards left at the end is used to judge how compatible you are.
[Solo Play] Card Games You Can Get Lost In for Hours (11–20)
golf
This is a solitaire-style card game called “Golf,” often played as a game of chance.
Remove the jokers and thoroughly shuffle the 52 cards.
Lay out 7 cards side by side, then build a tableau of 5 rows so that the cards overlap.
Place the remaining cards as a stock pile.
Flip the top card of the stock and place it next to the stock as your hand card.
You may play cards from the tableau that are exactly one rank higher or lower than your current hand card.
For example, if your hand card is a 5, look for a 4 or a 6 among the bottommost exposed cards on the tableau and place it on top of your hand card.
You can continue in this way, alternating up and down in rank as needed.
When you can no longer play from the tableau, flip the next card from the stock to become your new hand card, and repeat.
You succeed if you clear all the tableau cards.
Weekly fortune
A simple one-week fortune-telling anyone—even kids—can do.
Shuffle the deck well, excluding the jokers, and lay out seven cards in a row, then another seven cards beneath them.
The seven cards represent a week: you can arrange them from left to right as Monday, Tuesday, and so on, or, if today is Wednesday, start from Wednesday, Thursday, and so on.
If the patterns of the upper and lower cards match, that’s OK—interpret that day as your lucky day of the week.
Why not try it casually, just as a reference, for deciding which day to start something, and so on?
compatibility fortune-telling
It might be a good idea to try a compatibility reading with playing cards for someone you’re interested in.
Use a total of 21 cards: the Ace through 10 of Spades, the Ace through 10 of Hearts, and the Joker.
Shuffle well and lay them out in a pyramid with two cards at the top, then split the pyramid down the middle into left and right.
Assign the left side to Spades and the right side to Hearts.
Flip over the one remaining card, place it in its correct side, then take the card from that spot and repeat the process.
When the Joker appears, stop.
Judge your compatibility by the number and ratio of cards you revealed.
Card magic
How about learning some card magic for just-in-case moments? Magic only really shines when you have someone to perform for, but when you’re alone and have time, practice! If you search video sites, you’ll find tons of tricks—from simple ones even kids can do to those that make people say, “Huh? How did you do that? Do it again!” If you carry a deck of cards, you can perform anytime, so it never hurts to have a few tricks memorized.
The more you know, the better!