Solitaire card games you can play alone [single-player]
If you’re bored with nothing to do on your own, don’t you have a deck of playing cards in your room?
Playing cards often have the image of being a party game you play boisterously with a crowd, but this time, let’s try playing with cards by yourself!
We’re introducing plenty of solo-friendly games—from classic single-player staples to fortune-telling-style activities and even options that don’t rely on the numbers at all.
You might just find yourself hooked on solo card play…!
Even when it’s called “fortune-telling,” many of these can be enjoyed like simple matching or number-based games.
Give them a try!
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- [By Difficulty] Simple Card Magic Tricks Using Playing Cards
- Simple card magic. Tricks you can do with self-working methods or a little sleight of hand.
Solitaire Card Games You Can Play Alone (1–10)
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.
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?
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.
Solitaire Card Games You Can Play Alone (11–20)
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.
Erase the playing cards
A party trick you can do with just one playing card: a one-shot gag where you “make the card you’re holding disappear.” You hold an ordinary, ungimmicked card, and in an instant it vanishes… then reappears.
The method is very simple: you pinch the card with your index finger and pinky, and flip your middle and ring fingers, which are placed on the back of the card, around to hold it against the back of your hand.
The key is to subtly shake your hand so the small details aren’t visible and it looks natural.
Card throwing
It’s not a card game; it’s a way to use playing cards as a prop and throw them for fun.
If you learn it as a kind of party trick, you can do it anywhere as long as there are cards—it’s a cool skill to have! While there’s a method that uses a wrist snap, this one relies on finger strength, letting you throw the card stylishly with minimal hand movement.
You hold the card pinched between your thumb and index finger, then flick it with your middle finger placed along the side to launch it.
It has more power than you’d expect, and the card flies in a very cool way.
Monte Cristo
A love fortune-telling game for women using playing cards: Monte Cristo.
First, think of one man you like.
Take the 5 and 6 cards from each suit and arrange them in a diamond shape.
The remaining cards form the deck; flip them over one by one.
If the card you flip is a 4, place it on the 5 of the same suit; if it’s a 7, place it on the 6 of the same suit.
In this way, stack cards from 4 up to Ace on top of the 5, and stack cards from 7 up to Queen on top of the 6.
Place Kings in the center of the arranged cards.
If a drawn card can’t be placed, discard it face up.
You may also use the top card of the discard pile when it becomes playable.
Repeat this process until you run out of cards in hand; then take the discard pile as your new hand and continue the same procedure.
If you can arrange all the cards in the first cycle, your compatibility is excellent; in the second cycle, it’s average; in the third cycle or more, it’s poor.
