King Albert (solitaire)
Encyclopedia
King Albert is a solitaire
Solitaire
Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself or with other people. The solitaire card game Klondike is often known as simply Solitaire....

 card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

 using a deck of 52 playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...

s. It is said to be named after King Albert of Belgium the first
Albert I of Belgium
Albert I reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 until 1934.-Early life:Born Albert Léopold Clément Marie Meinrad in Brussels, he was the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and his wife, Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen...

. It is the best known of the three games that are each called Idiot's Delight because of the low chance of winning the game (the other two are Aces Up
Aces Up
Aces Up is a solitaire card game using a deck of 52 playing cards...

 and Perpetual Motion
Perpetual Motion (solitaire)
Perpetual Motion is a Patience game which has the object of discarding playing cards from the tableau. It is also called Idiot's Delight because of the time-consuming process of the game.-Rules:...

).

Rules

The aim of the game, like many solitaire games, is to release the aces to the foundations and build each of them up by suit to Kings.

First, the cards are dealt into nine columns in such a way that the first column contains nine cards, the second having eight cards, the third seven, and so on until the ninth column has a single card. The seven left over cards form the reserve, sometimes known as "the Belgian Reserve."

Building on the tableau is down by alternating colors and only one card can be moved at a time. Only the top card of each column and all cards in the reserve are available for play. Furthermore, an empty column can be filled with any available card.

Once an ace is released, it can be built upon immediately.

The game is won when all cards end up in the foundations. Achieving this is difficult as only one in ten games can be won, hence the alternate name of Idiot's Delight.
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