Aces Up

Aces Up (also known as Idiot's Delight) is a solitaire card game using a deck of 52 playing cards. One advantage this game has is the minimal use of space; one can even play this game over a toilet seat cover.

Game starts with four cards dealt in a tableau. Then the player searches for two or more cards with the same suit. If two cards of the same suits are found, only the lower card is discarded and the higher one retained. If three or four cards of the same suit are found, all are discarded except the highest one. Aces are considered high in this game and only the top card of each of the four piles are in play.

Example: 5♥, 7♠, 8♥, 10♣. 5♥ is removed because it is lower than 8♥.

Any empty piles are filled from any top card of the other three piles. However, if there are three cards currently in play, gaps are filled with cards from the wastepile, or if empty, from the stock.

If none of the cards have the same suit, a new cards is dealt onto each pile. The removal of lower cards from the same suit and addition of new cards continue until the stock runs out.

The game is won when all four aces remain in the tableau with all other cards discarded. The game is lost however when there are still cards on the tableau other than the four aces.