Play East Haven Solitaire — Klondike Layout, Spider Deal

East Haven is a Klondike variant with a Spider-style stock. Seven columns of three cards each (top face-up), four foundations from Ace to King, and a stock that deals one card to every column when clicked — instead of one card to the waste like Klondike. The result is a tighter game than Klondike: each stock deal commits seven cards at once, so you can't cherry-pick. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play East Haven?

Goal: build all four foundations from Ace to King by suit.

Setup

• Tableau: seven columns of three cards each (21 cards). The top card of each column is face-up; the two below are face-down.
• Stock: the remaining 31 cards face-down. Click to deal one card to each column.
• Foundations: four empty piles, top right. Build up by suit, Ace to King.

Rules

• Build tableau columns down by alternating color. A black 9 goes on a red 10.
• Move properly ordered alternating-color sequences as a single block.
• Any card can fill an empty tableau column. (Unlike Klondike, no King requirement.)
• Click the stock to deal one card face-up to each of the seven columns. The stock won't deal if any column is empty — fill all columns first.
• Foundations build up by suit, Ace to King.

East Haven vs Klondike

Same alternating-color building, different stock and column-fill rules.

The Spider-style deal is the headline change. In Klondike you flip one card and decide; in East Haven you commit seven new top-of-column cards at once. The any-card empty-column rule helps offset that, but the stock still requires more planning.

What's the Best East Haven Strategy?

• Plan around the deal. Each stock deal puts seven new cards on top of your columns at once. Before clicking, look for moves that would leave the new cards in useful positions.
• Empty columns are valuable — but strategic. The stock won't deal if any column is empty, so fill them before clicking. You can use that as a brake when you want to delay the deal.
• Expose face-down cards before drawing. Each face-down card flipped is information you didn't have. Once the stock deals, your options shrink.
• Build long sequences. Group moves are your main tool against the constraint that each stock deal commits seven cards. Long alternating-color blocks let you re-arrange with one move.
• Send Aces and 2s up immediately. They free cards above and start your foundations.
• Time your last deals. The stock deals four times in our version. After the last deal you play with what's on the table — make the early deals count.

A Short History

East Haven appears in mid-20th-century patience anthologies as a hybrid of Klondike and Spider — borrowing Klondike's foundation goal and alternating-color building with Spider's all-columns deal mechanic. The variant has remained niche in print but is included in most modern multi-game digital collections. Microsoft has not made East Haven a headline solitaire.

About This Version

This East Haven runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day so you can compare times.

Other Solitaire Games to Try

• Klondike — the seven-column classic with one-card stock draws
• Spider — two decks, ten columns, the all-columns deal mechanic
• Spiderette — Spider with a single deck on seven columns
• Yukon — seven columns, all face-up, lift-anything moves