Alhambra is a
solitaire
Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...
card game which is played using two decks of
playing cards. Its unusual feature is akin to that of
Crazy Quilt: the cards in the reserve are built either on the foundations or on a waste pile.
Rules
One King and one Ace of each suit are separated from the decks to form the initial
foundation piles: the foundations starting with Aces are to be built upwards in suit, the Kings downwards. There are also eight
reserve piles dealt out with four face-up cards each. The remaining cards form the initial
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
.
The stock is dealt out one card at a time onto a
waste pile, where the top card is always available to be built onto the foundations. The top cards of the reserve piles are available to be built on the foundations, or onto the waste pile if they match the suit and are one rank higher or lower than the top card of the waste pile (wrapping between aces and kings is permitted). Building onto the reserve piles, or moving cards between them, is not permitted. Reserve piles that become exhausted are not refilled.
When the stock is exhausted, the waste pile (which by then usually includes some cards drawn from the reserve piles) is picked up and turned over (without shuffling) to become the new stock. This can be done a maximum of twice per game.
The game is over when all cards have been built onto the foundations (which constitutes a win), or when the stock has been exhausted for the third time.
Variants
Variants of Alhambra include The Reinforcements and Granada.
References
*
Alhambra Solitaire Rules" Solitaire Central News. Solitaire Central, n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.
*
Morehead, Albert H.
Albert Hodges Morehead, Jr. (August 7, 1909 – October 5, 1966) was a writer for ''The New York Times'', a bridge player, a lexicographer, and an author and editor of reference works.
Early years
Morehead was born in Flintstone, Taylor County, ...
&
Mott-Smith, Geoffrey. ''The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games''
*
Parlett, David. ''The Penguin Book of Patience''
See also
*
List of solitaires
This is a list of patiences, which are card games that are also referred to as solitaires or as card solitaire.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but only includes games that have met the usual Wikipedia requirements (e.g. notability). ...
*
Glossary of solitaire
{{Solitaire
Double-deck patience card games
Reserved packers