Gate is a

patience or card solitaire Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are inte ...

game played using a pack of 52 playing cards, and is a member of the Canfield family. It gets its name because the cards are laid out in such a way that they form a

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

. Average players can expect to win 99% of their games.

Rules

First, two columns of five cards are

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face up. These act as the reserve or "gate posts." Then, between these columns, two rows of four cards are dealt, again face-up. These compose the "rails" or the

tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled ''Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * ''Tableau viv ...

. The

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for the

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are allotted over the first row of cards. The object of the game, as in many patience or solitaire games, is to find the aces, place then onto the foundations, and

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each of them up by suit to kings. The cards in the rails are

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for play, to be placed on the foundations or onto other cards in the rail. The cards in the rails are

built down Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in de ...

by alternating colour (a card with a red suit over a one with a black suit, and vice versa).

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in the rails are filled using cards from the gate posts. If the cards in the gate posts are used up, the top card of the wastepile, or the next card in the

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 ...

if there is no wastepile, can be used to fill spaces. The gate posts are never replenished. Generally, one card can be moved at a time, and the most prevalent rule regarding moves of sequences is that these can be moved as a whole. The

can be dealt one card at a time to a wastepile. The top card of which is available for play, either to be placed in on the foundations or on the rails, or to fill a gap on the rails. However, once the stock runs out, there are no redeals. The game ends soon after the stock runs out. The patience is

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when all cards are played to the foundations.

Variants

Several variant ways of playing Gate Solitaire exist, including rules about which cards can be moved, and whether a redeal can be added. One common rule-set disallows moving sequences of cards, effectively making the game harder.Marks and Harrod, ''Card Games Made Easy''. )

Rules

Variants

References

See also