Martha is a patience or

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 that is played with a deck of 52

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

s. It has a novelty of having half of the cards in the tableau faced down.

Rules

First, the aces are removed from the deck and set up as the bases for the foundations. Then, the rest of the deck is dealt into 12 columns of four overlapping cards each, with the top card and the third card from the top faced up and the bottom card and second card from the top faced down. To make this easier, here is a simple illustration of a column:

D
U
D
U<--- top card

The top cards of the columns are available for play, to be built on either the foundations or on other columns in the tableau. The foundations are built up by suit to Kings, while the cards on the tableau are built down in alternating colors. One card can be moved at a time, but sequences that are already built can be moved, in part or in whole, as unit. But when a gap occurs, it can be filled only with a single card. The game is won when all cards end up in the foundations.

References

* Arnold, Peter. ''Card Games for One.'' London: Hamlyn, 2002 () p. 50 * Marks, Arnold & Harrod, Jacqueline. ''Card Games Made Easy.'' Surrey, England: Clarion, 1997 () p. 283 {{Solitaire Half-open packers Single-deck patience card games

Rules

See also

References