5 Smart Moves to Improve Your Josephine Solitaire Game

1. Read all ten available cards before you move

The bottom card of every pile is available, which means you always have ten options plus the waste. Players who lose in Josephine usually lose because they took the first legal move they saw. Scan the whole row, note every same-suit pair, and play the moves that cost you nothing first.

2. Prefer moves that shorten a pile

A move that takes a card off a four-card pile is worth more than the same move onto a long pile, because it brings you closer to an empty space. When two moves look equal, take the one that reduces the shortest pile.

3. Keep a low card in reserve

Once a 2 goes to a foundation it can never come back to help you. Hold on to one or two low cards in the tableau while there are still awkward mid-rank cards to place, and send them home when the pressure is off.

4. Consolidate before you deal

Merging a same-suit run onto the next card up is free and it often reveals a card underneath. Do every available consolidation before you turn a stock card, then look at the board again — the new arrangement frequently opens a move you could not see before.

5. Treat the stock as a countdown

Sixty-four cards, one pass, no redeal. Turning a card when the tableau still has work left is the most common way to throw away a winnable deal. Turn one card, act on it if you can, and go straight back to the tableau.