Cached Cards

Rules ready for game night, even when the Wi-Fi isn't.

Players
Tags

Kings in the Corner

Solitaire-style layout game where you empty your hand onto shared piles.

2-6 playersEasyStandard 52-card
sheddingkids

Kings in the Corner plays like a solitaire layout that everyone shares. You build descending, colour-alternating piles in the middle, and only a king can open one of the four corner spaces. It is calm, quick to teach, and works well across a range of ages. A round takes about 10 minutes.

What You Need

  • Players: 2-6. Four is ideal.
  • Deck: One standard 52-card deck. Aces are low.
  • Extras: Pen and paper if you are scoring, or counters if you play for chips.

Key Terms

  • Foundation piles: The four face-up piles laid out around the stock, at north, east, south, and west.
  • Corners: The four diagonal spaces (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest). Only kings may start a pile there.
  • Alternating colours: Red on black, black on red - hearts and diamonds are red, clubs and spades are black.
  • Stock: The face-down draw pile in the centre.

Setup

  1. Deal 7 cards to each player.
  2. Place the rest face down in the middle as the stock.
  3. Turn 4 cards face up from the stock and place one on each side of it - above, below, left, and right. These are your starting foundation piles.
  4. Leave the four diagonal corner spaces empty.

How to Play

Play passes clockwise, starting to the dealer's left. On your turn you may make as many moves as you like, then must draw one card to finish.

Legal moves:

  1. Play a card from your hand onto any foundation pile, if it is one rank lower and the opposite colour to that pile's top card. A red 10 goes onto a black jack.
  2. Start a corner pile by playing a king from your hand into any empty corner space. Kings can go nowhere else.
  3. Move a whole pile onto another one, if the moving pile's bottom card fits the receiving pile's top card by rank and colour. This is the move new players forget, and it opens up the space the pile came from.
  4. Fill an empty side space with any card from your hand.
  5. Draw one card from the stock. This ends your turn.

You may play as many cards as you can arrange in a single turn - a good turn can empty half your hand.

Scoring & Winning

  • The first player to get rid of all their cards wins the round and scores nothing, which is the goal.
  • Everyone else counts penalty points for the cards left in their hand: 10 for each king and 1 for every other card.
  • Play rounds until someone reaches an agreed total, usually 25 or 50 points. The player with the lowest score at that point wins.

Example

The north pile shows a black jack. You play your red 10 onto it, then your black 9 onto that, then move the entire east pile - which starts with a red 8 - on top of your 9. That frees the east space, which you fill with a card from your hand.

Variations

  • Deal 5 instead of 7 for a faster round with more players.
  • Play for chips: everyone antes one chip per round, the winner takes the pot, and losers pay a chip per king left in hand.
  • Aces high: allow aces to be played on 2s as well as under them.

Tips for New Players

  • Look for pile moves before you play from your hand. Moving a whole pile costs you nothing and frees a space.
  • Hold a king back if the corners are already full - a king in hand is 10 penalty points, but it is also the only card that can open a corner later.
  • Since drawing ends your turn, make every move you possibly can first.