House in the Woods

For other uses, see House in the Woods (disambiguation).

House in the Woods

A Patience game
Named variants	House on the Hill
Family	Fan
Deck	Double 52-card
See also Glossary of solitaire

House in the Woods (a.k.a. House in the Wood) is a Patience game which uses two decks of 52 playing cards each. The game is basically a two-deck version of La Belle Lucie, but it borrows two things from its cousin Shamrocks. The object of the game is to place all the cards into eight foundations.

Rules

The cards are dealt in sets of three, resulting in 34 piles, with two cards left over as a thirty-fifth. The top card of each pile is available for play.

The cards on the tableau are built either up or down by suit; the player can have the cards go both directions at the same pile. However, an ace cannot be placed on a king and vice versa; an ace should be transferred to the foundations. Furthermore, when a pile becomes empty, it cannot be filled. All eight foundations are built up in suit starting from aces.

The game is won when all 104 cards end up in the foundations.

House in the Woods can be won nine times out of ten, provided that the player has not made any mistakes.

As already mentioned, it is basically a two-deck version of La Belle Lucie. But the two things that make this game also similar to Shamrocks is the building the cards up or down and the fact that there are no redeals.

Variants

• House on the Hill is another Patience game using two decks. It is played with the same rules as those of House in the Woods except that while the aces, one of each suit, must occupy four of the eight foundations, the kings, also one of each suit, must occupy the other four. The aces are built up by suit up to kings, the kings are built down by suit to aces.