Klondike Draw 3 (also called Turn 3) is the classic challenge mode of solitaire—the version that made Microsoft Solitaire famous. Each click on the stock pile reveals three cards at once, but only the top card is playable. The other two cards beneath it stay locked until you cycle through the deck again, forcing you to think multiple moves ahead.
When you click the stock pile, three cards flip face-up to the waste. Only the topmost of these three is accessible. If you play it, the next card in the waste becomes available. If you can't play the top card, you must click the stock again—flipping three more cards and burying the ones you just saw. This creates a rhythm of patience and planning unlike any other solitaire variant.
Draw 3 is harder, but that's exactly why dedicated solitaire players prefer it. Winning a Draw 3 game requires genuine skill—memorizing which cards are coming up in the stock, thinking three or four moves ahead, and making hard sacrifices to unlock the cards you need. A well-executed Draw 3 win feels like solving a puzzle. The low win rate (~10-15%) makes victories genuinely rewarding in a way that Draw 1 can't match.
Solitaire Scramble's Draw 3 mode includes the full feature set: unlimited undo, move hints, smooth animations, and a crisp interface on any device. No artificial difficulty, no forced timers—just pure Draw 3 challenge the way it was meant to be played.
When Microsoft released Solitaire with Windows 3.0 in 1990, the default scoring mode was Draw 3 with a Vegas-style point system—you paid to play and earned points for each card moved to the foundation. This design was intentional: the game was supposed to teach users mouse skills, and the harder difficulty kept them practicing longer.
Draw 3 dominated the Windows Solitaire experience for over a decade. It's the variant that generations of office workers played on lunch breaks, and the version competitive solitaire players prefer to this day. Its difficulty is a feature, not a bug—and mastering it is one of the most satisfying challenges in all of casual gaming.
Race against friends in real-time or send asynchronous challenges. Same shuffled deck, fastest solver wins. Create a room and share the code to start competing!
Love Klondike Draw 3? Try these other solitaire variants on Solitaire Scramble:
Flip one card at a time. More control, higher win rate, great for learning.
Draw 1 with relaxed rules—any card can fill an empty column, not just Kings.
The hardest Spider variant. All four suits, expert-level challenge.
All cards visible from the start. Pure strategy with 4 free cells.
Klondike Draw 3 flips three cards at once from the stock pile. Only the top card of those three is playable. The other two remain buried until you cycle through the deck again, making the game significantly harder than Draw 1.
In Draw 3, two out of every three stock cards are temporarily inaccessible. You often must cycle through the deck multiple times before the right card becomes available, requiring far more strategic planning and patience.
Yes! The original Microsoft Solitaire included with Windows 3.1 defaulted to Draw 3 with Vegas-style scoring. Many players who grew up with Windows Solitaire consider Draw 3 to be the "real" version of the game.
With optimal play, approximately 10-15% of Draw 3 games are winnable. Many deals are theoretically unwinnable regardless of strategy. This makes wins feel genuinely earned and satisfying.
Count cards in the stock—track which cards are in positions 1, 4, 7, 10 (the playable positions on each pass). Prioritize moves that will unlock the cards you need on upcoming passes rather than just playing what's available now.
Yes, Solitaire Scramble shows the stock pile with a count indicator, so you always know roughly where you are in the deck. This helps you plan which passes will expose the cards you need.
Draw 3 is the standard harder variant. Relaxed Klondike uses Draw 1 but removes the King-only restriction for empty columns—any card can fill an empty tableau spot. Relaxed is generally easier than Draw 1, while Draw 3 is much harder.