LABYRINTH

  1. DIFFICULTY: high
  2. TIME LENGTH: medium
  3. DECKS: 1

The game is well named, because it’s not easy to find your way out of this maze. Luck is a prominent feature, but this does not detract from the thrill of actually winning a game of Labyrinth, where the odds of winning are 1 in every 30 hands.

image 6 HOW TO DEAL Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and remove all aces. Place these face up in a row (these are your foundations) and deal a row of eight cards, face up, below the foundations. This is your first tableau row.

image 6 WINNING Build four foundations by suit in ascending rank from ace to king.

image 6 HOW TO PLAY Play cards from the top tableau row directly to the foundations. Throughout the game, whenever a card from the top tableau row is played, replace it with a card from the stock.

When your moves are exhausted, deal a second tableau row of eight cards. If you play cards from this row to the foundations, do not replace them with a stock card; the vacancies must remain.

When your moves once again are exhausted, deal a third tableau row of eight cards. From this point on, only cards in the top and bottom tableau rows may be moved to the foundations. In the example below, after dealing a fourth tableau row, you may play any card from Row 1 or Row 4 to the foundations, as well as 10 of clubs or A of diamonds, since they are at the bottom of their respective columns. Gaps in all rows (except the first) must remain vacant throughout the game.

Tableau Row 1: A of hearts 5 of clubs 7 of diamonds 10 of spades 10 of diamonds 6 of clubs Q of hearts 2 of spades Tableau

Row 2: K of diamonds—9 of spades Q of clubs A of diamonds 7 of spades 4 of diamonds 8 of clubs

Tableau Row 3:—J of diamonds 10 of clubs 8 of diamonds—2 of diamonds 6 of spades 4 of clubs

Tableau Row 4: 9 of diamonds K of hearts—9 of diamonds—3 of spades 10 of hearts 2 of clubs

There is no redeal; the game ends once the stock is exhausted.