Five Ways to Tell You Have Too Many Decks--The story of Solitaire

Five Ways to Tell You Have Too Many Decks

There’s nothing quite like opening a fresh deck of playing cards. Or setting aside a few unopened decks just in case. Or lots of unopened decks just in case. Or having so many unopened decks that you’re starting a collection. A collection that begins in a spare drawer, then slowly finds its way onto your desk, then begins building along the kitchen table—wait. Do you have too many decks? Is that even possible? Read this list to find out if you’re in the clear, or part of the problem. You may have too many decks if. . .

1. You have nowhere to put them. When your collection gets so vast that it outgrows your display cases, Drawer-O-Cards, glass cabinets, or secret underground vault, it’s time to either downsize or re-organize. Either give away a few decks, or take the time—this weekend, even—to upgrade your display method so that you can actually give your cards some TLC. Otherwise, they’re just sitting around, unplayed and undisplayed. At that point, they’re just clutter, and. . .

2. You don’t use them. Maybe they’re all sitting out, waiting to be put in a display case. Maybe you only have four or five decks. . . but three have sat unopened for ages. If you’re into using your cards rather than displaying them, and you have unopened decks gathering dust, you have too many.

3. You forget which ones you have. If they’re on display in a prominent location or sealed in the underground vault you visit every day, it’s unlikely you’ll forget about your decks. But if you have so many that, when you occasionally rummage through, you think, Oh! I forgot I had this guy. Whoa. Congratulations, you have too many decks.

4. You have like eight kinds of the same one. Five, six, seven, eight or more of the same kind of deck is a lot of decks. What are they doing, besides gathering dust? Are you going to make an art installation with the extra cards? Carefully paper maché them into an elaborate King of Clubs crown you can wear on poker nights? If they aren’t already being used, there are too many. It’s time to downsize.

5. Kidding! There’s no such thing. Seriously. Who has too many decks? “Too many” is so limiting. So restrictive. Who cares how many decks you have, as long as they’re neatly displayed or put away? You’re carefully curating a collection, not gathering useless paper scraps. Sheesh.

In all honesty, if you’d like to downsize your deck collection, there are plenty of ways to go about it. Start by giving them to friends and family; many non-card-enthusiasts may never see a design that isn’t the Standard rider back. If your stash continues to overflow, consider giving decks to local shelters or thrift stores. Finally, if you’d like to sell some of your vintage sets, eBay is still a great option.

How do you display your collection, and what do you do with the overflow? Tell us in the Comments section.

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solitaire

Have some way when you play the game

On line two (and also throughout the chart) I use the phrase "frees a downcard". The Solitaire board initially has seven upcards (face-up) on top of seven increasingly bigger stacks of downcards (face-down) for a total of 28 board cards (7 upcards, 21 downcards). When you free a downcard you are making a play or transfer that allows one of these downcards to be turned face-up, therefore putting it into play. As you can see in the Solitaire strategy guide on almost every strategy line, freeing downcards is one of the most important tools in solving the game. If you cannot do so on a consistent basis, your chances for success will be greatly decreased. Free those downcards at any cost!

      Line three also extends this logical concept with the addition that if faced with a choice you should free the downcard from the biggest pile of downcards possible. This should make sense to you immediately. If freeing downcards is so important, wouldn't it be your goal to dig into the pile that has the most of them if you can? It better be now! With these simple but highly effective strategy concepts, you now have an excellent grasp of the game and how to defeat it. But let's continue on to discover some of the finer points of this strategy guide that will help you defeat this increasingly not-so-difficult game for one and bring the win home.

      An interesting term I have used in Klondike solitaire turn one strategy line seven on the chart is Next Card Protection. What this means is that whenever you are building your Ace stacks (playing an Ace above the Solitaire board and then proceeding to play additional cards onto it), you may sometimes be able to play many more cards to one particular stack instead of another. For example, say you have the opportunity to play the 4 of spades to the Spades Ace stack. Before you do, you consult the Solitaire strategy chart and find line seven. The first item advises against playing a card to an Ace stack unless it will preserve the Next Card Protection. This means that unless there is a spot on the board for the next lowest cardbelow the potential Ace stack card, you should not play the card to its Ace stack. In this case there must be either another black four (the 4 of clubs) on the board, both red threes already played to their Ace stacks, or both red threes already played to the board. In all of these instances, you have protected the next card below the 4 of Spades because if a red three comes up you have ensured that it will be able to be played (you've left a "spot" open for them). This is the concept of Next Card Protection.

      It is particularly of importance to maintain Deuce Protection. This would mean that you should delay the playing of a Three to an Ace stack in order to keep the availability of a spot for a Deuce to be played to unless both the applicable Deuces had already been played or were being protected due to the other Three being available on the Board. Protect you Deuces or you'll be kicking yourself later!

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