Open Peek

About Open Peek Solitaire

by Thomas Warfield

Screen shot of the game Open Peek from Pretty Good Solitaire.

Open Peek is a new, original variation of the games Osmosis and Peek.

How to Play

At the start of the game, one card is dealt face up to the first of four foundation piles. The remaining cards are dealt to 12 reserve piles, four cards each to four piles to the left of the foundations, and five cards each to three piles on the right of the foundations, and four cards each to five more piles on the right. All cards are deal face up so that Open Peek is an open, all cards visible game.

There is one complication about the original deal. If any card of the same rank as the first card dealt to the first foundation pile is dealt to any reserve pile below a card of the same suit, then that card is moved to the top of that pile. This is important because it keeps these cards from being buried where you can never get to them.

Play is entirely playing cards to the foundations. The top card of each reserve pile is available. On the first foundation pile, you can play any card of the same suit as the first card that was played to that pile. For example, if the first card played to the first foundation pile is the 5 of clubs, you can play any other club to the first foundation pile.

After that, you can start the other foundation piles by playing another card of the same rank as that first card dealt. So in this case, you could play a 5 of any other suit to the second foundation pile. Then to that pile you can play any card of that suit where a card of the same rank has already been played to the foundation pile immediately above it.

This is exactly the way the games Osmosis and Peek are played. It sounds complicated when explained out in words, but it is actually quite simple to play.

The objective is to play all of the cards to the foundation piles.

In Open Peek, this is extremely difficult. While Osmosis and Peek are actually quite easy games to win, Open Peek is very, very hard. You almost always get stuck at some point with a card that you need buried where you cannot get it.

Players on the forum are already attempting to find winnable game numbers.

Variations of Open Peek