Seven Steps

About Seven Steps Solitaire

by Thomas Warfield

Screen shot of the game Seven Devils from Pretty Good Solitaire.

Seven Steps is a Canfield type game. It is a cross between the games Seven Devils and Steps. Seven Devils is an extremely difficult game, Seven Steps makes rules changes that give the player a fighting chance to win.

Seven Steps is a two deck game. The cards are dealt out in 7 tableau piles in Klondike fashion, with one card in the first pile, two cards in the second, and so on. Only the top card is face up. Seven cards are dealt face up to a reserve pile. These cards are the seven steps. All of the cards are available for play, but only on the foundations or an empty tableau pile.

How to Play

The remainder of the cards form a stock, which is turned over one card at a time to a waste pile. There is no redeal.

Building in the tableau is down by alternate color. Any card or legal group of cards can be played in an empty tableau pile.

Play is straightforward but the game is difficult to win. But there are few tricks you can do to increase your chances. The main thing to notice is how valuable an empty tableau pile is. Try to create an empty tableau pile as soon as possible.

An empty tableau pile can be used to play a card from the reserve to the tableau. You can only play a card from the reserve to an empty tableau pile, never on another card in the tableau. But if you have an empty tableau pile available, you can use it to play the card to the empty tableau pile, then move the card onto another card in the tableau, which leaves the pile empty again.

This is a great way to get cards out of the reserve into play. It is a good idea to keep a tableau pile empty unless you absolutely need to put a card in it or if the reserve is empty.

Seven Steps is one of the 850 games in Pretty Good Solitaire.

Variations of Seven Steps