Somerset Solitaire is a fully open single-deck patience. All 52 cards are dealt face up into ten tableau piles before your first move, so nothing is hidden and nothing is drawn: there is no stock, no waste pile, and no redeal. What you see at the deal is the whole puzzle.
Objective: Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, building each suit up from Ace to King.
Somerset looks like open Klondike but plays much tougher. The three eight-deep piles bury nearly half the deck, single-card moves make rearranging slow, and there is no draw pile to bring relief. Many deals cannot be won no matter how well you play, so a loss is often the deal's fault, not yours - the honest response is a fresh deal. Winning one is a genuine achievement.
Somerset is the stricter member of a small family. Usk deals the same layout but builds regardless of suit and allows one redeal; Somerset builds in alternating colors and gives you a single attempt. If you enjoy Somerset's open information but want more mobility, FreeCell offers a similar feel with dedicated free cells.
Deal Somerset Solitaire and see the whole battle before the first move!
No. All 52 cards are dealt face up to the tableau at the start. There is no stock to draw from, no waste pile, and no redeal - every move happens between the tableau piles and the foundations.
No. Somerset is strictly one card at a time. Even a perfect red-black run must be moved card by card, which is a big part of the game's difficulty.
Any single available card. Unlike Klondike, empty spaces are not reserved for Kings, which makes them powerful maneuvering tools - treat them like free cells.
Both build down in alternating colors, but Somerset deals the whole deck face up into ten piles, has no stock or waste, moves only one card at a time, and lets any card fill a space. Klondike hides cards, draws from a stock, moves sequences, and restricts spaces to Kings.
No. Many deals are impossible from the start - the deep eight-card piles and the single-card-move rule can lock critical cards away permanently. If a deal dead-ends, the game tells you; starting a fresh deal is the normal rhythm of Somerset.