Troika is a fan game turned sideways. The four aces start on the foundations and the other forty-eight cards are dealt in sixteen fans of three, all face up. Only the top card of a fan is in play, and it may be moved onto a card of the same rank — a seven onto a seven — but a fan may never hold more than three cards, and an empty fan takes nothing. Foundations build up in suit from the ace. The whole game is about gathering matching ranks to free the card underneath, with almost no room to do it in.
Every move is a trade of one card for one. A card can only go onto its own rank, and the fan it goes to fills up. Before you move a seven onto a seven, ask what the card beneath the moved seven does for you: if it does not free a two, a three or a card another fan needs, the move has spent a slot for nothing.
Full fans are walls. Three cards is the cap, so a fan of three matching ranks cannot take a fourth, and a fan that has reached three of anything is closed until it plays down. Keep fans short; move onto a fan only when you need what it will uncover.
Play the twos and threes the moment they show. With the aces up, the low cards bank at once and open a fan without spending a move elsewhere. Chase the lowest rank still missing from each foundation.
An empty fan is gone for good. Nothing may enter one. Empty a fan only by banking its cards, and never plan on refilling it.
The fan family deals the whole pack into small face-up fans and plays from their tops; La Belle Lucie builds down in suit, Shamrocks up or down in any suit with a cap of three. Troika keeps Shamrocks' cap and changes the build to equal rank, which turns the family's usual sequencing into a matching problem. Quads relaxes it to fans of four with open spaces; School removes the cap and adds two redeals.
Troika runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer and it works offline. You get unlimited undo, a hint button that names a legal move, statistics that track your wins and times, and seeded deals: every game has a seed you can replay, so a board you enjoyed (or lost) can be played again exactly.