Play Elevens Too — Elevens With the Talon Held Back

Elevens Too is Elevens with one rule changed, and the change is felt on every move. The board, the talon, the sum of eleven and the three slots for the jack, queen and king are all identical. What differs is when the talon acts. In Elevens an emptied pile refills straight away. Here the talon waits: the moment a court card goes to a slot, no pile refills at all, and the board shrinks from nine cards to eight, to seven, until the set is complete. Then every empty pile fills at once. Clear all fifty-two cards to win. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Elevens Too?

Goal: remove all 52 cards on a board that shrinks whenever a court card is parked.

Setup

• Board: 9 cards face-up as 9 piles of one, laid out in a three-by-three square.
• Talon: the remaining 43 cards, face-down beside the board.
• Reserve: three slots below the board, for the jack, the queen and the king.
• No foundations and no building. Cards only ever leave the game; nothing is stacked on anything.

Rules

• Card values are ace 1, pip cards their face value, jack 11, queen 12, king 13.
• Click two exposed cards whose values add up to eleven to remove them both: A+10, 2+9, 3+8, 4+7 and 5+6.
• A jack, a queen or a king cannot pair. One click sends it to a free slot; the slots hold one of each rank.
• The talon waits. While any slot holds a card, no emptied pile refills — not from a pair either.
• When the third slot is filled, the set leaves the game and every empty pile refills together.
• Suits and colours are ignored. Only the value counts.
• You win when the talon, the board and the slots are all empty. You lose when no pair and no slot move is left.

What's the Best Elevens Too Strategy?

• Do not park a court card you cannot follow up. This is the whole game. Parking a lone jack freezes the talon, and if the queen and king are not already on the board, they can never arrive. Wait until you can see the rest of the set.
• Treat a visible jack, queen and king as an emergency. When all three are showing, take them at once. The set clears, the talon unlocks, and three fresh cards come down together.
• Play the pairs while the board is full. Nine cards give far more pairing chances than seven. Any pair you can take before the talon locks is worth more than the same pair afterwards.
• Remember that pairs freeze the board too. While a slot is occupied, a pair you take leaves two empty piles that stay empty. The board can drop very fast if you keep playing during a lock.
• Accept a stall over a freeze. A court card left on its pile blocks one pile. A court card parked with no partners in sight blocks all nine.

A Short History

Elevens Too is registered in the open-source PySolFC collection as a game in its own right, and the class that defines it overrides exactly one method of its parent: the one that decides when the talon may refill a pile. It is a small change on paper and a large one at the table. In Elevens the reserve is a convenience — a place to put cards that cannot pair — and the board is always nine cards wide. Here the reserve is a commitment. Parking a jack stops the flow of new cards entirely, so the decision of when to start a set becomes the central judgement of the game, and the middle of every set is played on a board that is steadily getting smaller. Both games are rated luck by the source, but Elevens Too punishes a careless first move in a way its parent never does. The two are worth playing back to back to feel how much a single line of rules can carry.

About This Version

This Elevens Too runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day.

Other Solitaire Games to Try

• Elevens — the same board, but the talon never waits
• Nines — pairs to nine, a solo nine, and four slots
• Tens — pairs to ten, and a reserve that wants four of a kind
• Thirteens — pairs to thirteen on a row of ten piles