How to Play Royal Families Solitaire

Viewing videos requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Get the latest Flash player.
Showing 1-5

Part of the video series: How to Play the Different Styles of Solitaire

Summary: Learn how to play different types of solitaire, including royal families solitaire, in this free video series that will teach you many of the popular styles of solitaire.

Views: 358 | Tags: rules, cards, deck, playing, games, clubs, shuffling, spades, diamonds, hearts, pinochle


About the Expert

Antonia Hoyland Antonia Hoyland is a card game aficionado who has been playing solitaire games since she was a toddler. An expert on dozens of games, with knowledge of about ... read more

Conversations About This Video

  • Comments
    (0 comments)
  • Questions & Answers
    (0 questions) (0 answers)
Be the first to comment on this video.
Have a question about this video topic? Ask our community members and let them share their knowledge with you!
Ask A Question

Video Transcript

How to Play Royal Families Solitaire

Hi, this is Antonia Hoyland, on behalf of Expert Village. This game is called Royal Families. This game takes a standard deck, 52 cards, no jokers. Pull out the aces and the 2s. These are going to form your eight foundation piles. Yup, eight foundation piles. Lay them out as you see here, with the aces on the outside of your diamond, and the 2s on the inside. The 2s should be perpendicular to the aces, sort of forming a T-like shape, depending on how you look at it. Although it looks a little bit like a square or a diamond now, it's actually going to form an X, so make sure to leave room to have that X connect with four kings that will go in those spaces. Deal three cards face up as auxiliary piles, and one card face up as the start of your waste pile. The rest of the cards will become your stockpile. Cards may be placed on the foundations so long as they're built upwards in either odd or even fashion. That doesn't make much sense at first, but think of it this way: if it's an odd card as the beginning of the foundation, you're building upwards odd, if it's an even card, you're building upwards even, therefore you do ace, 3, 5, 7, 9, and jack, and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and queen. The kings go directly in those spaces to make that X. Their freebies. Cards from the stock may be dealt onto the auxiliary piles so long as they go in descending order according to suite, even or odd, as the card calls for. Therefore, if you have a 10 of clubs, you can put an 8 of clubs on it, but not an 8 of spades, or a 7 of clubs, or even a 9 of clubs. The rest of the stock cards can go onto your single waste pile. Only the top card of the waste pile can be played at any given time. Spaces in your auxiliary piles can be filled with cards from the stock, and that's a very good thing. It's sound strategy to go ahead and try to put the highest card you can muster onto the empty spaces. You can also fill those spaces with the top card from the waste pile. If you can't manage to get all of your cards onto the foundations by the time the stockpile is gone, you're allowed to pick up your waste pile, flip it over, and do another deal.

Games & Cards Ads

Community Members who...

  • Favorited this Video
  • Rated This Video
No one has Favorited this video yet. Be the first!

Check out what people are watching now
left_arrow right_arrow