Card Games
How to play Kings in the Corner
Empty your hand onto shared descending, alternating-color piles. Kings open corner spaces; moving complete piles creates room to release awkward cards.
What you need
One standard 52-card deck without jokers and space for eight shared piles
Set up the game
- Deal seven cards each. Put the stock in the center and expose one card above, below, left and right. Leave the four diagonal corners empty.
Playing Kings in the Corner
- The player left of the dealer starts. Draw one from the stock, then make legal plays before passing the turn.
- Build down one rank in alternating colors: a black six accepts a red five. Aces are low and cannot accept another card.
- Start a corner pile with a king only. A vacated non-corner space may start with any card.
- Move a whole sequence onto another pile when its highest card fits the destination’s exposed lowest card. First to play every card from hand wins.
Moving a pile, then using the gap
One side pile begins with a red nine and ends with a black eight. Another ends with a black ten. Move the entire nine-eight pile onto the ten: black ten, red nine, black eight is legal. The emptied side position can now accept an awkward card from hand. That nine cannot instead start a still-empty corner.
Stock and scoring agreements
This single-deal version needs no point values. When the stock is empty, continue making plays without drawing. Bicycle’s short rules do not specify a rare complete standstill; agree a redeal if nobody can move rather than inventing a mandatory penalty system.
Beginner decisions
- Before filling a newly opened side space, check whether another whole pile can move. A spare space can connect several releases in one turn.
- Keep sequences overlapped so their highest card remains visible; otherwise a legal whole-pile move is difficult to check.
Common rule mix-ups
- Putting an arbitrary card into an empty corner.
- Moving only a convenient part of a sequence when this version calls for the whole pile.
Questions about this game
Do suits have to match?
No. Alternate red and black, regardless of suit.
Is this solitaire?
It uses solitaire-style building, but these rules are a competitive two-to-four-player game.
Sources and edition notes
Bicycle Kings Corner, draw at the beginning; single-deal victory.
Sources and stated format checked October 14, 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.
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