Fourteen Out Solitaire

What is Fourteen Out?

Fourteen Out is a pairing patience game where cards are removed in pairs that sum to 14. Unlike Pyramid or Baroness, there is no stock to draw from — all 52 cards are dealt face-up at the start across twelve columns. This means every card is already accounted for, and the challenge is purely about sequencing which pairs to remove first so that useful cards are uncovered in the right order.

Full rules

The 52-card deck is shuffled and dealt face-up into twelve columns. The first four columns receive five cards each; the remaining eight receive four cards each. Only the topmost card of each column is available for play.

Remove pairs of available cards whose rank values sum to 14: Kings (13) pair with Aces (1), Queens (12) with 2s, Jacks (11) with 3s, 10s with 4s, 9s with 5s, 8s with 6s, and 7s with other 7s. Each removal exposes the card beneath it in that column. Win by clearing all cards. The game is lost when no pairable top cards remain.

How Fourteen Out differs from Baroness

Baroness deals cards row by row from a stock — you choose when to advance the deal and columns grow over time. Fourteen Out deals everything at once and offers no redeals, so the full layout is visible from the first move. This makes Fourteen Out a pure sequencing puzzle: which pairs to remove, in which order, to progressively unlock buried cards.

The target sum also differs: Baroness uses 13 (Kings removed alone), while Fourteen Out uses 14, making Kings exclusively paired with Aces and eliminating any solo-removal rule.

Read the Fourteen Out strategy guide →

Key strategic concepts

Since the entire layout is visible from the start, Fourteen Out rewards forward planning. Identify which buried cards are blocking the most critical pairs and work backwards to determine which surface removals will uncover them. Removing a pair that unblocks two or three future pairs is almost always better than a pair that leads to a dead end.

Pay special attention to 7s: they can only pair with other 7s, so all four 7s must be paired among themselves. If three 7s are deeply buried in the same column stack, the deal may be unwinnable regardless of other choices.

Related pairing games

• Baroness Solitaire — pairs summing to 13; five columns with a stock and row deal
• Pyramid Solitaire — same 13-total pairing rule; triangular blocked layout with stock cycling
• Elevens Solitaire — pairs totaling 11; compact nine-card grid
• Nestor Solitaire — pair cards of the same rank across eight columns

Reference links

• Fourteen Out strategy guide
• Baroness strategy guide
• Pyramid strategy guide
• Solitaire glossary
• All solitaire games