The 2s are your anchors
Each row in Gaps must start with a 2. Without a 2 at column 1, that row cannot hold a valid sequence — ever. If all the gaps in a deal happen to be in positions that never let a 2 into column 1, the row stays broken until a redeal.
Your first priority in any game is to get 2s into left-edge gaps. A left-edge gap (column 1) accepts any 2 of any suit, so whenever one appears, move a 2 there immediately unless a more pressing sequence is about to lock. Securing 2s early multiplies your options for the rest of the game.
Dead gaps are permanent damage
A gap to the right of a King cannot be filled — Kings have no rank above them, so no card can ever legally slide into that position. Once a King occupies the second-to-last position in a row and the last position is a gap, that gap is dead until a redeal. In the worst case this strands an entire row with no usable gap.
Avoid moving Kings unless you are placing them in their final position (column 13 of a completed row). If you must move a King to free an important card, check carefully that its new position does not create a dead gap that stalls a row you are building.
Think in chains, not single moves
Every time you move a card into a gap, you open a new gap at the card's old position. That new gap may immediately enable another move — a chain. A good Gaps player looks two or three moves ahead to find chains that place multiple cards in their correct rows without creating dead ends.
A chain that ends in a dead gap is usually worse than no chain at all. Before you move, ask: where will the resulting gap be? Is the card to its left a King? Is it another gap? Either answer means the new gap is dead.
What counts as a locked sequence?
When you trigger a redeal, only locked sequences survive. A locked sequence is a run that starts at column 1 with a 2 and extends consecutively in the same suit without interruption. A row that reads 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ 5♣ — even with chaos behind it — has a locked prefix of four cards. Those four cards stay in place; everything else is gathered and reshuffled.
This means a gap in the middle of your run breaks the lock at that point. If you have 2♣ 3♣ [gap] 5♣, only 2♣ and 3♣ are locked. The gap and everything to the right goes back into the shuffle. Getting the gap out of the middle of a sequence — even by swapping it for a card from another row — is often worth multiple moves.
Redeal timing
You have two redeals, and each one is a reset of all unlocked cards. Using a redeal when you still have move_card moves available is almost always a mistake. Not only do you waste the redeal, but you may undo progress that was close to locking.
Before each redeal, count how many cards are locked across all four rows. A redeal with 20 locked cards is far better than one with 8. Try to extend every locked run as far as possible before the reshuffle — each extra locked card reduces the size of the pool and makes the next layout easier.
After the second redeal, you have no fallback. Every move matters, and a single dead gap can end the game. If you have used both redeals and are stuck, the deal is lost.
The second redeal pool is smaller
A common mistake is treating all three passes as equivalent. They are not. By the second redeal you should have significantly more locked cards than after the first, so the reshuffled pool is smaller. A smaller pool means fewer cards are randomly placed, and the fraction of the board that is already solved is higher. If the second redeal still leaves you with a completely broken board, the deal was extremely difficult from the start.
Win rate expectations
Experienced players report win rates in the range of 50–65% with three passes. Some deals are unwinnable regardless of play; others are trivially winnable if you recognise the chains early. The average solvable deal requires about 30–50 individual card moves across all three passes.
Related games and guides
- Play Gaps Solitaire
- FreeCell Solitaire — all cards visible, four free cells
- Golf Solitaire — clear the tableau to a single waste pile
- All solitaire variants