Build a same-suit prefix before the next shuffle.
Gaps, Addition, and Double Montana remove Aces to create holes in a grid. A left-edge hole accepts a 2; another hole accepts the same-suit successor of the card to its left. Moving a card fills one hole and opens another. Each row aims for a 2-to-King run followed by a gap.
Last updated: September 2026
Trace where the new hole appears
Before filling a gap, look at the source position of the card you will move. The source becomes the next gap. If its left neighbor is a King or another gap, it cannot be filled by a rank successor. A left-edge gap remains useful because any available 2 may go there.
For example, if a gap follows a 5 of Hearts, the 6 of Hearts can fill it from elsewhere. That move opens a gap where the 6 was; the card to the left of that newly opened gap determines the next move. If the 6 followed a King at its old position, the new gap is dead until a redeal. There is no general benefit to moving a King out of a correct 2-to-King prefix: a final gap after a King is exactly what a completed row needs.
Protect the row prefix
A row with a 2 at the left and consecutive cards of the same suit forms a locked prefix. Redeals preserve those cards and reshuffle the unfinished suffix. Extending a prefix from 2–3–4 to 2–3–4–5 permanently reduces the work remaining after the next shuffle. A move that lengthens a correct prefix is therefore more durable than a move that only rearranges cards beyond it.
Addition: an optional redeal
Addition uses one deck, four rows, and three redeals. Its Redeal action remains available even while legal gap moves exist. This means you can decide to reshuffle early, though continuing a useful prefix chain often preserves more progress. Check the current row starts and the source gap of each possible move before spending a redeal.
Double Montana: eight rows and duplicate ranks
Double Montana uses two decks. Removing eight Aces leaves eight gaps in eight thirteen-cell rows. A 2 placed at the left sets the suit for that row. Two copies of every 2-to-King rank exist, so the eight finished rows require two runs in each suit. Its two redeals appear only when no legal gap move remains, like Gaps.
Compare the three redeal rules
Gaps and Double Montana offer two redeals only after the board is stuck. Addition starts with three redeals and permits one at any time. All three preserve completed left-edge prefixes. Counting the available moves and the length of each prefix gives a concrete basis for the next action; unsupported win-rate promises are unnecessary.