The first foundation card changes your empty columns.
Nine Across deals one deck into nine Klondike-style columns, leaving seven cards in a draw-one stock. The first card you move to a foundation chooses the base rank for all four suits. Once that happens, only cards one rank below the base can enter empty tableau columns.
Last updated: September 2026
Choose a base you can support
Before the first foundation move, any rank can start its own suit foundation. That card’s rank then becomes the base for all suits. Each foundation builds upward in suit and wraps from King to Ace. If the base is 7, each suit needs 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in that order. Compare accessible cards just above candidate bases, along with the cards buried in the tableau.
The base choice also sets the only rank allowed in an empty column. With base 7, a 6 can enter an empty column; with base Ace, a King can. Before committing, check whether the corresponding fill card is accessible and which hidden card moving it would expose.
Use open columns before the base is set
Empty columns accept any card while the base rank is still unset. Once the first foundation move fixes it, that flexibility ends. If an early tableau move opens a column, consider whether using it to release a buried card is worth delaying the first foundation move. A foundation card may be useful immediately; the empty column restriction is the cost to weigh against it.
An empty column and face-up 6 of clubs are available. Before any foundation card is played, the 6 can enter the empty column. After a 7 starts a foundation, the 6 still can enter because it is one rank below the base. A face-up 5 of clubs can enter before the base is set, but not after the 7 establishes it. The first foundation move changes tableau mobility as well as foundation order.
Small stock, no reserve
Only seven cards are in the stock. They draw one at a time to the waste, which can be recycled when the stock is empty. Nine Across has no reserve pile. Most cards begin in the tableau, so the foundation base and hidden-card access matter more than a reserve management plan.
Klondike’s family guidecovers hidden-card and foundation decisions. Nine Across adds a player-chosen base and a rank-specific empty-column rule. Compare Agnes for another variable-base game whose base is dealt rather than chosen.