Setup & the deal
All 52 cards are shuffled and dealt face up into a grid of four rows of thirteen. Then the four Aces are lifted out, leaving four empty slots — the gaps. The Aces play no further part in the game; the gaps they leave behind are where all the action happens.
Rows have no suit assigned at the start: any row can become any suit, decided by which 2 you eventually move into its leftmost slot. Restart replays the identical layout, gaps and all.
Because the deal is random, some boards start with a 2 already in a leftmost slot (instantly locked) or with a gap already dead behind a King — both are normal. Like FreeCell, Addiction is a perfect-information game: every card is face up from the first moment, so the only unknowns are the shuffles you have not spent yet.
How to move cards
Every move in Addiction is the same shape: pick a gap, and move the one card that belongs there into it. The card leaves its old slot, which becomes the new gap.
- A gap in any column except the first accepts exactly one card in the whole deck: the card of the same suit, one rank higher than its left neighbour. The gap to the right of the 7♠ takes the 8♠ and nothing else.
- A gap in the leftmost column accepts any 2 — this is the move that commits a row to a suit.
- A gap directly to the right of a King is dead: no card is one rank above a King, so nothing can ever fill it (until a shuffle moves things around).
- A gap directly to the right of another gap is also dead — it has no left neighbour to define what it wants.
One deliberate exception: a 2 that already sits in a leftmost slot is never offered to another leftmost gap. Sliding a 2 between row starts changes nothing, so the game does not count it as a move.
A worked example: a gap sits to the right of the J♦. Exactly one card in the deck fits — the Q♦. Playing it opens a new gap where the Q♦ stood, and the whole question starts over with that gap’s left neighbour. Interior gaps never offer a choice; the only real decisions are which 2 claims which row, and the order in which you chase the forced moves.
The game highlights every card that currently has a legal destination, and moves work by clicking a highlighted card or dragging it to its gap — the rules are the same either way.
The three shuffles
You get three shuffles per game, to spend whenever you choose. A shuffle keeps every correctly placed card exactly where it is: a 2 in the leftmost slot of its row, followed by an unbroken same-suit ascending run (2-3-4…), is locked and survives. The game marks locked cards with a green dot.
Everything else — every loose card and all four gaps — is redistributed to random slots among the remaining positions. Gaps do not stay where they were and are not re-created behind the locked runs; they can land anywhere in the loose region, exactly as on cardgames.io.
A shuffle can never cost you progress (locked cards never move), but it can absolutely deal you a bad board — all four gaps can land behind Kings. Shuffling is a reroll of the loose cards, not a guaranteed rescue.
You may shuffle at any time, even while moves remain — the game does not force you to exhaust the board first. It usually pays to, though: every card you lock before shuffling shrinks the loose region and improves the odds of the redeal.
Winning & getting stuck
You win when every row reads 2 through King in a single suit from the left — twelve locked cards per row, with the row’s gap squeezed out to the rightmost column. The four final gaps sit where the Aces would have completed the sequence.
The game is lost only when both resources are gone at once: no gap can be filled by any card, and no shuffles remain. While a shuffle is left, a blocked board is a decision point, not a loss.
Locked cards are the game’s real progress bar: 48 of them (12 per row) is a win, and every locked card is permanent — no move and no shuffle can ever dislodge it. That permanence cuts both ways: locking a 2 into a row commits that row’s suit forever, so the choice of which 2 starts which row is worth more thought than any other single move.
Edge cases & fine print
- Each interior gap has at most one legal filler, but a single card can sometimes choose between gaps — any 2 may pick any open leftmost gap, committing that row to its suit.
- Kings are the natural end of every row; a King in the 13th column of the right row is perfect, a King anywhere else eventually strands the gap behind it.
- Locked status is strict: the run must start with a 2 in column one and be unbroken and same-suit. A 3-4-5 sitting in columns two to four with no 2 in front is loose and will scatter on a shuffle.
- The win check only needs columns one through twelve locked — whatever occupies the last column slot alongside the gap arrangement resolves itself.
- Movable cards are highlighted; the Hint prefers moves that extend a locked run — filling a leftmost gap or the gap immediately right of locked cards — over moves that merely shuffle loose cards around.
- Both moves and shuffles increment the move counter; there is no scoring in Addiction, only moves, time and your win rate.
- Undo is unlimited and also restores spent shuffles.
Variants
We play the cardgames.io variant of the Gaps family: four gaps from removed Aces, same-suit one-higher filling, any 2 into leftmost gaps, three shuffles that keep locked runs and randomize everything else — gaps included.
The family goes by many names — Gaps, Montana, Spaces, Vacancies, Blue Moon — with small rule differences: some versions redeal loose cards in packed order with the gaps re-cut behind the runs, some allow only two shuffles, and some deal the Aces and let you discard them yourself. If you enjoy the whole-deck-visible puzzle feel, FreeCell scratches the same itch with a very different move set.
Frequently asked questions
What fills a gap in the leftmost column in Addiction Solitaire?
Any 2 of any suit — with one exception: a 2 already occupying another leftmost slot cannot slide over, because swapping row starts achieves nothing. Choosing which 2 starts which row is the biggest decision in the game, since it commits the row to that suit.
Why can I not move any card into this gap?
The gap is dead. A gap immediately to the right of a King is unfillable (no card outranks a King by one), and a gap immediately to the right of another gap has no neighbour to define its card. Dead gaps stay dead until a shuffle relocates them.
Do the gaps move when you shuffle in Addiction?
Yes. A shuffle redistributes every loose card AND all four gaps onto random slots outside the locked runs. The gaps do not return to fixed positions — they can land anywhere in the loose region, including right behind a King.
Which cards survive a shuffle in Addiction Solitaire?
Only locked cards: a 2 sitting in the leftmost slot of its row plus the unbroken same-suit ascending cards immediately after it. The game marks them with a green dot. Everything without the dot is redealt randomly.
Do the Aces ever come back in Addiction?
No. The Aces are removed right after the deal and never re-enter play. They exist only to create the four starting gaps — the finished rows run 2 through King with a gap where the Ace would sit.
Can two gaps end up next to each other?
Yes, either through play or a shuffle — and when they do, the right-hand gap of the pair goes dead until the left one is filled. Filling the left gap revives the right one, since it then has a neighbour again.
Where does the gap end up when a row is finished?
In the rightmost column. A complete row reads 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K in one suit across the first twelve slots, and the row’s gap is pushed to slot thirteen, where its Ace originally counted.
Related rulebooks
- Crescent rules — two decks, 16 piles, three lucky shuffles
- FreeCell rules — every deal is winnable — plan ahead
- Solitaire rules — the classic klondike patience game
- Clock rules — beat the fourth king — 1-in-13 fate
Last reviewed 2026-08-05 · play Addiction online free