HomePrintables › Kings in the Corner rules card
👑 Free printable

Printable Kings in the Corner rules card

Kings in the Corner is solitaire that lets the whole table play — and then argue about whether you draw first or last. The standard rules, the layout, and the usual scoring on one card.

Garbage rules card → Prints on one page — US Letter or A4. Save as PDF from the print dialog.

Kings in the Corner

2–4 players · one 52-card deck · deal 7 each
Build DOWN in alternating colors · Kings open the corners · first out of cards wins
The layout:
K only
flip 1
K only
flip 1
DRAW
flip 1
K only
flip 1
K only
Four cards face up N·E·S·W, stock in the middle, corners empty until a King claims them.

The rules

  • Deal 7 cards each; flip 4 from the stock as the N·E·S·W foundations
  • On your turn, draw one from the stock first
  • Play cards one rank lower and the opposite color (red 9 on black 10)
  • A King may open any empty corner — the game’s namesake move
  • A whole pile may move onto another if the join is legal; refill the empty space with any card
  • Play as many cards as you can — your turn ends when you stop or are stuck
  • First player with no cards wins immediately

Scoring across rounds (common convention)

  • When someone goes out, everyone else counts what they still hold: 10 per King · 1 per other card
  • Points are bad — lowest total when someone crosses 25 (or a target you pick) wins the match
  • Chip version: ante one per hand, Kings-in-hand pay extra — the boxed set’s convention
Kings in the Corner as a folk layout game is public domain; a boxed version is published commercially (Kings in the Corner® is a trademark of its publisher). This card is an independent work describing the traditional game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the trademark owner.
Limestone Games Kings in the Corner rules card · free printable · limestonegames.com/printables/

How to play Kings in the Corner

Everything descends: red on black on red, each card one rank lower, exactly like the tableau of Klondike solitaire turned into a shared table. Four foundations start the cross, the corners wait for Kings, and the first player to shed every card wins on the spot — no final-turn courtesy laps.

The corner Kings

Kings can't sit on anything, so they get the corners — and opening a corner is tempo: a fresh King gives your Queens somewhere to go, your Queens make room for Jacks, and suddenly a seven-card hand is two. Holding a King back to dodge its ten-point penalty is exactly how you end up holding it when someone else goes out.

Pile moves win games

When the top of one pile fits the bottom of another, the whole pile slides over and leaves a free space — fillable with any card, which is the only place bad cards escape. Scanning for legal pile joins before touching your hand is the single habit that separates winners from people who draw a lot.

Frequently asked

What happens when the draw pile runs out? Keep playing without drawing. The endgame speeds up sharply — stuck players just pass, and someone usually goes out within a round or two.

Two players or four? Both work; three or four is the sweet spot. Two-player games are faster and meaner, since every corner one player opens is half the other player’s plan.

More free printables