Super Slide Solitaire

Goal

Form 3-card sets of the same rank (lined up horizontally or vertically) to score 300 points or more.

The Deal

Using one deck, 16 cards are dealt to a grid of 4 x 4 spaces on the layout. The remaining 36 cards are dealt to a special Stock-type area at the bottom of the playfield.

Stock

36 cards are dealt to a special type of Stock at the bottom of the playfield. Only the face-up card at the bottom of the playfield may be moved. When that card is played, the next card flips up. When no more cards remain in the Stock, the hand is over.

Arrow Spaces

Cards in the 4 x 4 grid cannot be moved directly. However, they are manipulated when a card is place on any of the 16 special Arrows.

Cards placed onto an Arrow will "Slide" in the direction that the arrow points. When a card slides, it pushes other cards in that row or column. The sliding stops when cards are pushed into an empty space, or pushed off the other end of the row or column.

Cards pushed off the end of a row or column will either go into a Discard Pile or back to the bottom of the Stock at the bottom of the playfield. The determining factor is whether or not the card pushed off has another card of the same rank in that row (including the card that started the pushing.) If there is a same-ranked card, the card pushed off gets recycled. Otherwise, it is placed into the Discard Pile and will be out of play.

Empty Spaces

Cards from the Stock can be moved directly to an Empty Space. When this is done, no sliding occurs.

Scoring:

The first set of three cards removed score 1 times the rank value of the cards. For example, if a set of three 9's are removed, 9 points are scored.

The second set of three cards score 2 times the rank value. So if the 2nd set removed are 4's then 2 X 4, or 8 points are added.

The third set scores 3 times the rank, the fourth set scores 4 times the rank, etc. on up to 13 times the rank value if you can remove that many sets.

A score of 300 is considered Good. A score of 500 is considered Excellent. Removing all 13 sets is difficult. A perfect score of 819 points is nearly impossible to achieve.

Strategy:

To achieve higher scores, it is important to remove sets of lower ranked cards first since each set removed increases the multiplier. For example, Kings removed first only score 13 points. When Kings are removed as the 13th set, they score 13 x 13 or 169 points!

Aces are the best choice to remove first, however, don't waste too much effort on them if other lower ranked sets can be made easier at first (unless you are going for that perfect score.)

Pay close attention to cards that are pushed off the end of a row. Try to recycle as many cards as possible since this will give you many more opportunities to make sets.

It is often a good strategy to push off and recycle higher ranked cards early in the hand. If that is not possible, try to push the Kings and other high ranked cards to the center of a row.

Try to get a matched set as early as possible in the game. Having empty spaces available offers more options.

Pay attention early in the game so that you only dispose of one of each rank so that you leave three cards of that rank still in play so they can be matched up.

Since matched sets only require three cards, there is a fourth card of each rank that is expendable. After a set of three cards are made, use the fourth card of the same rank to your advantage by placing them along the outer edges so that when they are pushed off, it does not matter.

Game Notes

Super Slide is an original Solitaire game designed by Warren Schwader. It is one of the most Strategic Solitaire games of all time, especially if you are going for a perfect score.