The layout
All 52 cards are dealt face up into four rows of thirteen. Then the four Aces are removed from wherever they landed, leaving four empty slots — the gaps. The Aces are out of the game for good; the spaces they left are the whole engine of play.
The gap rule
A gap accepts exactly one card in the entire deck: the card of the same suit, one rank higher, than the card immediately to its left. If the 7 of spades sits to the left of a gap, only the 8 of spades fits, and nothing else will ever fit there.
- A gap at the far left of a row is different: any 2 may fill it. That move fixes which suit the row will build.
- Moving a card into a gap leaves a new gap where that card used to be.
- A gap directly to the right of a King is dead — no card outranks a King, so nothing can ever fill it.
- A gap with no card to its left is also dead, since there is no neighbour to define what it wants.
- Win when every row runs 2 to King in a single suit, with its gap pushed to the far right.
One quiet rule worth knowing: a 2 already sitting at the start of a row is locked there. The game will not let you slide it to another row’s opening gap, because moving it would change nothing.
Shuffling
When you run out of moves, you can shuffle. Any row that starts with a correct run — a 2 followed by its 3, 4, 5 and so on — keeps that run exactly where it is, and everything else is gathered, shuffled and dealt back into the empty positions, with one fresh gap placed right after each locked run. On Deckmio you get three shuffles, which turns a puzzle with a five to ten percent win rate into one you can win close to a third of the time.
How to play it well
- Commit your 2s early. A row with a 2 at its start is on rails, and the earlier you choose, the more moves you get to use on it.
- Trace the chain before you commit. Filling a gap opens a new one, and the best move is the one that opens the most useful follow-up.
- Keep gaps away from the right of Kings. A dead gap is a wasted gap until the next shuffle.
- Do not spend a shuffle at the first stall. Scan the whole board — a legal move is often hiding behind a row you skimmed past.
- Finish rows one at a time. A completed run survives every shuffle, so a locked row is permanent progress.
Gaps, Montana, Addiction — the same game
Gaps, Montana, Spaces, Blue Moon and Addiction are one game under several names. The versions mostly differ in how many shuffles they allow: with none the game is nearly unwinnable, and with two or three it becomes a genuine puzzle you can finish. Deckmio plays the three-shuffle version.
Try the sliding puzzle yourself on Gaps Solitaire. If you want a card game that scratches the same logic-puzzle itch, Sudoku strategy covers the other great grid of this kind, and How to play solitaire puts Gaps in context with the rest of the family.