Clock or Sundial is a luck-based

patience (or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when face ...

solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These gam ...

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card g ...

with the cards laid out to represent the face of a

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and t ...

. It is closely related to Travellers. Clock is a purely mechanical process with no room for skill, and the chances of winning are exactly 1 in 13. It has a feature described by Parlett as ' shuttling' in which a card is placed at the bottom of a pile and the next card to be played comes off the top of the same pile.Parlett (1979), p. 185.

Names

This game was known in the 19th century as The Clock, but the name has since been shortened to Clock. It was a variation of

Wandering Card Travellers is a card game of the patience or card solitaire genre which uses a single card pack of either 52 or 32 playing cards. It is an interesting game based on "an entirely new principle" which Parlett describes as a "rhythmical feature tha ...

, an old game of European origin.Cheney (1869), pp. 66–69. Some sources give alternative names as Hidden Cards, Four of a Kind and Travellers.Moyse (1950), pp. 15–16. However, Four of a Kind has a different layout and mechanism, whilst

Hidden Cards Travellers is a card game of the patience or card solitaire genre which uses a single card pack of either 52 or 32 playing cards. It is an interesting game based on "an entirely new principle" which Parlett describes as a "rhythmical feature th ...

and Travellers are also variations of Wandering Card with different layouts and shuttling procedures from Clock. There are other unrelated patiences or solitaires also sometimes called Clock or The Clock: *

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The official ...

Grandfather's Clock Grandfather's Clock is an easy patience or solitaire card game using a deck of 52 playing cards. Its foundation is akin to Clock Patience; but while winning the latter depends entirely on the luck of the draw, Grandfather's Clock has a strategic ...

* Clock, member of the

Simple Addition Simple Addition or Totals is a family of patience or card solitaire games that share certain aims and procedures.Moyse (1950), p. 5.Parlett (1979), pp. 177–179. Composition Moyse counts the games of Elevens, Fifteens, Tens and Thirteens as pa ...

or Totals family, related to Block Eleven

Rules

One deck of cards (minus jokers) is used. The deck is shuffled and twelve piles of four cards each are laid out, face down, in a circle. The remaining four cards are placed, also face down, in a pile in the center of the circle. The twelve positions around the circle represent the

12-hour clock The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods: a.m. (from Latin , translating to "before midday") and p.m. (from Latin , translating to "after midday"). For different opinions on represen ...

and the pile in the middle represents the hands. Play starts by turning over the top card of the central pile. When a card is revealed, it is placed face up under the pile at the corresponding hour (i.e., Ace = 1 o'clock, 2 = 2 o'clock, etc. The Jack is 11 o'clock and the Queen is 12 o'clock) and the top card of the pile of that hour is turned over. If a King is revealed, it is placed face up under the central pile. Play continues in this fashion and the game is won if all the cards (including four Kings) are revealed; turning up the fourth king means you will have completed the clock and won the game. The game is lost if the fourth King is turned up while any cards remain face down.

Variations

In a variation of Clock commonly called Watch, players can continue the play when the fourth king appears, by replacing it with a still face-down card. The game ends when that fourth king reappears. The Clock (sometimes also called "German Clock") is a stock and waste type of solitaire originally called "Die Uhr", and described in a German solitaire book by Rudolf Heinrich from 1976.Heinrich, Rudolf (2011). ''Die schönsten Patiencen'', Perlen-Reihe 641, 35th edition. Vienna: Perlen-Reihe Verlag. This gives rules for very different game-play that depends on skill not to miss cards that can be played to the foundations.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

Cheney, Mrs. E. D Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (June 27, 1824 – November 19, 1904) was an American writer, reformer, and philanthropist. She was born on Beacon Hill, Boston, June 27, 1824; and was educated in private schools in Boston. Cheney served as secretary o ...

. (1869). ''Patience: A Series of Games with Cards''. 2nd edn, with additions. Boston: Lee & Shepard. NY: Lee, Shepard & Dillingham. * Foster, Robert Frederick (1897). ''Foster’s Complete Hoyle.'' 3rd edn. New York and London: Frederick. A. Stokes. * Moyse, Alphonse Jr. (1950). ''150 Ways to Play Solitaire''. Cincinnati: USPCC. 128 pp. *

Parlett, David David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many po ...