How to Cheat At Treo 650 Solitaire

Written by Dean Norman
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Yeah - I spend a bit of time playing Solitaire. Since my last reset of stats it's been 1149 minutes and 20 seconds. I've won 308 games and lost one. Of course, all of this is done on "easy" mode - dealing one card at a time and getting a cookie every time you win the game. I guess I figured out how to cheat after I reset the stats last time because there is absolutely no way you can lose once you know how this is done... I can only assume that what I am about to disclose is some sort of a programming oversight - I can't imagine the people who program the freebie games for cell phones, even the higher end ones, are super-thorough. But really, I prefer to look at it as a "backdoor" that the programmers left in so that they would NEVER lose at a game of solitaire - EVER!* "How did you find out about this fabulous backdoor/programming oversight," you ask? Let's just say I didn't want to lose one game in particular. And when I really had already lost, I started trying everything. I started making attempts at putting Kings under the Aces I'd already put under twos (you can't do this). And the trick came down to this: When you start the game there's a pile in the upper left hand corner. When you click on that pile it moves one card to a pile directly to the right of that. That is the pile I'm referring to. That pile, when no cards are in it, is an "open" pile, as I'll call it. By that I mean it is the same as one of the seven piles below having no cards in it! Do you realize the implications!? If that pile is open, you can move anything there: A single card that is impeding your forward motion, a whole stack from King down to Ace - it makes no difference. It can all be moved to that spot just like any other unoccupied pile (except the four on the right up top where the cards end up, aces first). Upon simple examination, this might seem like a one-time shot. Right at the beginning of the game you get an open space and then the cards fill it up, right? When you get to the end of the deck, if you're lucky enough to be able to go through the deck again, Solitaire does you the favor of flipping that first card over immediately. "But what about my blank space!? Curse you, Solitaire!" you say. I say, "Curse not." By simple use of the "undo" function, the card will be moved back to the pile in the upper-left corner and your secret weapon is once again revealed. I know, you'd think it would go back to the end of the deck. It's things like this that make me think the programmers did it on purpose. What do you think? --Dean *unless you're playing vegas rules, which is a "lose" to begin with...
Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 January 2008 )