How to Cheat At Treo 650 Solitaire

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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...

The Treo 650 from palmOne

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...

Readers have left 2 comments.

Quote(1) Different Cheat
2008-07-24 08:59:02

I couldn't duplicate that. But I have found another cheat, one that lets me win about 60% of the games - let's say a five is showing on top of a pile. If the card immediately below is a six, you can click just above the five, and the card underneath will sort of highlight. If you have the corect seven showing, both the six that you can't see and the five that you can see will jump over to the seven. If you have multiple cards in sequence, you can move them all.

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Written by Dan (Unregistered)

Quote(2) President
2008-07-24 09:26:55

DAN!

Good call. I had been meaning to write a follow-up to this article because I had found a couple other ways to cheat - that one included. I might add to your description that the relationship of colors between the five and six are not important. The relationship of colors between the six and seven must, however, be inverse.

There was one more that is not nearly as powerful, but helps you plan a little:

If the four slots in the upper right are open (the ones where all the cards end up) any card can be put there, just like my original explanation in the article. The downside is that once they are there they cannot be moved except by hitting the "undo" arrow or choosing undo from the menu. While this isn't a truly fabulous cheat, it will let you plan a little bit based on knowing what's coming.

So Dan - I got the new iPhone 3G which I'll be writing an article about soon. If you're ever in the Fort Bragg area, I'll beam you my version of solitaire. If you can, post the version of solitaire you're playing and we'll compare. Maybe I could get you my version so you can cheat like me!

--Dean