Gaps Solitaire Strategy

Gaps, also known as "Montana", is a hard, older game that's fairly well known by solitaire fans. Its large layout is somewhat difficult to play with real cards, especially during the redeals, but playing on the Mac makes that part easy. It's still hard to win, though.

Gaps is a completely open game, with all cards in view. All cards are dealt into 4 rows then all Aces are removed from play, leaving 4 gaps in the layout which provide the game's name. (I don't know where the name Montana comes from. Do any of you?) A card may be moved into a gap if it is the same suit and one higher than the card to the left of the gap. Twos are played into the leftmost spaces and nothing is played to the right of a King.

The objective is to get the cards into suit sequences, one per row, from Twos to Kings. The gaps will then be the rightmost spaces in the layout.

Gaps strategy

Gaps is a very difficult game to win. There are typically four moves available at any time, and it's highly unlikely you will succeed if you don't consider all options before moving. You must look ahead as you play, often several moves ahead. If it helps, go ahead and move cards to see what gaps will open up, then use Solavant's Undo button to back up.

Kings are the only blocks in Gaps – cards cannot be placed into spaces to the right of Kings. You must avoid opening spaces beside them. In almost all cases, any move other than opening a gap to the right of a King is a superior move.

As an example of looking ahead to avoid gaps beside Kings, look at the example screenshot above. Note the gap to the right of the JD in the bottom row, the QD in the top row that can be placed in that gap, and the KC to the left of the QD. If we move the QD into the gap, a new gap will be opened to the right of the KC and will immediately be blocked. One of our four gaps has already been removed from play with our opening move.

When it is possible to move cards into a winning suit sequence (with Twos on the left), you should almost always do so. There is usually no advantage to waiting, but if you do see a good reason to wait don't forget to move that card into final position before redealing or it will be redealt with the rest of the cards.

Final Gaps thoughts

Gaps has two redeals that must, unfortunately, be shuffled in the process. This adds an element of luck to an otherwise completely strategic, open game. As many of you know, one of the goals of Solavant is to reduce luck in solitaire games whenever possible. I've adjusted many games' rules to make them more strategic, and considered adjusting Gaps so that the redeals aren't allowed. However, Gaps is hard enough with two redeals. Eliminating them would make the game completely brutal, so a little luck was left in. Even so, Gaps is a fun strategic game that will get the best of you almost every time.

Comments

[Leigh]

I came across a version, also on a Mac, called something like King's Cross or King's Row, although it's not the same as a King's Cross game I saw elsewhere.

I can't quite recall its precise rules, but it was possible to win virtually every game without redeals. This was shareware or freeware along about Mac OS 6 or so.