How to play Kings Corner card game
The table
Cornercrown uses one standard 52-card deck without jokers. You and the computer each receive seven cards. Four cards begin the side piles, with four empty corners around them. The remaining cards form the stock. A card is drawn automatically at the start of your turn, so you begin with eight cards.
Play from your hand
- Select a hand card. Legal destinations gain a gold outline.
- Select a destination to play the card. A nonempty pile takes a card exactly one rank lower and of the other color.
- Keep playing as many cards as you like. Select End turn when you are ready for the computer to play.
Kings are high and aces are low: K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A. Red means hearts or diamonds; black means spades or clubs. Suits need not match. A black 6 accepts a red 5, but neither a black 5 nor a red 4.
Kings and empty spaces
Only a king starts an empty corner. An empty side space accepts any hand card, including an ace. A king dealt to a side space remains there until someone moves its pile; this table does not relocate kings during setup.
Join whole piles
Deselect any chosen hand card, then select a nonempty pile. Select a legal destination to move the entire stack. Its bottom card, the first card played there, must fit the destination’s top card. A stack beginning with a red 9 can move onto a black 10, even if its current top is much lower. Moving a side stack opens a useful free space.
Finish a round
The first player with no hand cards wins immediately. If the stock is empty and both players have no hand play or useful pile merge, our blocked-round rule compares remaining penalties. A king counts 10; every other card counts 1. Lower wins and an equal score ties. Ending your turn while a play is available does not trigger this rule.
Learn a move
Hint highlights a suggested hand card or pile, but you make the move. Undo reverses your last action, including a computer reply after End turn. A new deal asks before replacing your current round. Your round is saved in this browser.
A first strategy
Put kings in corners when that opens a run of plays. Before filling an empty side, check whether a whole-pile merge could create a longer sequence. Watch your aces: once an ace is on top, no smaller card can continue that pile.
Core rules follow Bicycle’s Kings Corner guide. The blocked-round tiebreak and keeping setup kings in side piles are the table choices described above.