Gaps (Montana)♠

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Players and cards

This patience for 1 player begins with an ordinary 52-card pack without jokers. After dealing remove the 4 aces: the puzzle has 48 cards and 4 gaps. Arrange each suit as a separate horizontal row from 2 to K, leaving every row’s rightmost cell empty. Select Semicolon’s profile with at most 2 redeals after the opening deal.

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Deal and opening

Shuffle and lay the full pack face up in 4 rows of 13 cells, one card per cell. Remove aces in place without shifting neighbours or stacking rows. Set-aside aces never return or serve as foundations. Every remaining card is directly available; there is no stock or waste. A row’s suit is not predetermined: its leftmost two establishes it.

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Playing a turn

Any 2 may enter a row’s empty first cell. Another gap accepts only the same suit and one rank above its immediate left neighbour: 5♥ requires 6♥. The card may come from anywhere, but only into a gap; never swap two occupied cells. Its source becomes the new gap, keeping exactly 4. The destination’s right neighbour does not restrict the move; later parts of a row may remain temporarily disordered.

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Blocked gaps

Nothing may enter a gap right of K: aces are excluded and there is no K–A wrap. A gap after another gap also accepts nothing because it has no left rank to continue. Adjacent gaps and kings therefore often stop progress. Do not shift a row or move a group to bypass this. Correctly placed cards may still move by ordinary legal actions, but correct starting sequences are retained on redeal.

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Two redeals of the unfinished cards

When every gap follows K or another gap and no move remains, redeal. In each row retain its unbroken same-suit ascending start from 2. If its first card is not 2, retain nothing there. Gather and shuffle every other card; aces stay out. Leave exactly 1 gap immediately after each retained prefix, then fill all other available cells with the shuffled cards in row order. With no retained cards the gap comes first, with a complete row last. There are still 48 cards and 4 gaps. After 2 redeals a third is forbidden.

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Scoring

The ordinary puzzle needs no score: finish every row. For a personal record count cards in correct continuous prefixes out of 48 and note redeals used. This is an optional progress measure. A neat sequence in a row’s middle is not a retained prefix; it must run from its leftmost two.

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Ending the game

Win when every row has one suit 2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–J–Q–K followed by its final gap. Suit order among rows is free. With no moves after the permitted redeals, the attempt is lost; a new complete shuffle starts another. Do not add a third redeal or silently relocate a king. A solo puzzle needs no draw.

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History and selected variant

Montana and Gaps name a family of gap-moving patiences. Implementations vary in redeal limits and retained cards; Semicolon documents the selected scheme. That does not prove the developer invented the game. No exact date or sole author is asserted. No-redeal versions are separate puzzles.

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Worked example

A gap has 5♥ immediately left, while 6♥ is in another row. Move 6♥ into the gap; its former cell becomes empty. Any rank may have been on the right, without preventing the move. If the new gap has K♣ on its left it cannot be filled, but play is not lost while other gaps have moves or a redeal remains. The diagram shows only those cells, not every row.

← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →

Common questions