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Around my house, when a deck of cards are produced, normally there is more than one player around, but sometimes I find myself alone for a half an hour with nothing to do. These rare moments, one player card games fill the bill. My two favorite one player card games are Solitaire and Memory. There are over a dozen versions of Solitaire and all are challenging because you cannot win every game. Memory is entertaining but you cannot lose unless you put time limits on the game.

My favorite Solitaire game is Clock Solitaire. Using all 52 cards of a deck, you place four cards face down in each time spot around the playing area to represent a clock, ending with four cards in the center of the clock. You can deal these four cards individually around the clock beginning with one o'clock or just place four cards in the one o'clock spot, move on to the two o'clock spot and deal out the next four cards, continuing around until the last four cards are placed face down in the middle.

The game begins by turning over the top card in the center and moving it to the correct time spot. Aces are one o'clock, Jacks are eleven o'clock, Queens are twelve o'clock and the Kings are the center pile. When you place the first turned center card on the correct time spot, you turn over a card from that time spot to place on another time spot. The game continues by turning over cards and placing correctly around the clock. If you get all the center cards, the Kings, completed before all the other time spots, you lose. I rarely win this game, but when I do, success is that much sweeter.

In the Memory game, you lay out all the 52 cards face down in neat rows or randomly spread them out across the playing area. You pick two cards at a time to match. If it is not a match, you turn them back over and try two more cards. If you have a match, this set is removed from the play area. This is an exercise for your memory skills that comes in handy as you age. By concentrating on the layout of previously turned over cards, you can make quick matches as the game progresses. To make it more challenging to win, set a time limit to match all the cards. The next time you play, break your previous time limit.

Learn more about this author, Madison Briggs.
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