Solitaire king is played with a standard deck of 52 cards, without Jokers. After shuffling, the tableau containing seven piles of fanned cards are laid from left to right.

From left to right, each deck contains one card more than the last.

The first and most left piles contain one card upside down, the second pile contains two cards (one card upside down, one card upside down), the third stack contains three (two cards upside down, one card upside down), and so on, until the seventh stack contains seven cards.

cards (six upside down, one upside down). The top card from each pile is face up.

The remaining cards form the stock and are placed face down on the top left of the layout.