I've been told by some people that this game is VERY difficult to win. I had the same experience for a while, but now I can win more often. So, I thought I'd let everyone know how I play. You don't have to play this way, and I'm not trying to claim that this is the best way to play. These are just suggestions for those of you who have trouble winning initially. Once you've played more, you'll get your own style.
The first thing to do when trying to win is look at all possible moves, and try to evaluate which is best. You shouldn't just look at the first move, either. You should look at least a couple moves in the future. Moving that 2 of clubs may look like a great move, but it may force opening up a "dead" space after a king in a couple moves.
Making "dead" spaces is to be avoided almost at all cost. I say almost because there are exceptions to this rule. For instance, I've you're already a few seconds before a crash and burn, and you can get a card into the right place, do it even if it brings your demise that much closer. At least that way, when you are forced to reshuffle, you'll have one more card that doesn't get reshuffled! Of course, you don't want to do this if it causes you to resuffle unneccessarily. As you can tell, this can be a kind of sticky issue.
As you can guess, this sort of "looking ahead" takes time. So, there's sort of a trade-off involved. If you really want to win, you stand a better chance by taking your time and looking ahead. However, if you want to make a high score, you want to minimize the time. Of course, you also want to minimize the number of shuffles, which can be done by looking ahead. Generally, if you make a really high score, it's pure luck. So, don't go out looking to make a really high score -- if you get one, great! If you don't, you're still having fun, right? (You're supposed to say "Yes!" at this point.)
;-)
If you notice that one move will generate a "dead" space, there's a tendency to go ahead and make that move anyway. DON'T! Make other moves, and never take the last step of opening up the "dead" space until you have no other choice. You may be able to move other cards around in such a way that you don't have to move the card out of the "dead" spot after all. Always avoid opening up a "dead" space at the earliest possible time. That way, you'll have a better chance of altering the course of events.
It's also generally not a good idea to move a king to a spot behind a low card, or to a spot in the left half of the deck. This tends to increase your chances of getting "dead" spaces. Instead, try to move your kings into spaces as far to the right as possible. (Unless the next card to the right is a low card.)
That's just about all the strategy I can think of. I hope it helps you some! Good luck, and happy playing!
