The biggest ever Solitaire Tournament

When Microsoft Solitaire turned 25 years old in 2015, it was a reason to celebrate!! (Although not many employers shared this opinion as they consider the game one of the biggest productivity killers) It was not the birthday of the game, as it existed long before it became the most popular windows application. But 25 years is a good reason to celebrate anything, so Microsoft decided to invite the whole world for a Solitaire tournament!  There were 2 competitions, one for Microsoft employees and one for the rest of the world, in the end the winners of both would compete with each other. A good reason for everyone to practice his or her Patience skills, Microsoft even allowed its employees to practice during work time. For all the casino and poker fans out there:  No money could be won, as Microsoft was not willing to turn the world championship into a poker-like game. (And most likely they didn’t have an online casino license to do so as well)

As far as prizes go, it’s a bit vague; the software giant did not make any official announcements but being the world’s best solitaire player should be enough for any office employee. It’s pretty hard to backtrack who the winners were or what the numbers of participants in the tournament where. Also it seems that it wasn’t actually a global contest but just a US only contest. (Which is a bit meager for a global company of that size)

Jimmy Fallon discussed this event on The Tonight Show and created a parody video joking about how Microsoft was trying to make Solitaire sound cooler than it really is.

Jimmy Fallon Solitaire 25th Anniversary Video

It’s hard to find online casino’s organizing Patience tournaments. One of the online casino’s that used to organize some sort of tournament called a ‘Patience Race’ was Oranje Casino. Oranje Casino is part of Betsson Group and unfortunately whilst they still offer the game Casino Patience they haven’t organized a tournament or patience race for some time now. Up until a few years ago they regularly organized weekly tournaments in which you could win various prizes. Whoever managed to finish most games in the given period would be the winner. Only players who played the game for real money could participate.  iPods / iPads / iPhones were amongst the prizes to win in the Patience race.

This site will give you information on various games such as Patience, Solitaire, Klondike, Casino Patience, Casino Solitaire and Vegas Solitaire, which can be played in online casinos as a table game alongside Black Jack and Roulette.