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I love playing cards. They are one of the favourite tools of the magician's trade. But I also love games, so it won't come as a surprise that I also love playing traditional card games. These can be a great way to spend time with family and friends, in a relaxed and casual setting. Especially if you own a custom deck of playing cards, it be wonderful way to enjoy the artwork and graphic design of a lovely deck at the same time.

But what if nobody else is around, or when you're looking to kill some time when you're on your own? That's where solitaire card games come to the rescue. Especially in times of quarantine, solitaire card games are a great activity to enjoy, whether on the screen or with an actual deck. We all have moments where we're alone and need something to keep us amused, and solitaire card games can provide hours of enjoyment. And they'll provide something for all kinds of moments, with some coming down to pure luck, while many excellent ones require genuine skill, and can be a very rewarding challenge to play.

There are plenty of other reasons to enjoy solitaire games with a traditional deck of cards today, especially in view of the ease in which you can play them, such as a good online site where you can play them for free on your web browser. This makes them easier to learn and play than ever before. Especially given the incredible variety of solitaire card games in existence, it also allows you to explore a wide range of different games with leisure. Solitaire cards games are a great way to fill time, and you can play as long or short as you like. And they can be as relaxing as you like, or as challenging as you like. They're certainly incredibly satisfying, and even rather addictive. So let's learn a thing or two more about them, and whet your appetite to give them a go yourself!

WHEN DID SOLITAIRE CARD GAMES START?

As it turns out, playing solitaire games with a traditional deck of playing cards places us in a fine tradition with a long history - long before they ever came to your personal computer - because people have been enjoying them for over two hundred years already. Germany is a likely place of their origin, and there's a recorded mention of them already in the late 18th century. But their popularity especially bloomed in France in the early 19th century, and that's when some of the best solitaire games were devised. It is also in these French roots that the alternative name "patience" appears to originate, along with other common solitaire terms like "tableau". From France they eventually spread to English speaking countries, much like playing cards themselves did centuries before, and eventually solitaire card games became a popular international phenomenon enjoyed around the world. Even Napoleon is said to have whiled away many hours playing solitaire while in exile on St Helena. When you're playing a solitaire card game today, you're sharing in activity that has been enjoyed by many generations before you, and many of the great solitaire card games available are time tested and proven classics.

But while solitaire card games have been around for a long time, the development of the personal computer was a real catalyst in popularizing them with modern audiences. Microsoft Windows has long had the practice of distributing a game of Solitaire with their operating systems, much to the relief of bored sales assistants and office workers around the globe. That singlehandedly turned solitaire one of the world's most popular activities to do on a computer. Ever since the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990, Klondike Solitaire has been a staple on most personal computers, and it has now given hours of amusement to billions of people around the world for three decades. Countless people still turn to it for their quick five minute fix, which will of course be repeated many times over! Today Microsoft's solitaire package has grown to include Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and TriPeaks, making these the most familiar forms of the game for the average person.

Besides computer software, today there are also many websites where you can play a variety of different solitaire games online. Personally I've made good use of Solitaired.com, which offers more than 250 different solitaire games, and lets you play entirely for free, without ads, and without any need to register. Digital implementations like this allow us to play solitaire more quickly and easily, without all the hassles of set-up, shuffling, dealing, and moving columns of actual cards, making it even easier to fill a few spare moments. Besides simplifying the book-keeping elements of the game, they've also enabled versions of the game to be played that would be more difficult to do in person, like one suit Spider, where multiple sets of the same suit are used.

The result of the digital revolution means that solitaire card games are booming like never before, and even people who don't even own a physical deck of cards can spend countless hours enjoying different forms of these classic games. With a long history steeped in tradition, the computer age has injected solitaire card games with new energy and new possibilities, and there's never been a better time to explore what these games have to offer.