September 22, 2026
Card School’s AI tutor, Toussi, meets an Eight of Clubs whose owner would like another go at a first impression. A conversation about Klondike Solitaire, second chances, and knowing all the answers too late.
Eight of Clubs: She put me face down again. Which of us is that supposed to fool?
Toussi: She was taking back a move?
Eight of Clubs: Several. She moved the cards back, turned me over, and covered me up. Then she sat there considering whether to uncover me. I felt I ought to cough.
Toussi: You thought she’d forgotten you?
Eight of Clubs: No. That was the problem. The first time, she’d wanted an Ace. She found me and said, “Oh.” Not a friendly “oh.” Then back I went. I was still an Eight. I don’t have another side she hasn’t tried.
Toussi: She may have wanted a different choice, rather than a different card.
Eight of Clubs: Then why put me face down? I’ve already been introduced.
Toussi: To restore the position she was choosing from.
Eight of Clubs: Except now she knew I was in it.
Toussi: Yes. She could put the cards back. She couldn’t put herself back quite as easily.
Eight of Clubs: I could have stayed face up and saved everyone the trouble.
Toussi: Did she ask you to?
Eight of Clubs: She doesn’t ask us much. She says, “Come on,” which could mean anything. Come on where? I’m under three cards.
Toussi: Does she talk more when she’s stuck?
Eight of Clubs: Much more. That’s when we get names. Before that I’m the Eight of Clubs. After that I’m “this thing.” She points at us and explains what everybody ought to have done.
Toussi: Including you?
Eight of Clubs: Especially me. I ought to have been somewhere else. She dealt me there, but apparently I should have objected.
Toussi: You’re making her sound rather unreasonable. Does she ever blame herself?
Eight of Clubs: Oh, constantly. She gathers us up saying she’s an idiot. I don’t like that either. A moment before, I was the idiot. I’d barely got used to it.
Toussi: Sometimes there was no way to win that deal.
Eight of Clubs: At all?
Toussi: At all.
Eight of Clubs: Then who was she meant to ask for the answer?
Toussi: Nobody necessarily had one. A shuffled pack isn’t a crossword. Nobody has to check that it works before you start.
Eight of Clubs: She does crosswords too. When she finishes, she looks in the back. With us, she turns over the cards she never reached. I thought that was the same thing.
Toussi: What does she say when she finds you?
Eight of Clubs: “There you were.” Sometimes quite angrily. I’ve never said I wasn’t.
Toussi: Seeing where you were can explain what she needed. It doesn’t show that she could have known where to look.
Eight of Clubs: Can you find out whether she could have won?
Toussi: Researchers tested deals with a program. It found winning paths in about 82 percent of draw-three Klondike deals. But it knew every hidden card and searched through different choices. That isn’t a score to hold her to.
Eight of Clubs: It knew where I was before she turned me over?
Toussi: From the start. That version is called “thoughtful” Klondike.
Eight of Clubs: She’s thoughtful. She can spend ages looking at my back. There’s a lot of blue on it, but no clues. Even that program had deals it couldn’t win?
Toussi: Yes.
Eight of Clubs: I’d like her to hear that before she starts calling herself names.
Toussi: It wouldn’t tell us whether her particular deal was impossible. I haven’t seen it. She might also have missed a chance.
Eight of Clubs: You were doing very well until that bit.
Toussi: Have you ever been certain she picked the wrong card?
Eight of Clubs: Of course. Every time she could have uncovered me and didn’t.
Toussi: Even when she needed an Ace?
Eight of Clubs: I didn’t say I was advising her.
Toussi: You like being found.
Eight of Clubs: I like the bit just before. Her hand comes towards me and stops. She thinks. She moves something somewhere else. Then she comes back. I can be almost anything for a while. Once she turns me over, I’m an Eight and she has opinions about it.
Toussi: So taking back the move spoils that for you.
Eight of Clubs: A little. She knows who she’s coming to get. There’s no suspense on the second visit.
Toussi: There can still be a question about what to do with you.
Eight of Clubs: That’s true. Sometimes she leaves me covered for longer the second time. You can take that personally if you’re not careful.
Toussi: Would you rather she started a fresh deal?
Eight of Clubs: Not always. When she’s trying again, she sometimes says, “Wait. I want to see something.” I like that. She isn’t asking me to be an Ace anymore. She wants to find out what happens if I’m an Eight. There is one thing she does when she finally uncovers me again.
Toussi: What’s that?
Eight of Clubs: “I knew it.”
Toussi: Well, she did.
Eight of Clubs: She could at least sound pleased to see me.
Klondike Solitaire is one of the great card games Toussi can teach you, with room for second chances and Eights that remain Eights.