Bowling Solitaire

Overview

Solo game by Sid Sackson. Play ten frames and try to reach 300 points, with your bowling score.

Preparation

• Use Ace–10 of hearts and diamonds: 20 cards, Ace is worth 1.
• Ten open cards form the pegs, in four rows.
• The others form three piles of balls: 5, 3 and 2 cards. Only the top is open.

Exposed pins and balls

Back

Front

Balls

7 + 8 + 9 = 24: ball 4 knocks down the three highlighted pins.

Knock down pins

Choose an exposed ball and 1 to 3 neighboring pins:

• A pin must have the same value as the ball.
• Two or three need to form a horizontal/diagonal chain; the last digit of the sum must match the ball (10 matches zero).
• In the first move, do not remove pins from the row of four or the central pin from the row of three alone.
• Afterwards, the combination needs to touch an already empty position.

Ball and pins used come out; the next card from that pile becomes available. The cards used can be consulted below the table.

Balls and frames

A ball allows for multiple plays. Knock down all the pegs on the first one to do strike (X). You can close it voluntarily; swap discards the top of each remaining stack.

On the second ball, continue with the new tops and remaining pegs until there are no matches left. If you knock them all down, do spare (/). Then advance to the next frame, with new distribution.

Score and closing

• Open frame: sum of the pins dropped on the two balls.
• Spare: 10 plus the pins of the next ball.
• Strike: 10 plus the pins of the next two balls.
• In the tenth frame, spare gives a bonus ball; strike gives two. A completely dropped set is renewed for the next bonus.

Complete all ten frames to record your score and personal best. Scores awaiting bonuses appear with —. There is no invented minimum number of points to win.

Source: Sid Sackson, A Gamut of Games (1969; revised edition 1982), pp. 95–99. Bibliographic reference.