How To Play

The deal

Each frame uses 20 cards: ace to 10 in spades and in hearts. An ace is always 1 and a 10 is 10.

Ten cards stand face up as the pins, in rows of 4, 3, 2 and 1 from the back. The single pin nearest you is the head pin. The other ten cards go face down into three ball piles of 5, 3 and 2, and the top card of each pile turns face up. Those three are your ball cards.

Touching and open pins

Pins touch when they sit side by side in a row, or diagonally between neighbouring rows.

A pin is open when no standing pin is in front of it, nearer to you. The head pin starts open, and the pins behind it open up as the pins in front of them fall. Open pins have a red arrow under them.

Making a hit

1. Pick a ball card. Its last digit is the number you need. A 7 ball needs 7; a 10 ball needs 0.
2. Pick one to three standing pins that touch each other.
3. Their sum must end in the ball's digit. A 7 ball matches 7, 5 + 2, 4 + 3, or 8 + 9 = 17.
4. At least one of them must be open.

Bowl, and the pins fall. That ball card is used up, and the next card in its pile turns face up.

The 10 rides free

A 10 pin never changes the last digit, so it can join almost any hit it touches. It is the first trick worth learning.

Ball 1 and ball 2

On ball 1, make as many hits as you can find, one at a time. The ball ends when you tap End ball; the game never ends it for you. Knock all ten down on ball 1 for a strike.

For ball 2, the face-up top card of every pile that still has cards is thrown away, and the next cards turn up. An empty pile loses nothing. Clear the pins still standing for a spare. Anything less is an open frame.

Stuck? The Hint key shows you a hit, or tells you there are none left.

Scoring

Bowlitaire scores like ten-pin bowling.

In frame 10, a strike earns two bonus balls and a spare earns one. Each bonus ball is a fresh deal played like ball 1, and only its pins count. A perfect game is 300.

Bowl a frame