Forty Thieves Solitaire: Complete Rules & Strategy Guide

Forty Thieves solitaire is widely regarded as one of the most demanding patience games ever devised — a two-deck battle of wits where every draw from the stock could be your last lifeline. Also known as Napoleon at St. Helena, this classic game rewards careful planning and punishes impulsive moves. In this guide you’ll learn the complete rules, step-by-step setup, advanced strategy, common mistakes to avoid, and how Forty Thieves fits into the broader world of solitaire card games.

What Is Forty Thieves? History and Overview

Forty Thieves earned its colourful name from the Ali Baba tale, and its alternative title — Napoleon at St. Helena — suggests the exiled emperor himself may have whiled away his island captivity with this very game. Whether that story is true or not, the game’s reputation for relentless difficulty is well-deserved.

Unlike Klondike solitaire, which gives you alternating-colour builds and multiple redeals, Forty Thieves uses two full 52-card decks (104 cards in total), demands same-suit building, and allows only a single pass through the stock. That combination of constraints means even experienced players win fewer than one game in seven or eight. Far from being a reason to avoid it, that challenge is precisely what makes mastering Forty Thieves so satisfying.

The game became a favourite of 19th-century card players across Europe and eventually made its way around the world, finding a loyal following here in New Zealand among those who enjoy a proper mental workout at the table — or screen.

Equipment and Setup

What you need

• Two standard 52-card decks (104 cards total), shuffled together thoroughly.
• A large playing surface — the layout is wide, so a dining table or a generous digital interface works best.
• Eight foundation spaces at the top of the playing area.
• Ten tableau column spaces below the foundations.
• A stock pile space and a single waste pile space.

Dealing the opening tableau

Deal four cards face-up into each of ten columns, working left to right. All 40 dealt cards are visible from the start — hence the game’s name. The remaining 64 cards form the stock pile, placed face-down to one side. The waste pile begins empty. The eight foundation piles also start empty, waiting to receive Aces as they become available.

How to Play Forty Thieves: Step-by-Step Rules

1. Identify your Aces. Scan all ten columns immediately. Any Ace visible on top of a column should be moved to a foundation pile straight away.
2. Build on foundations. Each foundation is built upward from Ace to King, in the same suit. With two decks you need two complete Ace-to-King sequences per suit — eight foundations in total.
3. Build on tableau columns. You may place a card on top of a tableau column only if it is one rank lower and the same suit as the current top card. A Seven of Clubs can only sit on an Eight of Clubs, for instance.
4. Move one card at a time. You cannot pick up and move a sequence as a block. Only the single topmost card of any column is available for play.
5. Use empty columns wisely. When a column is completely cleared, any single card may be placed there. Empty columns are precious — treat them like gold.
6. Draw from the stock. When no useful tableau move is available, flip the top card of the stock to the waste pile. Only the top card of the waste pile can be played at any time.
7. One pass only. Once the stock is exhausted there is no redeal. When the stock is gone, you may only continue playing cards already on the tableau or the top of the waste pile.
8. Win condition. Move all 104 cards onto the eight foundation piles to win. If the stock runs out and no legal moves remain before the foundations are complete, the game is lost.

Core Strategy: Thinking Several Moves Ahead

Prioritise Aces and low cards

Before touching the stock, always exhaust tableau moves. The moment an Ace or a Two becomes accessible, get it onto a foundation. Low cards sent to foundations open up tableau space and reduce congestion. A Two that sits on the tableau rather than a foundation is simply blocking progress.

Guard your empty columns

An empty column is the most powerful resource in Forty Thieves. It acts as a temporary holding cell, letting you shuffle cards around to expose buried ones. Never fill an empty column permanently with a card that doesn’t serve an immediate purpose — doing so is one of the most common mistakes beginners make. Ask yourself: “Does placing this card here free up something essential, or am I just tidying?”. If the answer is the latter, hold off.

Plan before you draw

The single-pass stock rule is the game’s harshest constraint. Every card you flip and cannot use buries the waste pile deeper. Try to see three or four moves ahead in the tableau before reaching for the stock. Good players often squeeze five or six tableau moves out of a position before drawing a single card. Developing this discipline is the single biggest leap you can make in improving your win rate.

Manage same-suit sequences deliberately

Because building requires matching suits, you’ll frequently have a perfectly ordered sequence — say, 9-8-7 of Hearts — that you cannot move as a unit. Keep track of which sequences exist and position their host columns so the cards become accessible in order. Building long same-suit sequences on the tableau is excellent preparation for rapid foundation play later in the game.

Advanced Tactics for Experienced Players

Once the foundational rules feel automatic, these higher-level tactics separate skilled players from the rest. For deeper thinking on daily improvement habits, our daily solitaire strategy guide is well worth a read alongside this one.

• Count your suit distribution. With 104 cards, each suit appears 26 times. Mentally noting how many cards of a given suit have already been played helps you predict when key cards might surface from the stock.
• Never block a foundation suit. If the Hearts foundation is sitting on the 6, avoid burying 7, 8, or 9 of Hearts under inaccessible cards on the tableau. Keep potential foundation feeders near the surface.
• Stagger your foundation progress. Building one suit far ahead of the others can strand useful tableau cards — you need balanced foundation growth so mid-range cards from every suit remain playable on the tableau as long as possible.
• Treat the waste pile top as a wild card. If the waste pile’s top card can slot onto the tableau or a foundation, play it immediately before drawing again. Letting a usable waste card sit while you draw more stock is a wasted opportunity.
• Recognise unwinnable positions early. If two identical cards (e.g., both Jacks of Diamonds) are deeply buried and everything needed to uncover them is also blocked, the game may already be lost. Experienced players restart rather than grinding through a dead end — preserving mental energy for a fresh game is smart, not defeatist.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Reaching for the stock too soon. Drawing before exhausting tableau options wastes your single pass through the deck. Pause, look harder at the layout.
2. Filling empty columns carelessly. Dropping a mid-ranking card into an empty column without a plan squanders your most flexible resource.
3. Racing one foundation suit ahead. Pushing Spades to the King while the other suits sit on the 3 creates a log-jam of unplayable mid-range cards across the tableau.
4. Ignoring buried Aces. If an Ace is two or three cards deep, plan immediately to unearth it. Waiting until the stock runs out often leaves you without the moves needed to dig it free.
5. Moving cards to the foundation prematurely. Occasionally a card is more useful on the tableau as a building base than on the foundation. Sending it up too early can block sequences you’ll need later.

Forty Thieves Variants Worth Trying

If you love the core challenge but want to explore related games, the Forty Thieves family is surprisingly large. The table below gives a quick comparison of popular variants and how they differ from the original.

Variant	Decks	Key Difference from Forty Thieves	Difficulty
Forty Thieves (original)	2	Baseline: same-suit build, single pass, 10 × 4 tableau	Expert
Thirty Thieves	2	Only 30 cards dealt (10 columns × 3), slightly easier start	Hard
Josephine	2	Sequences may be moved as a block — significantly more flexible	Medium–Hard
Limited	2	Three redeals allowed through the stock	Medium
Maria	2	Builds down in alternating colours rather than same suit	Hard

If you’re new to the two-deck world altogether, starting with Josephine or Limited is a sensible progression before tackling the full Forty Thieves challenge. You can explore many of these options through our broader solitaire card games hub.

Where Forty Thieves Fits in the Solitaire Family

The solitaire family is vast — from the breezy simplicity of FreeCell to the luck-heavy Pyramid — but Forty Thieves occupies a distinct niche as a high-skill, low-luck two-deck patience game. Compare it with Klondike: Klondike deals cards face-down and allows alternating-colour builds, making it more luck-dependent but also more forgiving. Forty Thieves strips those comforts away. Every card is visible from the first deal, which means there are no hidden surprises — but it also means you have no excuse for not planning. The difficulty is almost entirely self-inflicted through poor sequencing decisions rather than bad luck, which is exactly what makes it such a rewarding game to improve at. Win rates hover around 10–15% for skilled players, meaning even the best will lose the majority of games — and that’s perfectly fine. Each loss is a lesson.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards are used in Forty Thieves solitaire?

Forty Thieves uses two standard 52-card decks shuffled together, giving you 104 cards in total. Forty of these are dealt face-up into ten tableau columns of four cards each at the start of the game, with the remaining 64 forming the stock pile.

Can you move a sequence of cards as a group in Forty Thieves?

No — this is one of the game’s defining restrictions. Only a single card may be moved at a time, even if several cards in a column form a perfect same-suit descending sequence. If you want the flexibility to move sequences, try the variant called Josephine, which relaxes this rule.

What is the win rate for Forty Thieves solitaire?

Skilled, experienced players typically win between 10% and 15% of games. Beginners will win considerably less often. The low win rate is a feature of the design rather than a flaw — it ensures every victory feels genuinely earned and keeps players coming back to sharpen their strategy.

Is there a redeal in Forty Thieves?

No redeal is permitted. You get exactly one pass through the stock pile, which is what makes card management so critical. Once the stock is exhausted, only cards on the tableau and the top of the waste pile remain in play. Some variants such as “Limited” do allow redeals if you find the single-pass rule too punishing.

What is the best opening move in Forty Thieves?

Always start by moving any visible Aces to the foundations immediately. After that, look for Twos, Threes, or any card that extends an existing foundation. Avoid touching the stock until you’ve made every useful tableau move available — preserving the stock is essential given you have only one pass through the deck.