Forty Thieves Solitaire: Rules, Strategy & How to Beat the Hardest Solitaire Game

What Makes Forty Thieves So Difficult

Forty Thieves stands apart from every other popular solitaire variant for one reason: you can only move a single card at a time. There are no supermoves, no group transfers, and no free cells. Every card must be individually relocated, which makes even simple rearrangements cost multiple moves and eat up precious empty columns.

Add in the fact that the game uses two full decks — 104 cards across 10 tableau columns and 8 foundation piles — and you have a solitaire game where most deals are genuinely unwinnable. Estimated win rates hover around 10%, making Forty Thieves one of the hardest card games you can play.

How the Game Is Set Up

Forty Thieves begins with 40 cards dealt face-up across 10 tableau columns, four cards per column. Every card is visible from the start, so there is no hidden information. The remaining 64 cards sit in the stock pile, drawn one at a time to the waste.

Eight foundation piles await, one for each suit in each of the two decks. Your goal is to build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit. That means placing all 104 cards in order — a tall task when you can only move them one at a time.

The Core Rules

Tableau columns are built in same-suit descending order. A 7 of Hearts can only go onto an 8 of Hearts, never onto an 8 of Diamonds. This is stricter than Klondike or FreeCell, which allow alternating colors. The same-suit requirement severely limits your options on every move.

Any single card can be placed on an empty column, which makes empty columns extraordinarily valuable. They serve as your only temporary storage, substituting for the free cells and stock recycling that make other variants more forgiving.

Foundations follow the standard same-suit ascending rule: start with an Ace, build up to King. Since there are two decks, you will build two foundation piles per suit.

The stock is drawn one card at a time to the waste pile, and there is no recycling. Once the stock is exhausted, whatever is left in the waste is gone from play unless you can use the top card.

Strategy Fundamentals

Guard Your Empty Columns

Empty columns are the single most important resource in Forty Thieves. They function as your only workspace for rearranging cards. Losing all your empty columns typically means the game is over, because you cannot perform any multi-step reorganization without temporary storage.

Before placing a card on an empty column, ask whether you truly need to. Every card you drop there is a card you will need to move again later. Ideally, empty columns should be used for brief, purposeful operations rather than long-term parking.

Build Foundations Early and Often

In most solitaire variants, there are reasons to delay building foundations. In Forty Thieves, there are very few. Every card you move to a foundation is permanently out of the way, freeing up tableau space and simplifying the board.

Aces should go to foundations immediately whenever possible. Low cards like Twos and Threes should follow quickly. The sooner you reduce the number of cards in play, the more room you have to maneuver.

Same-Suit Sequences Are Everything

Because tableau building is same-suit only, a well-ordered same-suit column is far more valuable than a long mixed-suit pile in other variants. When you have a choice between two otherwise equal moves, favor the one that extends a same-suit descending sequence.

A column with a clean run of 9-8-7-6-5 of Clubs is a powerful asset. It occupies only one column while holding five cards that are already in the right order for foundation building.

Manage the Stock Carefully

You get exactly 64 stock draws with no recycling. Each draw reveals one card that might be immediately useful or might sit on the waste pile blocking other cards. Before drawing, check whether you have any productive moves on the tableau first.

Pay attention to what gets buried in the waste. If you draw several cards in a row without playing them, the cards at the bottom of the waste may become permanently inaccessible. Draw only when tableau moves are truly exhausted.

Advanced Techniques

Plan Multiple Moves Ahead

Because single-card moves are so restrictive, even a simple rearrangement might take five or six individual moves. Before committing to a plan, trace the full sequence of moves mentally. If you need three empty columns to complete a maneuver but only have two, the plan will fail halfway through.

Track Duplicate Cards

With two decks in play, every rank and suit appears twice. This means two Aces of Spades, two Kings of Hearts, and so on. Keeping track of where duplicates are located is critical. If one Ace of Diamonds is buried deep in a tableau column and the other is near the top, focus your efforts on reaching the accessible one first.

Avoid Tall Columns

When a tableau column grows beyond six or seven cards, it becomes increasingly difficult to access the cards at the bottom. Spread your cards across multiple columns when possible rather than stacking everything onto one or two tall piles.

Know When a Game Is Lost

Not every deal is winnable, and recognizing a lost position saves time and frustration. If your stock is empty, your waste pile has grown tall, and you have no empty columns, the game is almost certainly over. There is no shame in starting a new deal — even expert players lose the majority of Forty Thieves games.

How Forty Thieves Compares to Other Variants

Forty Thieves is harder than Spider, FreeCell, and Klondike by a significant margin. Spider at four suits has a comparable difficulty reputation, but it allows same-suit sequences to move as a group, which Forty Thieves does not.

FreeCell gives you four temporary storage cells and lets you move card groups based on available space. Klondike allows alternating-color builds and unlimited stock recycling. Forty Thieves offers none of these concessions.

If you enjoy the strategic depth of FreeCell but want a stiffer challenge, Forty Thieves is the natural next step. The visible tableau gives you perfect information, and every game is a genuine puzzle — just one that is very hard to solve.

Quick Tips Summary

Focus on getting Aces and low cards to foundations as early as possible. Protect your empty columns and only use them for moves that produce immediate progress. Build same-suit sequences on the tableau whenever you can. Draw from the stock sparingly and only after exhausting tableau moves. Accept that most games will not be won, and use each attempt to sharpen your planning skills.

Forty Thieves rewards patience, precision, and a willingness to think several moves ahead. It is not a game for everyone, but for players who crave a serious solitaire challenge, nothing else comes close.

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