Forty Thieves Solitaire

Forty Thieves is a challenging variation of classic Solitaire, played with two decks of cards (104 cards). It is quite difficult to win and relies mostly on skill.

How to Play Forty Thieves Solitaire

Rules

• Tableau piles are built down in the same suit (e.g., a 9♠ on a 10♠).
• Only the top card from each tableau can be moved at a time.
• Any card can be placed in an empty tableau spot.
• Foundations are built up by suit, starting from Ace and ending with King.
• One card is dealt at a time from the stock to the waste pile.
• You can play the top card from the waste.
• There is no stock redeal; you can only go through the stock once.

Objective

Move all the cards to the foundations.

Setup

• The game uses two standard 52-card decks, shuffled together.
• There are 10 tableau piles, each dealt 4 cards face up.
• The remaining cards form the stock pile, which is placed face down.
• There are 8 foundation piles.

Variations

There are several variations of Forty Thieves that are played similarly but have slight differences in rules or setup:

• Josephine - same as Forty Thieves, but you are allowed to move sequences of cards within the tableau.
• Thieves of Egypt - similar to Forty Thieves, but the cards are dealt in the shape of a pyramid, and tableau piles are built down by alternating colors.