Learn how to play Forty Thieves Solitaire. Discover the rules, setup, and expert strategy tips to improve your win rate.
Forty Thieves Solitaire is one of the most demanding games in the mainstream patience catalogue. Named after the tale of Ali Baba and the forty thieves, it uses two full decks of 52 cards, deals a wide open tableau of face-up cards, and imposes a single-pass stock — meaning every card drawn from the stock is gone from the accessible pool forever once it passes into the waste pile. These three properties combine to produce a game where strategic planning must extend across the entire session, waste pile management is the dominant skill, and the win rate for casual play sits as low as 5–10% while deliberate strategic play approaches 20–30%.
Forty Thieves Solitaire is one of the most demanding games in the mainstream patience catalogue. Named after the tale of Ali Baba and the forty thieves, it uses two full decks of 52 cards, deals a wide open tableau of face-up cards, and imposes a single-pass stock — meaning every card drawn from the stock is gone from the accessible pool forever once it passes into the waste pile. These three properties combine to produce a game where strategic planning must extend across the entire session, waste pile management is the dominant skill, and the win rate for casual play sits as low as 5–10% while deliberate strategic play approaches 20–30%.
Despite its difficulty, Forty Thieves rewards learning more directly than most patience games. Because all tableau cards are face-up from the first move, no hidden information obscures the problem — every loss is traceable to a specific decision rather than to an unlucky deal. Players who study the game systematically improve measurably and quickly. If you are new to two-deck solitaire, our free solitaire guide provides useful background before attempting Forty Thieves.
Forty Thieves uses two standard 52-card decks shuffled together — 104 cards in total. At the start of each game, 40 cards are dealt face-up into ten columns of four. These ten columns form the tableau. The remaining 64 cards form the stock, placed face-down to one side. Eight foundation piles sit above the tableau, two per suit, each building from Ace to King. The waste pile begins empty beside the stock. No cards are hidden at any point: all 40 tableau cards and the composition of the stock are the only unknowns at game start, and as the stock is drawn the waste pile's contents become fully known.
Foundation Rules
The eight foundations build upward in suit from Ace to King. Both Aces of each suit must be played to their own foundation pile before any other card of that suit can follow. Each foundation is independent: the two Hearts foundations, for example, can be at different ranks simultaneously. Completing all eight foundations — each running Ace through King in suit — wins the game.
Tableau Rules
Tableau columns build downward in the same suit only. This same-suit-only build rule is Forty Thieves' most restrictive tableau constraint and the primary source of its difficulty: unlike Klondike's alternating-colour builds, which allow any red card to follow any black card of the correct rank, Forty Thieves requires the exact suit match. Only the top card of each column is accessible for play. A single card may be moved per turn — there is no moving of multi-card sequences. Empty columns may receive any card.
Stock and Waste Pile Rules
Cards are drawn from the stock one at a time. Each drawn card is placed face-up on the waste pile. Only the top card of the waste pile is accessible at any time. The stock passes through exactly once — there is no redeal, no cycling, no second opportunity. Once a card has been passed over in the waste pile by drawing further stock cards onto it, it becomes inaccessible until the cards above it are played elsewhere. This single-pass constraint is the defining strategic pressure of the game: every draw decision is permanent and irreversible.
At the start of each game, before drawing from the stock, scan all ten column tops for any moves available within the tableau itself. Same-suit sequences between column tops — a 7 of Spades on an 8 of Spades, for example — can be made immediately. Any Aces visible on column tops should be moved to foundations at once. After exhausting all opening tableau moves, begin drawing from the stock one card at a time, playing each drawn card to the tableau or foundation if possible, or leaving it on the waste pile if not.
The critical habit at each stock draw: before drawing, look at the current waste pile top and ask whether it can now be played given the current tableau state. The waste pile top card should be re-evaluated after every tableau move, because a move that frees a column top or creates an empty column may make the waste pile top playable when it was not a moment before.
Track the waste pile actively, not passively. Most casual players glance at the waste pile top when it is first drawn and ignore it thereafter. Expert play requires tracking the waste pile top after every individual tableau move — because the tableau changes with each move, the playability of the waste pile top changes too. Develop the habit of checking the waste pile top as the last step of every move sequence before drawing the next stock card. This habit alone recovers more missed plays than any other single adjustment.
Prioritise same-suit column building ruthlessly. The same-suit-only build rule means that a column containing mixed suits — even if the visible sequence looks orderly — is essentially stuck until the non-matching cards are cleared. When choosing between multiple available moves, always prefer the move that builds or extends a same-suit sequence over any move that creates a mixed-suit arrangement, even if the mixed-suit move looks locally productive. Mixed-suit columns are Forty Thieves' most common dead-end cause.
Manage empty columns as staging resources. An empty column in Forty Thieves is the closest equivalent to a free cell in FreeCell: it provides temporary storage for a card that needs to be moved out of the way to enable a more important sequence. The key discipline is to use empty columns for specific, planned staging moves — placing a card in an empty column to enable a same-suit sequence completion elsewhere — rather than filling them immediately with the first available King or high card. A filled empty column that was not serving a specific plan is a wasted resource.
Respect the single-pass constraint in every draw decision. Before drawing each stock card, ask: is there any rearrangement of the current tableau that would make more stock cards playable when they appear? If yes, exhaust that rearrangement before drawing. The single-pass constraint makes each unmade tableau move before a stock draw a potential permanent loss: if the stock card that appears would have been playable after the tableau rearrangement but is not playable before it, that card joins the waste pile and may never be accessible again.
Balance the eight foundations carefully. With two decks and eight foundations, suit balance becomes a genuine strategic variable. Advancing one suit's two foundations far ahead of the others creates suit-depletion asymmetry: cards of the advanced suit become unavailable for tableau building earlier than cards of lagging suits, reducing building flexibility precisely when the tableau is most complex. The practical habit: before each foundation play, check whether the suit being advanced is already two or more ranks ahead of any other suit's combined foundation progress. If so, consider whether the foundation play can be deferred without penalty.
Think Three Draws Ahead
Forty Thieves rewards players who plan not just the current move but the state of the tableau two to three stock draws from now. The question is not only whether the current waste or stock card can be played but whether playing it now leaves the tableau in a better or worse position to absorb the next two or three draws. Players who answer this question before each draw achieve measurably longer tableau sequences and fewer irrecoverable waste pile accumulations than players who evaluate only the immediate move.
Identify Dead-End Columns Early
A dead-end column is one whose top card cannot be moved to any other column top (no same-suit card of the correct rank is available) and cannot be sent to a foundation (the foundation has not advanced far enough). Dead-end column tops block access to all cards beneath them. Identifying dead-end columns early — and prioritising stock draws and tableau moves that un-stick them — prevents the cascade of blockages that ends most losing Forty Thieves games. The three-pattern structural diagnostic from our solitaire win rates guide applies directly: a confirmed circular dependency between column tops is the clearest signal that the current game is unwinnable.
Use the Complete-Information Advantage
Because all tableau cards are face-up, Forty Thieves offers a complete-information problem for the visible cards — unlike Klondike or Spider, where face-down cards create genuine uncertainty. Use this advantage by periodically scanning the full tableau (not just the accessible column tops) to identify which cards are buried under which columns and what sequence of moves would be needed to reach them. This full-tableau scan habit, applied every five to eight moves, prevents the common error of spending multiple moves preparing to play a card that turns out to be deeply buried under an inaccessible suit mismatch. Our FreeCell strategy guide covers the complete-information planning habits that transfer most directly to Forty Thieves play.
Forty Thieves Solitaire deals 40 cards face-up into ten columns of four using two decks. Eight foundation piles build from Ace to King in suit. Tableau columns build downward in the same suit only, one card at a time. Draw from the single-pass stock one card at a time; only the waste pile top is accessible. Win by completing all eight foundations. Play our free Forty Thieves Solitaire game to practise, or read our advanced variants guide for the full difficulty context.
Five habits produce the largest win rate improvements. Track the waste pile top after every individual tableau move, not only after each stock draw. Always prefer same-suit column builds over mixed-suit arrangements. Use empty columns for planned staging rather than filling them immediately. Exhaust all productive tableau rearrangements before each stock draw. Balance the eight foundations to within two ranks across all suits. Together these habits address the three primary loss causes in Forty Thieves: wasted waste pile plays, dead-end mixed-suit columns, and foundation imbalance in the endgame. For a deeper analysis of the difficulty dimensions this game engages, see our expert solitaire games guide.
No. Approximately 40–60% of randomly dealt Forty Thieves games are intrinsically unwinnable regardless of play quality. The single-pass stock, same-suit-only build rule, and ten-column constraint combine to produce a high unwinnable rate. When the three-pattern structural diagnostic confirms a circular dependency — two or more column tops each requiring the other to move first — or a suit-critical card buried beyond any accessible rearrangement path, the game cannot be won and resignation is the correct decision. See our solitaire win rates guide for the complete analysis of winnable versus unwinnable deals.