Forty Thieves has a reputation as one of the hardest solitaire games you can deal with a standard deck, with a natural win rate of only around 10%. It uses two decks, ten tableau columns, and a single pass through the stock — a setup that rewards careful planning and punishes lazy moves. This guide walks through the complete rules, the most important strategy tips, and the common variations that make the game a little friendlier if you want a realistic shot at winning.
What Is Forty Thieves?
Forty Thieves is a two-deck patience game in which the player builds four foundations per deck (eight in total) up from Ace to King in suit, while arranging a ten-column tableau that builds down in suit. The name comes from the forty cards dealt to the tableau at the start — ten piles of four cards each — and the goal is simple to describe but tricky to achieve: move every one of the 104 cards to the foundations.
A Brief History
The game dates to at least the mid-19th century. It appears in Annie B. Henshaw’s 1870 collection Amusements for Invalids, and in Lady Adelaide Cadogan’s 1874 Illustrated Games of Patience under the French name Le Cadran. It is also widely known as “Napoleon at St. Helena,” based on the popular story that the exiled emperor played it during his final years. Most card historians, including David Parlett, treat the Napoleon connection as folklore rather than fact — the name lends the game character, but there is no reliable evidence Bonaparte ever shuffled these particular piles.
Setup and the Deal
What You Need
You need two standard 52-card decks shuffled together (104 cards total) and a flat surface with enough room for ten tableau columns, eight foundation piles, a stock, and a waste. If you are playing digitally, any major solitaire site or app will set this up automatically.
The Starting Layout
Deal ten columns of four cards each, all face up and slightly overlapping so you can read every card. That accounts for 40 cards — the “forty thieves.” The remaining 64 cards form the stock, placed face down off to the side. Leave space next to the stock for the waste pile, and leave room above the tableau for the eight foundations, which start empty.
How to Play – Complete Rules
Tableau Moves
You may move only one card at a time. On the tableau, cards build down in suit: a 9 of hearts can be placed on a 10 of hearts, but not on a 10 of diamonds. Only the top (exposed) card of each column is in play — buried cards stay put until the cards above them are cleared. Any single card may be placed into an empty column, which is one of the most valuable resources in the game.
The Stock and Waste
When you cannot or do not want to make a tableau move, flip the top card of the stock face up onto the waste. The top card of the waste is always available to play onto a foundation or the tableau. You get only one pass through the stock — once it is empty, it stays empty. This single-pass rule is the main reason Forty Thieves is so demanding.
How You Win
Foundations build up in suit from Ace to King. You need to complete eight foundations: one for each suit in each of the two decks. When every foundation is topped by a King, you win. If you exhaust the stock and run out of legal moves in the tableau, the game is lost.
Strategy and Winning Tips
Forty Thieves is genuinely hard, but good decisions move the needle. Expert play can lift the win rate modestly above the random baseline — the goal is to squeeze every useful move out of the position before touching the stock.
Plan Around the Aces
Aces are the engine of your foundations, and several of them usually start buried in the tableau. Early in the game, scan each column for Aces and 2s and prioritize uncovering them. Freeing an Ace early lets you offload low cards quickly, which in turn unblocks more of the tableau.
Use Empty Columns Wisely
An empty column is extremely valuable because you can drop any card into it, including a high one like a King. Do not fill an empty column just to move a card off the waste — ask whether that move actually frees something important. Sometimes the right play is to leave a column empty for several turns until you can use it to unpack a long same-suit run.
Think Before You Draw
Because you only get one pass through the stock, every stock flip is a small commitment. Before drawing, exhaust every tableau-to-tableau move and every waste-to-tableau move you can. A card on the waste is available only while it is on top; once another card lands on it, you may not see it again until the position breaks open.
Watch the Kings
Kings cannot be built onto anything else, so a King at the bottom of a column can lock it permanently. When you spot a column headed by a long run with a King at the base, treat that column as essentially fixed and plan your empty-column plays around it.
Popular Variations
Because classic Forty Thieves is so punishing, the game has spawned a large family of variants, most designed to raise the win rate. The rules below keep the core framework — two decks, ten tableau columns, single stock pass — and adjust one or two mechanics.
Josephine
Josephine is identical to Forty Thieves except that you may move a properly ordered same-suit run of cards in the tableau as a single unit instead of one card at a time. That single change noticeably improves the win rate and is probably the most common “modern” version played online.
Streets
In Streets, the tableau builds down by alternating color rather than strictly by suit, similar to Klondike. It is easier because many more moves are legal on any given turn.
Limited, Deuces, and Other Variants
Limited deals only three cards per tableau column (so 30 in the starting layout), leaving more cards in the stock. Deuces starts with the eight 2s already placed on the foundations, giving you a head start. Many digital implementations also offer versions where the Aces are auto-placed or where you can move a sequence together; the rules panel should make the variant clear before you deal.
Where to Play Forty Thieves Online
Forty Thieves is included in most major free solitaire sites and apps, typically alongside Klondike, Spider, and FreeCell. Well-known options include Solitaired, Green Felt, Solitaire Bliss, and the Microsoft Solitaire Collection, which ships with Windows. These versions handle the two-deck setup automatically and will usually tell you when no legal moves remain, which is useful when you are learning the game. For a realistic idea of how often the deal is winnable, try the same game from the same seed several times — many sites let you replay a specific deal so you can compare approaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Forty Thieves winnable?
Yes, but only on a minority of deals. With optimal play the win rate sits around 10%, so losing is the default outcome, not a sign of a bad player. Most of the skill lies in recognizing quickly when a deal is already lost and moving on.
What’s the difference between Forty Thieves and Napoleon at St. Helena?
They are the same game under two different names. “Napoleon at St. Helena” is the older, more romantic label; “Forty Thieves” is the common modern name and refers to the forty cards in the starting tableau.
Can I redeal the stock?
No — classic Forty Thieves allows only one pass through the stock. Some apps offer an optional two- or three-pass mode as a house rule, and variants like Limited lean on that idea, but in the standard game you get one turn through the deck.
Can I move sequences of cards together?
Not in standard Forty Thieves. Only one card moves at a time, even if a long ordered run is sitting on top of a column. If you want that flexibility, play Josephine instead — it uses identical rules except that ordered same-suit runs can be moved as a unit.
Why do two columns sometimes feel impossible to untangle?
Because cards must be moved one at a time and the tableau builds strictly by suit, a column with several out-of-order high cards over a low card you need can genuinely be locked. When this happens, the usual remedy is to create an empty column elsewhere and use it as a staging area — if you cannot create one, the deal is likely unwinnable and it is fine to restart.
Final Thoughts
Forty Thieves rewards patience in the literal sense: most deals will beat you, and a careful, deliberate approach wins more often than aggressive play. Start by tracking the Aces, guard your empty columns, and resist the urge to fire through the stock. If classic Forty Thieves feels too brutal, Josephine and Streets keep the same flavor with a friendlier win rate, and both are a good way to learn the patterns before returning to the harder original.