Practical advice to beat one of the hardest solitaire games ever made. From empty column strategy to stock management — everything you need to push your win rate above 10%.
If you only remember one thing: protect your empty columns. Forty Thieves is won or lost based on how well you create and use empty tableau columns. Since you can only move one card at a time, empty columns are your only way to rearrange the board. Every decision should be filtered through one question: “Does this move help me get or keep an empty column?”
In Forty Thieves Solitaire, Aces and Twos should go to the foundations the moment they become available. There is never a strategic reason to keep an Ace or a Two on the tableau. They cannot be built upon in any useful way, and every Ace on the tableau is a wasted card taking up valuable space.
With two decks in play, you have eight Aces and eight Twos to find. Getting these 16 cards to the foundations early clears space on the tableau and gives you room to work. Pay special attention to Aces that are buried under other cards — you need a plan to uncover them.
Pro tip: Remember that Forty Thieves has duplicate suits. Both Ace of Spades cards need their own foundation pile. Track which suit piles already have an Ace and which still need one.
Empty tableau columns are the single most powerful resource in Forty Thieves. Since you can only move one card at a time, empty columns serve the same role as free cells in FreeCell — they give you temporary storage to rearrange sequences.
To move a sequence of 3 cards from one column to another, you need 2 empty columns as temporary holding spots. To move 4 cards, you need 3 empty columns. The formula is simple: you need N-1 empty columns to move N cards.
Creating your first empty column is the hardest part. Look for columns with only 1 or 2 cards and concentrate your early moves on clearing them. Once you have one empty column, use it to create a second, then a third. Momentum builds as your working space grows.
Unlike Klondike or FreeCell where you build with alternating colors, Forty Thieves requires same-suit building on the tableau. A 9 of Hearts can only go on a 10 of Hearts — not a 10 of Diamonds. This restriction dramatically reduces your available moves at any point.
Build same-suit sequences whenever possible, even when it means passing up a move that looks convenient. A well-built same-suit run of 5-6 cards can be moved to the foundations in sequence, rapidly clearing space. A mixed pile that happens to be in descending order is useless — the cards still need to be separated by suit eventually.
The stock pile in Forty Thieves contains 64 cards — more than half the deck. You draw one card at a time to the waste pile, and critically, there is no recycling. Once you've flipped through all 64 cards, those that remain in the waste pile are gone for good.
This no-recycling rule is what makes stock management in Forty Thieves so critical. In Canfield or Klondike, you can cycle through the stock multiple times. Here, every draw matters.
Key insight: The waste pile in Forty Thieves is effectively a last-in-first-out stack. If you draw a card you need but can't play yet, it gets buried by the next draw. Time your draws carefully.
One of the most common mistakes in Forty Thieves is placing a card on top of another card that you'll need soon. Because you can only move one card at a time and the stock doesn't recycle, burying the wrong card can make the game unwinnable.
Before making any move, check: will this card block something I need? If you place a 7 of Spades on an 8 of Spades, but the Ace of Spades is underneath that 8, you've just made the Ace even harder to reach. Think vertically through each column before adding to it.
Pay special attention to cards ranked 3-6. These “middle cards” are often the ones that create logjams. Aces and Twos should go straight to foundations. Kings and Queens are less problematic because they sit at the top of tableau sequences. But middle-ranked cards can easily trap important cards below them.
When you create an empty column, be intentional about what goes into it. Any card can fill an empty column in Forty Thieves, but Kings are the ideal choice. A King placed in an empty column becomes the start of a potential 13-card same-suit sequence from King to Ace.
If you place a non-King card in an empty column, you can still build down on it, but the sequence will be shorter and less useful. More importantly, that column can never hold a King at its base unless you clear it again — wasting the empty column you worked so hard to create.
The exception is when you need temporary storage. Using an empty column to park a card briefly while rearranging other cards is perfectly valid. Just make sure you clear it out again quickly so the column stays available for productive use.
Forty Thieves punishes impulsive play more than almost any other solitaire game. Every move has consequences that ripple forward, and since you can't recycle the stock, mistakes are permanent. Before making a move, think 3-5 moves ahead.
Ask yourself these questions before every move:
Forty Thieves has one of the lowest win rates of any solitaire game. Many deals are simply unwinnable regardless of how well you play. Recognizing a lost game early saves time and frustration.
Signs that a game is probably unwinnable:
Don't feel bad about restarting. Expert Forty Thieves players expect to lose 90% of their games. Starting a fresh deal and applying these tips to a better layout is far smarter than grinding away at an impossible one. The game is called “Forty Thieves” because it steals your chances — that's the design.
Many players compare Forty Thieves to Spider Solitaire since both use multiple decks and same-suit building. But the games play very differently and require distinct strategies.
The single-card-move restriction is the biggest difference. In Spider, you can move entire same-suit sequences at once. In Forty Thieves, every card moves individually, making empty columns essential as temporary storage.
Forty Thieves is one of the hardest solitaire games in common play. It was reportedly a favorite of Napoleon during his exile at St Helena, and its difficulty has humbled card players ever since. Unlike FreeCell (where nearly every deal is solvable) or Klondike (where thoughtful play gets you 30-40%), Forty Thieves is designed to be nearly impossible.
If you're consistently below 3%, focus on Tips #1 and #2 — getting Aces to foundations and creating empty columns. If you're in the 5-8% range, Tips #4 and #7 (stock management and forward planning) will push you higher.
The best way to improve is to play. Apply these tips one at a time and watch your win rate climb — from 3% to 5% to maybe even 10%.
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