Forty Thieves Solitaire (2024)

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Game Features

40 cards are dealt out at the beginning, hence the name. Try to move all the cards to the top eight foundation spots.

Click play to start a game.
Click Help for instructions.
The High Scores button shows the scores of previous games.
You can toggle sound on and off using the speaker and music buttons within the game.

The object of the game is to build eight foundations up in suit from ace to king. Within the tableau, cards are built down and in suit. Spaces within the tableau may be filled with any card. Click on the stock to get a new card to play.

Guide To Fourty Thieves

Fourty Thieves is a two deck version of the game where 40 cards are dealt out at the beginning. Fourty Thieves is also known as Big Forty, Napoleon St Helena, Roosevelt at San Juan, and Le Cadran.

In this article, we'll look at:

The history of Fourty Thieves
How to play advice for beginners
Advanced Fourty Thieves Strategy
Alternative versions of the game

The History Of Fourty Thieves

This is the game Napoleon often played after his final exile to the island of St Helena in 1814. For this reason, Fourty Thieves is most commonly known as “Napoleon at St Helena”. It is one of the most popular and difficult two-deck solitaire games., with chances of winning around one in ten games.

How To Play Fourty Thieves

The goal of 40 thieves is to move all the cards to the top eight foundation spots.

Deal ten tableau piles of four cards each, all face up and all visible. Leave space for eight foundation piles above the tableau piles.

Each foundation spot begins with an Ace. You place cards on top of the Ace in ascending order of the same suit. 40 thieves uses two decks of cards so there will be two of every card.

The foundations are built up in sequence, so after you have placed an Ace, look to place a 2, 3, 4 and so on. Meanwhile, the tableaus are built down by suit. The foundations are built up by suit, from Ace to King.

The object of the game is to move all the cards to the foundations.

Fourty Thieves Strategy

Think ahead. Like all Solitaire games, you need to think a few moves in advance in order to release the cards you need, at the right time.Try to free up low-ranking cards, You need these to build up the foundations, so they need to be played first.

Any available card can be played to an empty pile, so leaving a pile empty can be advantageous. It's a good idea to use empty piles in a way that doesn't use them up as you can use them again, rather than just once. You can also move builds using empty piles. At later stages of the game, you can use empty piles to reduce the discard pile.

FAQs

How many cards are used in Fourty Thieves?

Forty Thieves is played with two standard 52-card decks, for a total of 104 cards.

Are Aces high in Fourty Thieves?

In Fourty Thieves, Ace is low and King is high.

What are the chances of winning Fourty Thieves?

Fourty Thieves is difficult. Expect to win around 10% of the time, if playing well.

What are alternative versions of Fourty Thieves?

There are many close versions to Fourty Thieves. These include:

Lucas –the aces are removed and act as the foundations while the 13 columns of three cards each are formed during the deal.
Maria-nine columns of four cards are formed on the deal and during play; during play, the cards are built down by alternating color.
Rank and File –the bottom three cards of each of the ten columns are faced down and the top card of each is the only one exposed.
Red and Black –there are eight columns built down by alternating colour.
Josephine –cards of the same suit built down can be moved as a unit.

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