How to Play Forty Thieves

Forty Thieves is an advanced variant of Solitaire that challenges your skill, strategy, and patience. The name comes from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a short story from The Arabian Nights (aka The Thousand and One Nights) in which Ali Baba unlocks a hidden treasure by saying, “Open, Sesame.”

This game is not for the faint of heart, and magic words won’t help you achieve your goal. Luckily, our easy step-by-step guide teaches you how to play Forty Thieves and provides strategies that’ll help you come out on top.

You only need two standard 52-card decks with jokers removed.

After shuffling the two decks together, arrange them in the following order:

Your forty thieves are the 10 tableaus, each with 4 face-up cards. Above them, there will be 8 foundation piles. Place the rest of the cards in the stock pile beside the foundation piles.

Forty Thieves Solitaire is notoriously challenging, earning the reputation of having only a 10% chance of success. This is why we offer different levels of difficulty. The easy setting lets you enjoy the game without worrying about restrictive rules. Players who want a challenge choose the hard setting.

Just like other variants, your objective is to transfer all of the cards from the tableaus and stock pile to the final destination: the foundation piles. Use the tableaus to circulate through the decks.

A card’s suit and face value determine its placement:

• Tableau: organize runs in descending order by suit (King to Ace)
• Foundation: organize runs in ascending order by suit (Ace to King)

First deviation from other versions of Solitaire: Cards cannot transfer directly from stock to tableau. Cards from the stock must be discarded in the waste pile or placed in the foundation piles.

Using what we’ve covered so far, exhaust all possible moves on the layout before drawing from the stock. When the time comes, turn over the topmost card of the stock pile and compare its suit and face value to the topmost card in each tableau.

When handling the stock cards, use the following criteria to determine your best move:

• If a card is one rank below any of the top cards in the columns and is of the same suit, it may be played into the tableau.
• If the card is one rank higher than any of the top cards in the foundation piles and of the same suit, it may be moved from the waste pile.

Second deviation from other versions of Solitaire:

Transferring cards between the tableaus has restrictions based on the level of difficulty you choose.

• Hard: you may only move one card at a time, even if it is part of a run.
• Easy: you may move entire runs at a time.

Theoretically, the easy version of Forty Thieves will always end in a win since you can undo moves and cycle through the stock endlessly. However, the hard version of the game will end in a loss once you get to the end of the stock without having finished building the eight foundation piles.

While the face-up layout of cards affords some advantages, the restrictive rules limit card maneuvering. These tips help you maximize your chances of winning Forty Thieves Solitaire:

• Strategize. Study the tableaus, identify key cards, and plan how to best free them up.

• Prioritize moving lower-ranked cards. As the foundation piles are built in ascending order, place aces and twos immediately in the foundations so they don’t clog up the columns.

• Create empty columns. Any card can be played into empty columns, giving you extra elbow room for maneuvering runs and freeing up important cards.

• Use the hint and undo buttons. In online games, you can take advantage of the unlimited hint and undo button. Use these to help your long-term strategy towards building suits.

• Practice patience. Even with the easy version, Forty Thieves is a tough game. Even the most experienced players must lead with patience.

In The Arabian Nights, Ali Baba and his allies require all their skill and strategy to defeat 40 thieves and get the gold. In the same way, you’ll require all of your skills and strategy to defeat Forty Thieves Solitaire.

Open, Sesame! Visit Arkadium to start playing—no download needed.

Did you know that we have over 120 free online games on Arkadium? Browse our wide collection of Solitaire games, including Klondike, Spider Solitaire, Pyramid Solitaire, Tripeaks Solitaire, Canfield, Crescent, Forty Thieves, Freecell, and more.