Little Forty Solitaire
How to play Little Forty
Little Forty is a two-deck solitaire game of the Forty Thieves family in which ten face-up piles of four are built down regardless of suit, runs in one suit move together, and an emptied pile is refilled from the waste or the stock.
Piles built down regardless of suit, runs in one suit that move together, and the stock turned three at a time with three redeals.
The goal of Little Forty
Move all 104 cards onto the eight foundations, two for each suit, each built up from the Ace to the King.
How to set up Little Forty
Two standard decks are shuffled together, 104 cards in all. Forty are dealt face up into ten piles of four, and the other 64 form the stock.
Little Forty rules
Tableau piles build down one rank at a time regardless of suit. Any card in a pile can be moved together with all the cards above it, as long as they run down in one suit.
When a pile is emptied, the top card of the waste fills it straight away, or the next card of the stock if the waste is empty. Once the stock and the waste are both empty, any card or run that can move may fill an empty pile.
Turn the stock onto the waste three cards at a time. Only the top waste card is in play. When the stock runs out, the waste may be turned back over three times, for four passes in all.
A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to send it to its foundation, else onto the first pile it builds on, else into an empty pile; a card clicked in a pile takes the cards above it along. Drag a card or a run to choose yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Little Forty
You win when all 104 cards are home. With the stock and waste empty and every pile in order, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, plays the rest for you. The game is stuck when no card can move and the passes you have left bring up nothing that can.
Little Forty strategy tips
Build in one suit when you can. A card may go on any card one rank higher, but only a run in one suit moves as a whole, so a pile of mixed suits has to be taken apart a few cards at a time.
An emptied pile is filled at once from the waste or the stock while either has cards, so emptying a pile is also a way to bring the next waste card into play.
You go through the stock four times, so there is time to wait for a card. With three cards turned at a time, each waste card you play changes which cards come up on the next pass.
Keep count of the passes. On the fourth and last one there is no turning the waste over again, so a waste card you pass over stays buried until every card turned after it has been played.
Little Forty questions and answers
How do you play Little Forty solitaire?
Shuffle two decks together, deal ten piles of four cards face up and keep the other 64 cards as the stock. Build the piles down regardless of suit, move runs in one suit together, and go through the stock four times, three cards at a time. You win when all 104 cards are home.
What is the difference between Little Forty and Forty Thieves?
Little Forty deals the same ten piles of four, but its piles build down regardless of suit and a run in one suit moves as one. An emptied pile is filled at once from the waste or the stock, and the stock is turned three cards at a time with four passes in all.
Which cards move together in Little Forty?
A card moves with the cards above it only when they all share its suit and each is one rank lower than the card beneath it, like the Nine, Eight and Seven of Spades. A Five of Hearts laid on a Six of Clubs is a legal build, but the two cannot move as a pair: the Five has to leave on its own first.
How many times can you go through the stock in Little Forty?
Four times. The stock is turned three cards at a time, and when it runs out you may turn the waste back over to make a new stock three times.
What happens when a pile is emptied in Little Forty?
It is filled at once with the top card of the waste, or with the next card of the stock if the waste is empty. Only once the stock and the waste are both empty can you choose what goes into an empty pile.
Can every Little Forty deal be won?
Not necessarily. Searching up to a million positions per deal, the game's solver proved 40% of the Little Forty deals it tried winnable, so at least that share can be won. Building regardless of suit gives every card many places to go, which makes it one of the hardest games of the family for the search. With Winnable on, in the menu beside New deal, each board comes from a list of 500 proved deals. Hint asks the same solver for a winning line before it suggests a move.
Is there a daily Little Forty game?
Yes. Little Forty has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. Log in to play it.