Lower 48 Solitaire
How to play Lower 48
Lower 48 is a two-deck solitaire game of the Forty Thieves family in which eight face-up piles of five are built down in alternating colours, one card at a time, with one redeal.
Eight piles of five built down in alternating colours, one card at a time, with one redeal.
The goal of Lower 48
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 Lower 48
Two standard decks are shuffled together, 104 cards in all. Forty are dealt face up into eight piles of five, and the other 64 form the stock.
Lower 48 rules
Piles build down in alternating colours, one rank at a time. Only one card moves at a time, the top card of a pile or of the waste, and an empty pile takes any card.
Turn the stock onto the waste one card at a time. Only the top waste card is in play. When the stock runs out, the waste may be turned back over once, for two 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. Drag it to choose yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Lower 48
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.
Lower 48 strategy tips
Lower 48 deals eight piles of five, the deepest piles in the family, so the bottom card of a pile has four cards above it. Find the Aces and Twos at the start and dig out the ones nearest the top first.
You go through the stock twice, so a waste card you cannot place on the first pass comes round again on the second. Make every useful move on the table before you turn the waste back over.
With eight piles of five, an empty pile is slow to make. Keep any pile you empty for a King or for a card that covers an Ace, and use the second pass for the cards the first one buried.
Each pile is five deep from the deal, so building on a dealt card quickly makes a pile too long to clear one card at a time. Build on the piles you do not need to empty, and keep one or two short.
Lower 48 deals its forty cards in eight piles instead of ten, so there are two fewer top cards to build on and one more card to dig through in every pile.
Lower 48 questions and answers
How do you play Lower 48 solitaire?
Shuffle two decks together, deal eight piles of five cards face up and keep the other 64 cards as the stock. Build the piles down in alternating colours, one card at a time, and go through the stock twice, one card at a time. You win when all 104 cards are home.
How many times can you go through the stock in Lower 48?
Twice. The stock is turned one card at a time, and when it runs out you may turn the waste back over to make a new stock once.
What is Lower 48 based on?
Lower 48 is a newer variation of Forty and Eight, with its piles built down in alternating colours.
Why is Lower 48 so hard?
It deals the deepest piles in the family and only the top card moves, so a low card at the bottom of a pile needs four cards moved off it first. Alternating colours give each of those four cards four possible homes, but eight piles leave few of them showing at once, and the redeal brings back only waste cards, never a buried one.
Can every Lower 48 deal be won?
Not necessarily. Searching up to a million positions per deal, the game's solver proved 7.8% of the Lower 48 deals it tried winnable, so at least that share can be won. That is the lowest share of any game in the family with a list of winnable deals. 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 Lower 48 game?
Yes. Lower 48 has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. Log in to play it.