How to play Australian Patience
An Australian patience in the Forty Thieves style with a single deck: seven columns of four and suit building.
History & origin of Australian Patience
Forty Thieves is one of the most famous two-deck solitaires — also known as “Napoleon at St. Helena,” from the legend that the exiled emperor passed the time with it. The name likely comes from the 40 cards dealt to the tableau (ten columns of four), an echo of Ali Baba’s forty thieves.
It is famous for its difficulty: you build down by the same suit only, move one card at a time, and there is no redeal — many deals simply have no solution. It is a game for planners.
Its fame produced a large family of variants that adjust the difficulty: Josephine (named after Napoleon's wife) lets you move whole sequences; Forty and Eight adds a redeal; and Australian Patience is the single-deck version.
Facts about Australian Patience
- Also called “Napoleon at St. Helena,” from the legend that Napoleon played it in exile — hard to prove, but the nickname stuck.
- The name likely comes from the 40 cards in the tableau (ten columns of four), recalling Ali Baba’s forty thieves.
- It is famous for being tough: building only by suit with no redeal makes many games impossible to win.
- The family is large: Josephine (move sequences), Forty and Eight (a redeal), Australian Patience (one deck)… each tweaks the difficulty.
How to play Australian Patience step by step
- Goal: bring the 52 cards (one deck) to the four foundations by suit, Ace to King.
- The tableau has seven columns of four. Build down by the same suit, one card at a time.
- Draw from the stock to the waste (no redeal); empty columns accept any card.
- It is the single-deck version of Forty Thieves — shorter, but still demands planning.
- Free the Aces and start the foundations early.
- Think before you draw: with no redeal, every card counts.