Rules
Maria Solitaire rules at a glance
- Use two standard 52-card decks, for 104 cards total.
- Deal 36 cards face up into nine tableau columns of four cards each.
- The remaining 68 cards form the stock.
- Draw one card at a time from the stock to the waste.
- This version has one stock pass and no redeal.
- Eight foundations build upward by suit from ace to king.
- Tableau columns build downward by alternating color.
- Only one card may move at a time.
- Empty tableau columns accept any available single card.
- Win by moving all 104 cards to the foundations.
How to play
How to play Maria Solitaire
Maria Solitaire is a two-deck foundation builder. Your job is to move every card to eight foundations: two club foundations, two diamond foundations, two heart foundations, and two spade foundations. Each foundation starts with an ace and builds upward in suit to king.
The tableau gives you nine working columns. Only the top card of each column is available. You may move that top card to a foundation if it is the next needed card of its suit, or to another tableau column if it is one rank lower and the opposite color. A red 9 can go on a black 10. A black queen can go on a red king.
The top waste card is also available. Draw from the stock one card at a time, but draw with care: the stock has one pass only. If you cover a playable waste card, you may not get a clean chance to use it later.
Background
What is Maria Solitaire?
Maria is a named relative in the Napoleon at St Helena or Forty Thieves family. That family uses two decks, eight foundations, a wide tableau, and a stock that feeds one card at a time to the waste. Maria is also known as Thirty-six Card Tableau because the opening deal shows 36 tableau cards.
The name is easy to mix up with unrelated games that include Maria or Black Maria, but this page is the solitaire game: one player, two decks, ace-up foundations, and a nine-column tableau. Its signature change from stricter Forty Thieves is the tableau rule. Cards build down by alternating color instead of by the same suit.
Setup
Maria Solitaire setup and layout
- Tableau: nine columns with four face-up cards each
- Stock: the remaining 68 cards, face down
- Waste: starts empty and receives one stock card at a time
- Foundations: eight empty suit foundations, two for each suit
- Spaces: empty tableau columns may be filled by any available single card
- Goal: move all 104 cards to the foundations
Tableau
The alternating-color tableau rule
Maria's tableau builds down by one rank and alternates color. The suit itself does not matter for tableau packing. The 8 of hearts may go on the 9 of clubs or the 9 of spades, but not on the 9 of diamonds because both cards are red.
That makes Maria more flexible than same-suit Forty Thieves and Limited. A target card usually has two possible suits that can build on it instead of one. The catch is that the move still releases only one card at a time.
Stock
How the stock and waste work
The stock begins with 68 face-down cards. Draw one card to the waste whenever you need a new option. Only the top waste card is playable, so the waste behaves like a narrow window rather than a reserve you can search freely.
There is no redeal here. Once a card has been covered in the waste, it can be reached only if the cards above it later move away. Before drawing, check whether the current waste card can start a foundation, build onto the tableau, or occupy an empty column for a useful follow-up.
Moves
Legal and illegal Maria Solitaire moves
A legal Maria move must use an available card. In the tableau, that means the top card of a column. In the waste, it means the newest waste card. Foundations accept only the next rank of the same suit. Tableau columns accept a single card that is one rank lower and the opposite color from the target card.
Legal tableau9 of hearts onto 10 of clubs
Legal tableau9 of diamonds onto 10 of spades
Legal foundationAce of diamonds starts either diamond foundation
Legal spaceAny top tableau card or top waste card into an empty column
Illegal9 of hearts onto 10 of diamonds
Illegal9 of clubs onto jack of hearts
IllegalMoving a built sequence as a group
IllegalPlaying a waste card buried below the top waste card
Empty columns are open work spaces. Any available single card can move into one. That does not make every empty-column move good. Since sequences cannot move as groups, the card you park in a space may be easy to place there and surprisingly hard to move away.
Foundations
How the eight foundations work
Foundations are built upward by suit: ace, 2, 3, and so on through king. Two decks mean each suit must be completed twice. A heart foundation can accept only hearts, even though tableau moves ignore suit and care about color.
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Aces and low cards are usually helpful foundation moves. Middle cards need judgment. If a red 8 is your only landing place for a black 7 that opens a column, moving that 8 to a foundation too soon may cost more than it gains.
Spaces
Empty columns decide many Maria deals
Empty columns are Maria's best unblocking tool. They can rescue a useful waste card, peel one blocker off a column, or let you change the color pattern at the top of the tableau. Because any available card may fill a space, the choice belongs to you.
Keep at least one space flexible when you can. Filling every space with a high card can look tidy, but it often leaves no way to move a low card from the waste or expose the next foundation starter.
Visibility
Why a face-up deal can still be difficult
All 36 tableau cards begin face up, so Maria does not hide information in the opening layout. The difficulty is access. A useful ace or 2 may be visible in the middle of a column but still blocked by three cards that have no legal landing places.
The hidden information is in the stock order. You know 68 cards remain, but not whether the next helpful black 6 appears before or after the red 7 you needed to keep open.
Strategy
Maria Solitaire strategy that keeps the tableau alive
Start by finding aces and low foundation cards, but do not play every foundation move on sight. Low cards create permanent progress. Middle cards can be valuable tableau connectors, especially when they are the only opposite-color landing card for a rank below them.
Use alternating color to open columns, not just to make long piles. A neat red-black-red stack is not portable in this version. If the top card has no next move, the stack may become a lid over the cards beneath it. Prefer builds that expose low cards, free aces, or create a column you can reuse.
Draw slowly when the waste card has a job. The one-pass stock is Maria's timer. A waste card that can go to a foundation, fill a space, or build onto the tableau is not just one legal move; it may be the move that keeps the next few cards reachable.
Balance the duplicate foundations. Because there are two copies of each suit, it is easy for one foundation to race upward while the second copy still waits for an ace. When both copies of a low rank are available, consider which foundation path leaves more tableau connectors behind.
Mistakes
Common Maria Solitaire mistakes
- Playing as if tableau cards build by suit, like Forty Thieves.
- Forgetting that same-color tableau moves are illegal even when the suit differs.
- Trying to move a descending run as a packet instead of one card at a time.
- Drawing over a useful waste card because the stock still looks full.
- Filling an empty column without knowing what the parked card will do next.
- Moving a middle-rank connector to a foundation before lower cards have used it.
Winnability
Is Maria Solitaire winnable?
Maria Solitaire is not always winnable from a random shuffle. Alternating-color tableau building gives more landing choices than same-suit Forty Thieves, but the game still has a one-pass stock and single-card movement. Those two rules can lock away important cards.
This page does not invent a win-rate number. A useful rate would need to be measured against this exact implementation: nine columns of four, draw-one stock, no redeal, one-card moves, open spaces, hints, and undo.
Variants
Maria variants and house-rule notes
Maria's important identifiers are the 36-card tableau and alternating-color packing. The surrounding rules can vary in software collections: some games add redeals, allow sequence movement, or change empty-column limits. Those choices make a real difference and should be treated as house versions rather than silently mixed into the basic game.
This page keeps the rule set strict and readable: two decks, nine columns of four face-up cards, eight ace-up suit foundations, one-card tableau moves, any single card to an empty column, draw-one stock, and no redeal. There is no scoring, timer pressure, automatic foundation play, or guaranteed-winnable shuffle.
Comparison
How Maria compares with Limited, Forty Thieves, Josephine, and Indian
Maria and Limited both begin with 36 tableau cards, but they do not feel the same. Limited spreads those cards across twelve shallow columns and demands same-suit descending builds. Maria uses nine deeper columns and alternating-color builds, so more tableau landings are available but each column is a little harder to empty.
Forty Thieves is stricter because it builds by suit and opens with ten columns of four. Josephine changes the movement rule by letting same-suit sequences move together. Indian changes the packing rule to any different suit and adds hidden bottom-row cards. Maria sits between these moods: more flexible than same-suit packing, but still disciplined because every move is single-card.