Rules
Sixty Thieves Solitaire rules at a glance
- Use three standard 52-card decks, for 156 cards total.
- Deal 60 cards face up into twelve tableau columns of five cards each.
- The remaining 96 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.
- Twelve foundations build upward by suit from ace to king.
- Tableau columns build downward by suit.
- Only one card may move at a time.
- Empty tableau columns accept any available single card.
- Win by moving all 156 cards to the foundations.
How to play
How to play Sixty Thieves Solitaire
Sixty Thieves is a large foundation builder in the Forty Thieves family. Your goal is to build twelve foundations from ace to king by suit. Because three decks are in play, each suit has three separate foundation piles: three clubs, three diamonds, three hearts, and three spades.
On each turn, use an available card. That means the top card of a tableau column or the top card of the waste. Move it to a foundation if it is the next card needed in that suit, or move it to a tableau column if it builds down by the same suit. A jack of clubs can go on a queen of clubs. It cannot go on a queen of spades or a king of clubs.
Background
What is Sixty Thieves Solitaire?
Sixty Thieves is best understood as the triple-deck branch of the Napoleon at St Helena or Forty Thieves family. The family shape is familiar: visible tableau columns, suit foundations, a draw-one stock, and severe restrictions on tableau movement. Sixty Thieves keeps those restrictions but raises the scale.
The name comes from the 60-card opening tableau. Those cards are all visible, so the game is not hiding the board from you. The hidden pressure sits in the stock order and in access: a card can be visible in column four, but if four other cards sit on top of it, that card is still out of reach.
Setup
The layout on this page
The tableau has twelve columns. Each column starts with five face-up cards, so the opening board shows 60 cards. The remaining 96 cards stay in the stock and turn one at a time to the waste.
Above the tableau are twelve foundations. Empty foundations need aces. Once a foundation has an ace, it accepts the 2 of the same suit, then the 3, and so on through king.
Stock
How the stock and waste work
This version draws one card at a time. The newest waste card is the only waste card you can play. If you draw again, the old waste card is covered and cannot be reached unless every card above it moves away later.
There is no redeal. That makes the 96-card stock feel generous and dangerous at the same time. It contains most of the remaining game, but every draw is a one-way decision.
Moves
Legal and illegal Sixty Thieves moves
Tableau building is same-suit and descending. If a column ends with the 8 of hearts, the only card that can build onto it is the 7 of hearts. The 7 of diamonds is the same color, but it is illegal. The 6 of hearts has the right suit, but it skips a rank.
Only a single available card moves. Even if a column already contains a neat queen-jack-10 of spades run, you cannot move those cards together. You must move the exposed top card, then work down through the column one legal move at a time.
FoundationAce of spades starts one spade foundation
Foundation7 of hearts onto 6 of hearts
TableauJack of clubs onto queen of clubs
Empty columnAny single available top card
IllegalJack of clubs onto queen of spades
IllegalMoving a same-suit run as a packet
Foundations
How the twelve foundations work
Foundations are permanent progress. Each foundation starts with an ace and builds upward in the same suit: ace, 2, 3, 4, and onward to king. Since three decks are used, each suit must be completed three times.
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Three copies of every card can be a help or a trap. A low club may have several possible foundations, but uneven foundation progress can make later duplicates awkward. Try to keep all three copies of a suit moving when the tableau allows it.
Spaces
Empty columns are scarce workbenches
Empty columns accept any available single card. They are the main way to unstack a column, save a waste card before it gets covered, or build a same-suit landing place for a blocked lower rank.
Because sequences cannot move together, a space can disappear faster than you expect. If you fill it with a card that has no follow-up, you may close the one lane that could have released an ace, 2, or suit connector.
Visibility
Why visible cards still create a hard game
All tableau cards are visible at the start, but visibility is not freedom. A buried 3 of diamonds may be exactly what a foundation needs and still be unusable until four other column cards move away.
The stock adds another kind of hidden information. You know there are 96 cards waiting, but you do not know whether the next useful ace appears before the waste card you just covered, or after the empty column you needed has already been filled.
Strategy
Sixty Thieves strategy that keeps the long game alive
Start by finding aces and low cards. With twelve foundations to build, early foundation starts matter. Aces, 2s, and 3s are usually worth moving when they do not break a useful tableau plan, because they create landing places for later stock cards.
Balance duplicate foundations. In a two-deck game, one stalled foundation is annoying. In Sixty Thieves, three copies of each suit mean the imbalance can spread. If one heart foundation reaches 9 while two heart aces are still buried, later hearts may have fewer useful homes than the board appears to promise.
Use empty columns to release cards, not just to store them. A space is strongest when it creates a chain: move one blocker, expose a low foundation card, then use the newly exposed card to make another move. Parking a random high card may be fine, but only if you know why that card belongs there.
Draw slowly when the waste card has a job. The stock is large enough that careless drawing feels harmless at first. It is not. Every new draw covers the current waste card, and there is no redeal to recover it. If a waste card can go to a foundation, fill a meaningful column space, or build down by suit, consider using it before turning the next card.
Mistakes
Common Sixty Thieves mistakes
- Drawing through the stock because 96 cards makes it feel endless.
- Forgetting that tableau builds by suit, not by color.
- Assuming a correct same-suit run can move as a group.
- Filling an empty column before checking what the space can unlock.
- Sending a middle card to a foundation when it is still needed as a tableau landing card.
- Letting one copy of a suit foundation race far ahead while the other two copies are blocked.
Winnability
Is Sixty Thieves Solitaire winnable?
Sixty Thieves is not always winnable from a random shuffle. More decks create more duplicate cards and more possible foundation starts, but the same-suit build rule and one-card movement still make access the central problem.
This page does not invent a win-rate number. A fair percentage would need to be measured against this exact implementation, including the 12-by-5 tableau, one-pass stock, undo, hints, and manual empty-column fills.
Variants
Sixty Thieves variants and house rules
Sixty Thieves is a triple-pack relative of Forty Thieves, so most house rules come from the same family. Some digital versions of related games allow a redeal, movable sequences, alternating-color tableau builds, or automatic foundation play. Each change makes a major difference because it removes one of the strict bottlenecks.
This page uses the strict version: three decks, twelve columns of five, draw one, no redeal, build down by suit, build foundations up by suit, and move only one card at a time. That rule set keeps the game long and deliberate rather than turning it into a relaxed packet-moving tableau.
Difficulty
Why Sixty Thieves feels bigger, not simply easier
The extra deck gives you more copies of the ranks you need, but it also gives you more cards that must eventually find exact suit homes. Twelve foundations can look spacious at the top of the table, while twelve columns and a 96-card stock create many ways to cover the wrong card at the wrong time.
Compared with a shorter solitaire game, Sixty Thieves asks for stamina. You can recover from small mistakes, but only if you keep enough empty-column flexibility to unbury low cards and avoid turning the waste into a sealed stack of missed chances.
Nearby games
How Sixty Thieves compares with Forty Thieves, Limited, and Josephine
Forty Thieves is the closest smaller game. It uses two decks, ten columns of four, and eight foundations. Sixty Thieves keeps the same strict movement style but expands the target to 156 cards, which makes stock timing and duplicate-foundation balance more important.
Limited has twelve columns too, but it uses two decks and starts each column with only three cards. Josephine relaxes the family in a different way by letting same-suit descending sequences move together. If Sixty Thieves feels too rigid, Josephine is the friendlier neighbor; if it feels too long, Forty Thieves is the tighter test.