Everything comes down to empty columns
With one card moving at a time, an empty column is what lets you move anything bigger. One empty column lets you move a run of two; two let you move four. Make clearing a column your first goal in every deal, and think hard before you fill one.
- Pick the column with the fewest cards that can go somewhere else, often one with a low card to send home.
- Fill an empty column only when it gets you something: a long run in suit, a King, or a card that frees another column.
Look before you deal
At the start, all forty cards are face up. Before your first move, look for the Aces and 2s and for what is buried above them. A column with an Ace near the bottom is a good one to dig into.
Don't hurry to the foundations
- Aces and 2s should always go home: nothing can be built on them.
- Higher cards are worth keeping in the columns while you still need them. A 7♠ on the table can hold the 6♠ from the waste; on the foundation it can't.
- With two decks, there are two of every card. If one 8♦ is buried, the other may be the one to build on.
Using the stock
- Before you turn the next card, make every move that doesn't cost you anything. You can't take the waste card back once a new one covers it, except in a game with two passes.
- The waste is a pile, not a list: only its top card plays. If a card you need is under the top one, play the top one first if there's anywhere to put it.
- The count on the stock tells you how many cards are left. Plan the end of the game around it.
Practise on the same deal
Note the deal number, and use Restart to play it again with a different first column to clear. In Forty Thieves the opening often decides the game.