How to Play Double Klondike Solitaire

What Is Double Klondike Solitaire?

Double Klondike is ordinary Klondike Solitaire played with two decks instead of one. Every rule you already know still applies — build down in alternating colours on the table, build up in suit on the foundations, and only a King may occupy an empty column — but the board is bigger in every direction: 104 cards, nine tableau columns and eight foundation piles. Cards come off the stock one at a time, exactly as in the classic Turn 1 game, so nothing is ever hidden behind two other cards. Your goal is to bring all 104 cards home, filling each of the eight foundations from Ace up to King. Because there are two of every card, you will complete two piles in each of the four suits.

The Layout

Two standard decks are shuffled together into a single 104-card pack and dealt into four areas:

• The tableau. Nine columns across the middle of the table, dealt in a staircase: 1 card in the first column, 2 in the second, and so on up to 9 in the last. Only the bottom card of each column is face up. That is 45 cards on the table, 36 of them face down.
• The stock. The remaining 59 cards sit face down in the top-left corner. Click it to turn cards over.
• The waste. Cards turned from the stock land here face up, one at a time. Only the top card of the waste is available to play.
• The foundations. Eight empty spaces, two for each suit. Each one starts with an Ace and builds up in strict suit order: Ace, 2, 3, and on to the King.

How to Move Cards

The moving rules are the familiar Klondike ones, just applied across a wider board:

• To a foundation, when the card is the next rank that suit needs. The first Ace of hearts you find opens a hearts foundation; the second one opens the other. With two foundations per suit, either pile can take a card — whichever has already reached the rank below.
• Onto another tableau column, when the card is one rank lower and the opposite colour. A red 6 goes on a black 7; a black Jack goes on a red Queen. Only rank and colour matter, never the suit itself.
• As a group, when the cards already form a proper run — descending in rank and alternating in colour with no gaps. A tidy sequence such as red 9, black 8, red 7 moves as one unit; anything less orderly moves one card at a time.
• To an empty column, but only a King, or a run led by a King. Gaps are valuable, so think before you fill one.

Lifting the last face-up card off a column automatically flips the face-down card beneath it. With 36 hidden cards at the start, freeing those cards is where most of the game is won or lost.

The Stock and the Redeal

Clicking the stock turns exactly one card onto the waste, and only that top card is playable. When the stock is empty, click the empty space and the waste is gathered face down and becomes the stock again for another pass. There is no limit on how many times you may do this, so a card you cannot use right now will always come around again.

• Turn 1. Every card in the deck is reachable on every pass — you are never blocked by the three-card grouping of a Turn 3 game.
• Unlimited redeals. Cycle the deck as often as you like. What matters is whether the tableau has actually changed since your last pass.
• The real limit is the table, not the deck. You lose when no move on the tableau or foundations can make progress, not when the stock runs dry.

How to Win

You win when all 104 cards have reached the foundations and all eight piles run from Ace to King. Double Klondike is more forgiving than most two-deck games — Turn 1 dealing and unlimited redeals see to that — but nine columns and 36 hidden cards still make it a genuinely longer, more strategic game than single-deck Klondike.

Playing on This Site

Drag and drop any card or valid run, or double-click (double-tap on a touch screen) a card to send it straight to a foundation when it fits. The buttons above the table give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint when you are stuck, and Auto-finish to sweep the last cards home once the win is certain. Undo is unlimited, so you can always step back and try a different line. Every deal carries a seed number, so a deal you enjoyed can be replayed or shared with a friend for exactly the same layout.

Double Klondike Solitaire

Dig Out the Hidden Cards First

You begin with 36 face-down cards, and the tall right-hand columns hide the most. Every one you turn over widens your options for the rest of the game.

• Given a choice, take the move that flips a face-down card over the move that merely tidies up face-up ones.
• The deep columns — the ones seven, eight and nine cards tall — are the biggest reserves of unknown cards. Chip away at them whenever a safe move appears.
• Early digging is cheap; late digging is often impossible, because by then the columns are buried under long alternating runs.

Cycle the Stock with a Purpose

Turn 1 plus unlimited redeals means no card is ever lost — but that is a safety net, not a strategy.

• Before starting another pass, check that the tableau has actually changed. Turning the same 59 cards past the same locked columns achieves nothing.
• Play the waste for what the table needs, not for what looks tidy. A card that flips a column beats a card that merely extends a run.
• Because you see every stock card on every pass, you can plan ahead: note where a needed card sits and prepare the column that will receive it before you get back to it.

Guard Your Empty Columns and Your Kings

Only a King opens an empty column, so gaps and Kings are two halves of the same resource. Two decks give you eight Kings, but empty columns are still scarce.

• Do not empty a column until you have a King ready — ideally one leading a useful run — otherwise the gap sits idle while you hunt for a King.
• An empty column plus a mobile King is the strongest tool you have for unpacking a stuck pile. Save it for a moment that pays.
• Avoid burying your Kings under long runs early on, or you will have nothing left to fill a gap with.

Do Not Rush Cards to the Foundations

A card sent up to a foundation can no longer hold a tableau run together, and in a two-deck game that matters more than usual.

• Aces and 2s can go up the moment you see them. From the middle ranks up, ask first whether the card is still needed as a builder.
• With two of every card you can often send one copy up safely while its twin keeps working on the table — a luxury single-deck Klondike does not give you.
• Keep the eight foundations climbing at roughly the same pace. Letting one suit sprint ahead tends to strand the cards you needed to keep columns moving.

Play the Long Game

• A Double Klondike deal takes a while. Patience beats speed: the unlimited stock rewards a careful line far more than a hurried one.
• Use Undo freely to test a plan before committing to it. Rewinding a whole pass to take a better route is entirely fair.
• If a deal stalls, replay the same seed. Knowing where the hidden cards fall turns many "impossible" layouts into solvable puzzles.

Frequently Asked Questions

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