Play Little Napoleon Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Two decks, eight piles dealt four deep with only the top card up, so every early move is a gamble. A tough one: about a 15% win rate.

Little Napoleon Solitaire is a two-deck member of the Forty Thieves family, and at first glance a friendlier one: the tableau builds down regardless of suit, so almost any card has somewhere to go. The catch arrives with the deal — each of the eight piles receives four cards, and only the top one is face up.

Those twenty-four hidden cards are the heart of the game. Every early move is a small gamble on what lies beneath, and turning face-down cards over quickly matters more than any other consideration. Suits still direct the traffic, too: although a single card may land on any pile one rank above it, a run of cards travels together only if it is all one suit.

It's a hard game, played with two decks, with roughly a 15% chance of winning. Your odds come down mostly to skill: how carefully you sequence cards before you commit to a move.

If you like this deal-four-face-down setup, Forty Thieves Solitaire and Josephine Solitaire share the same family history.

For a change of pace, deal out the classic Solitaire.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Enjoy playing!

How to play Little Napoleon Solitaire

Layout:

8 foundation piles: Build up in suit from Ace to King.

8 tableau piles: Build down regardless of suit. Same-suit sequences may be moved together. Any card can fill a space. At the start of the game, each pile is dealt four cards, with only the top card face up.

Stock: Click to turn over 1 card at a time to the waste. There are no redeals.

Waste: The top card can be played on the foundations or tableau.

Foundation:

There are eight foundation piles.

The foundations are begun with the Aces as they become available. A card can be added to a foundation pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on a 5 of clubs is a 6 of clubs. There can be no more than 13 cards in a pile.

The top card of each foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.

Tableau:

Eight tableau piles of four cards each. Only the top card of each pile is dealt face-up; the three cards beneath it are face down and are turned over as they become uncovered.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower than the pile's current top card, regardless of suit, so any of the eight 7s fit on an 8 of spades.

A descending sequence of cards may be moved as a single unit only if every card in it is of the same suit; mixed-suit sequences must be moved one card at a time.

Any card, or any movable same-suit sequence, can fill an empty slot in the tableau.

Stock and waste:

The remaining 72 cards form the stock, and there is one waste pile.

When you click on the stock, one card is dealt to the waste. There's only one pass through the stock.

The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or foundation.