Double Klondike Solitaire | Play Free Online
Double Klondike is the two-deck big sister of the classic Klondike Solitaire most people simply call "Solitaire." It is played with 104 cards across nine tableau columns and eight foundation piles — two for each suit — and follows the familiar Klondike rules: build the tableau down in alternating red and black colors, build the foundations up by suit from Ace to King, and draw from a stock pile to find playable cards. What changes when you scale Klondike to two decks is everything that matters about pacing and strategy. There is twice the work to do, twice the time investment, and a great deal more flexibility because group moves now have nine columns of room to maneuver. Win rates are noticeably higher than single-deck Klondike with perfect play, but each game takes longer and requires you to keep more state in your head. Double Klondike is the right next step for players who have mastered single-deck Klondike and want a meatier sit-down session.
How to Play
- Two standard 52-card decks (104 cards total) are shuffled together. Nine tableau columns are dealt with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 cards respectively. Only the top card of each column starts face-up; the rest are face-down until exposed.
- The remaining 59 cards form the stock pile. There are also eight foundation slots above the tableau — two empty piles for each of the four suits — where you build each suit up from Ace to King.
- Build the tableau columns down by one rank with alternating red and black colors. A black six can be placed on a red seven, a red five can be placed on the black six, and so on. Sequences can be moved as groups when the colors and ranks line up correctly.
- Empty tableau columns can only be filled by a King (or by a group whose bottom card is a King). This is the standard Klondike rule and is the reason buried Kings are so important to excavate during the midgame.
- Send Aces to the foundations as they become available. Once an Ace is in place, build up the foundation by suit: Two of Hearts on Ace of Hearts, Three of Hearts on Two, and so on up to King.
- Tap the stock to deal one card to the waste. Double Klondike uses draw-1, so every stock card is immediately playable. When the stock is exhausted, clicking the empty stock slot returns the entire waste pile to the stock for another pass — there is no redeal limit by default.
- There are two foundations per suit. You do not have to keep them level: one foundation of hearts may run to Eight while the other holds just an Ace, which lets you absorb hearts from the deck in whichever order they show up.
- You win when all 104 cards reach the eight foundations. You lose when no legal move remains and the stock cannot be cycled productively. Use Hint when stuck, Undo when you make a regrettable choice, and Auto-complete to finish the cascade once all cards are face-up.
Strategy
Expose face-down cards aggressively in the opening. The first ten moves of a Double Klondike game should mostly be about turning over the buried cards in the long right-hand columns. Foundation plays come second; tableau sequence building comes third.
Treat the two foundations per suit as a deliberate scheduling tool. If you have to commit a low card to the foundation early, send it to one of the two slots and leave the other empty so a later, more useful Ace has somewhere to land in order.
Empty columns are at a premium because only Kings can fill them. If you have two Kings sitting at the top of their columns, opening a vacancy and relocating one of them frees up the column underneath for excavation — that is often the highest-value play available.
Plan group moves carefully. With nine tableau columns and only opposite-color descending alternating builds, you can chain longer sequences here than in single-deck Klondike. Look for opportunities to move six- or seven-card runs as a unit to free a buried card in one shot.
Do not over-commit the foundations early. A Two on the foundation can never come back, but a Two on the tableau can absorb a Three of the opposite color and keep your sequence chain alive. Hold Twos in the tableau as long as the matching Threes are still floating around.
Cycle the stock with intent. Every pass through the stock should advance something — a foundation play, an exposed face-down card, a sequence consolidation. If a full pass yields nothing, you are likely stuck and should look at undoing a few moves rather than cycling again.
Track which Kings have been seen. With eight slots to fill, you need all eight Kings to be accessible eventually. Two Kings face-down at the bottom of a column are a yellow flag; three or more are a red one, and the deal may already be losing.
Keep your colors balanced. Because tableau builds are alternating colors, an over-supply of one color leaves you unable to extend sequences. If your tableau is heavy on black, look for opportunities to push black cards onto foundations and clear room for red ones to cascade.
Use Auto-complete only when every card is face-up and every foundation has a viable path. The Auto-complete button appears when the board is provably won; before it appears, you still have decisions to make.
Pace yourself. A single Double Klondike game can take 10–20 minutes of focused play. Take breaks if you find yourself making moves on autopilot — a tired player will fall into avoidable Two-on-foundation traps that cost the game.
History
Double Klondike is sometimes attributed to the late 19th-century vogue for two-deck patience games, although the precise origin is murky. The single-deck Klondike from which it derives is itself named after the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, and the doubled-up version appears in several patience compendia of the early 20th century under a variety of names including Gargantua, Harp, and simply Two-Deck Solitaire. The variant became broadly familiar to a digital audience through its inclusion in Microsoft's and Apple's pre-installed solitaire suites, where it offered a longer, more forgiving session than the single-deck classic. Modern solver work confirms that with perfect play roughly two-thirds of Double Klondike deals are winnable — a significantly higher rate than single-deck Klondike — but the larger card count makes mistakes both more frequent and more expensive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Double Klondike?
Double Klondike is a two-deck variant of Klondike Solitaire. It uses 104 cards dealt into nine tableau columns of 1 through 9 cards, with eight foundation slots (two per suit) to fill from Ace to King.
How is it different from regular Solitaire?
The core rules are identical to Klondike: tableau builds down in alternating colors, foundations build up by suit, only Kings fill empty columns. The differences are scale and pace. You play with twice as many cards, nine columns instead of seven, and you have to fill eight foundations instead of four. Games take longer and require more planning, but the larger tableau also gives you more room to maneuver.
Why are there two foundations per suit?
Because there are two complete decks, each suit has two Aces, two Twos, all the way up to two Kings. Each suit needs two foundation piles to absorb both copies. The two piles of the same suit are independent — you can build one quickly to King while the other still holds just an Ace.
Is draw-1 or draw-3 used?
Draw-1. Every click on the stock yields exactly one new card in the waste. There is no Microsoft-style draw-3 mode for Double Klondike on this site by default; the game is hard enough at draw-1 with the expanded tableau.
Can I redeal the stock?
Yes. When the stock is exhausted, clicking the empty stock area returns the entire waste pile to the stock so you can cycle through again. There is no built-in redeal limit, which is one of the reasons Double Klondike has a higher win rate than the single-deck version.
How long does a typical game take?
Plan for ten to twenty minutes per game. Double Klondike rewards patient, careful play, and the larger tableau is genuinely slower to work through than the seven-column single-deck classic.
Are most deals winnable?
Yes — roughly two-thirds of Double Klondike deals are winnable with perfect play, which is higher than single-deck Klondike. We ship pre-validated solvable seeds for every default Double Klondike game, so the deals you see are guaranteed to have a solution.
Is the game free to play?
Yes. Double Klondike plays instantly in your browser with no signup, no ads, and no in-app purchases.