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Deauville Solitaire is a two-deck Napoleon at St Helena variant that deals the first three rows of each column face-down, hiding most of the tableau at the start. Combined with alternating-colour building, the hidden information adds a layer of strategic tension that neither Forty Thieves nor Streets can match.
What is Deauville Solitaire?
Deauville Solitaire uses two decks (104 cards) dealt into ten columns of four cards each, just like Forty Thieves Solitaire. The distinguishing feature is that the first three rows of each column are dealt face-down; only the top card in each column is initially visible. Cards flip face-up automatically when the card covering them is moved away. Tableau building follows the alternating-colour rule (red on black, black on red), and only single cards may be moved at a time. Eight foundations are built up from Ace to King by suit.
Deauville Solitaire history
Deauville takes its name from the French seaside resort and is documented in David Parlett's "The Penguin Book of Patience" (1979) as a formal variant of Napoleon at St Helena. The face-down-rows mechanic it uses also appears in Number Ten and Rank and File, suggesting a design lineage of card game authors experimenting with hidden information to increase strategic depth within the Napoleon family.
How to play Deauville Solitaire
Strategies to win Deauville Solitaire
- Treat revealing face-down cards as a primary goal. Every exposed card is new information and new opportunity. Moves that uncover a face-down card are almost always better than moves that rearrange face-up cards without uncovering anything new.
- Try to uncover face-down cards in columns that are blocking likely Ace positions. With 30 hidden cards at the start, Aces could be anywhere; columns you expose earliest give you the best chance of finding them in time.
- The alternating-colour rule gives more flexibility than same-suit building, so scan all ten columns before drawing from stock. There are often available moves that are easy to miss when concentrating on individual columns.
- Do not burn stock cards just to change the waste top. Save stock draws for moments when the tableau is completely stuck, not just when no immediately obvious move presents itself.
- Use empty columns as staging areas to shift face-up cards and expose face-down ones beneath them. An empty column is worth more as a temporary workspace than as a permanent parking spot for a King.
Deauville Solitaire rules and objective
The goal is to move all 104 cards to eight foundation piles, each built up from Ace to King in a single suit. Tableau columns are built down by alternating colour. Only the top card of a column may move. The top card of any column that is face-down flips face-up automatically when it becomes the column's exposed card. An empty column accepts any single card. Draw one card at a time from the stock to the waste; only one pass through the stock is allowed.
Game setup
- Shuffle two standard 52-card decks together (104 cards).
- Deal four rows of ten cards into ten columns. Rows one, two, and three are face-down; row four (the top card of each column) is face-up.
- Leave space above for eight foundation piles.
- Place the remaining 64 cards face-down as the stock.
Deauville Solitaire variants and similar games
Deauville sits between fully open games (Forty Thieves, Streets) and deeper face-down variants (Number Ten, Rank and File) in the Napoleon family. The table below shows how it relates to its closest relatives.
| Game | Face-down rows | Build rule | Sequences move | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deauville | 3 of 4 | Alt colour | No | ~15% |
| Streets | 0 | Alt colour | No | ~20% |
| Forty Thieves | 0 | Same suit | No | ~10% |
| Number Ten | 2 of 4 | Alt colour | Yes | ~10% |
| Rank and File | 3 of 4 | Alt colour | Yes | ~50% |
How difficult is Deauville Solitaire?
Deauville is harder than Streets despite sharing the same alternating-colour build rule. Starting with 30 of 40 tableau cards face-down means you begin the game nearly blind. Many moves that appear productive turn out to expose an unhelpful card, and there is no way to know in advance. The hidden cards create frequent situations where you must choose between equally uncertain options.
What is Deauville Solitaire win percentage?
Deauville Solitaire wins approximately 15% of games with attentive play. That places it between Forty Thieves (about 10%) and Streets (about 20%). The alternating-colour rule helps relative to Forty Thieves, but the three rows of hidden cards per column remove much of the planning advantage that open layouts provide.
What is the difference between Deauville and Streets Solitaire?
Streets Solitaire and Deauville share the same layout dimensions (two decks, ten columns of four, eight foundations, alternating-colour build, single-card movement, no redeal). The only structural difference is card orientation at deal time. In Streets, all 40 tableau cards are dealt face-up, giving you complete information from the first move. In Deauville, only the top card of each column starts face-up; the lower three rows are hidden until uncovered through play. This shifts Deauville from a planning game to an exploration game and reduces the win rate from about 20% to about 15%.
Deauville Solitaire FAQ
When do face-down cards flip in Deauville Solitaire?
A face-down card flips automatically as soon as it becomes the top (exposed) card of its column, which happens when the face-up card above it is moved somewhere else. The flip requires no separate action; it is part of the move resolution.
Can you move sequences in Deauville Solitaire?
No. Only the top card of any column moves, whether it is face-up from the deal or newly flipped after the card above it was removed. If you want alternating-colour building with sequence movement, Rank and File uses three face-down rows like Deauville but allows full sequence transfers.
Why is Deauville harder than Streets even though both use alternating colour?
In Streets, all cards are visible from the start, so you can plan every move before drawing from stock. In Deauville, 30 of the 40 tableau cards are hidden, making long-term planning impossible. You often have to commit to a move without knowing whether the revealed card will be useful. That uncertainty reduces the win rate by about 5 percentage points compared to Streets.
Is it worth creating empty columns in Deauville Solitaire?
Yes, especially when the alternative is a low-value tableau move. An empty column lets you temporarily hold a card while repositioning others, enabling multi-step sequences that would otherwise be impossible with only single-card movement. The tradeoff is that the column cannot be used for building until you fill it with something useful.
How many face-down cards are there in Deauville at the start?
Exactly 30. Each of the ten columns has four cards; three of them are dealt face-down and one (the top) is face-up. Ten columns times three hidden cards per column equals 30 hidden tableau cards. The remaining 64 cards form the face-down stock.