How to Play Deuces and Queens Solitaire

Build cards upward and downward simultaneously on two sets of foundations in this challenging two-deck game. The mix of ascending and descending builds, plus tableau building, demands flexible thinking.

Setup

1. Shuffle two full decks together.
2. Deal one card to each of four ascending foundation piles (starting with Twos) and four descending foundation piles (starting with Queens).
3. Deal 1 card to each of 4 tableau piles.
4. Deal 3 reserve piles with 13 cards each.
5. Place remaining cards in the stock and an empty waste pile.

How to play

• Click the stock to deal one card to the waste pile. Only the top waste card can be played.
• Build the ascending foundations up by rank (any suit): Two, Three, Four... Ace. These piles wrap around from King to Ace.
• Build the descending foundations down by rank (any suit): Queen, Jack, Ten... Ace. These also wrap around.
• On the tableau, play one card at a time in any rank (higher or lower) and any suit; empty piles are refilled automatically with the top stock card.
• Draw from your reserve piles to the tableau or foundations—only the top card of each reserve pile is playable.
• You get one pass through the stock with no redeal.

How to win

Objective: Move all 104 cards to the foundations: four piles building up from Two to Ace, and four piles building down from Queen to Ace.

You win when all cards rest on the eight foundation piles. The game ends in a loss when the stock is exhausted and no more legal moves exist.

Tips

• Watch the interaction between your ascending and descending foundation piles to avoid getting cards stuck.
• Keep reserve piles flexible—don't rush moves to foundations if they block access to useful cards.
• The tableau's any-rank building offers flexibility; use it to sequence cards and free up reserve cards.

Play Deuces and Queens free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Deuces and Queens alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the Foundations family:

• Double Aces and Kings — A demanding four-deck game with eight ascending and eight descending foundation piles.
• Fifteen — A two-deck game with eight foundations building both up and down, and 15 tableau piles where you can build by one rank higher or lower in the same suit.
• Grandfather — A distinctive two-deck game where half the foundations build upward and half build downward simultaneously.
• Little Billie — Little Billie is a two-deck game featuring dual foundation piles that build in opposite directions.
• Penta — Penta splits its layout in two: the left foundations build up while the right foundations build down (each side's tableau builds the opposite direction from its foundation), and everything starts from a Five.