How to Play Doublets Solitaire

A straightforward pairing game where you remove any two cards of the same rank, regardless of suit. Emptied tableau piles refill automatically from a small hidden stock, so plan around which pairs you can still reach.

Setup

1. Twelve tableau piles each hold 4 cards, with only the top card face-up
2. Four leftover cards sit in a stock pile that isn't in play—you can't deal or draw from it
3. Foundation piles are available but mainly used for sequential building if needed

How to play

• Only the top card of each tableau pile is playable
• Drag one card onto another card of the same rank (any suit) to remove the pair
• When a tableau pile becomes empty, it automatically refills with the top card from the stock
• You can optionally build foundation sequences up in suit (starting from any rank, wrapping from King back around to Ace) to help expose buried pairs
• Removed pairs go to a discard pile

How to win

Objective: Remove all 52 cards by pairing them off: each pair must have the same rank (any suits).

All 52 cards are removed as pairs. The game is unwinnable if two cards of the same rank end up separated or if matching pairs are blocked.

Tips

• Since pairing is purely by rank, focus on exposing buried cards near the top of each pile
• Plan ahead: removing one pair often exposes the next card in that pile, setting up new matches
• This game leans heavily on luck since the deal fixes which pairs are reachable and when—there's little you can do besides choosing carefully among the pairs currently available

Play Doublets free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Doublets 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 Pairing family:

• Isabel — Remove cards in matching pairs while building in the foundations as a bonus.
• Nestor — A simple single-deck pairing game.
• Patient Pairs — Patient Pairs asks you to clear the whole tableau by matching up cards of equal rank, two at a time, using only the cards left uncovered at the top of each pile.
• Pile Up — A puzzle-style game where you organize cards into same-rank runs.
• Shuffle — A clever pairing game based on Neptune where you remove pairs of cards one rank apart.