Double Easthaven

How to Play Double Easthaven

What Is Double Easthaven?

Double Easthaven is the big two-deck version of Easthaven Solitaire, built for players who find the single-deck game too gentle. Everything you know from Easthaven still applies: columns build down in alternating colors, and the stock deals one card onto every column at once, in the style of Spider. What changes is the scale. With 104 cards, twice as many foundations, and ten full stock deals hanging over your head, Double Easthaven asks for patience, planning, and a cool head. Your goal is to move all 104 cards onto the eight foundations, building each suit up in order from Ace to King, twice over.

The Layout

Double Easthaven is played with two standard decks shuffled together, 104 cards in total. The table has three areas:

• The tableau. Eight columns spread across the middle of the screen. Each column is dealt exactly 3 cards: 2 face down and 1 face up on top. That is 24 cards on the table at the start, with 16 of them hidden.
• The stock. The remaining 80 cards sit face down in one pile. Because 80 divides evenly by 8, the stock holds exactly 10 full deals, and every deal covers every column. There is no waste pile; every stock card lands directly on the tableau.
• The foundations. Eight empty spaces, two for each suit. Each foundation starts with an Ace and builds up in strict order: Ace, 2, 3, and so on, up to the King. Since the game uses two decks, you will build two complete piles in every suit.

How to Move Cards

The moving rules are the same as in single-deck Easthaven:

• To a foundation, if the card is the next one needed. With two foundations per suit, a card such as the 5 of clubs can often go to either clubs pile, whichever has reached the 4 first.
• Onto another tableau column, if the card is one rank lower and the opposite color. A black 9 goes on a red 10; a red Jack goes on a black Queen. Only rank and color matter, never the suit.
• As a group, but only when the cards already form a proper sequence: descending in rank and alternating in color with no gaps. Anything less must move one card at a time.
• To an empty column, where any card or legal sequence is welcome. No King is required. With two decks in play, deciding what goes into a gap is one of the biggest decisions in the game.

Moving the last face-up card off a column flips the face-down card beneath it. With 16 hidden cards at the start, these flips are where the early game is won or lost.

The Stock Deal, and Why It Is Even More Dangerous Here

Clicking the stock deals one card face up onto every column, eight cards at a time. In the two-deck game this happens on a much larger scale than in Easthaven, and the danger grows with it:

• Ten deals await. The 80 stock cards make exactly 10 full deals of 8 cards. That means up to 80 cards will eventually rain down on your columns, so every untidy pile you leave will be buried again and again.
• No empty columns at deal time. All eight columns must contain at least one card before you may deal. If there is a gap, fill it first.
• One pass only. There are no redeals. Once the stock runs out, you finish the game with what is on the table.

Because there are so many deals, Double Easthaven punishes impatience more than almost any other solitaire. A single careless deal early on can bury cards under six or seven layers before the stock is done.

How to Win

You win when all 104 cards reach the foundations, with all eight piles running from Ace to King. Be honest with yourself about the challenge: Double Easthaven is much harder than the single-deck game. Where Easthaven can be won roughly 30% of the time, Double Easthaven falls to around 10%, about 1 game in 10, even with strong play. Treat every win as an achievement, and treat every loss as practice for the next seed.

Playing on This Site

You can drag and drop any card or valid sequence, or simply double-click (double-tap on a touch screen) a card to send it to a foundation when it fits. The buttons above the table give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint when you are stuck, and Auto-finish to sweep the last cards home once victory is certain. Undo is unlimited, which matters in a game this long: you can step back through an entire bad stock deal and choose a better path. Every deal has a seed number, so a deal that beat you today can be replayed tomorrow, or shared with a friend for a rematch.

Double Easthaven Strategy & Tips

Respect the Ten Deals

The defining fact of Double Easthaven is the stock: 80 cards, 10 full deals, and every one of them lands on every column. Your whole plan should bend around that rhythm.

• Before each deal, squeeze out every useful move: foundation plays, sequence joins, and face-down flips. Cards left out of place get buried deeper with every click.
• Count the deals as you go. Early deals are survivable; the later ones land on tall columns where a bad card can seal a pile shut.
• Never deal to "see what happens." With ten deals coming, curiosity is expensive.

Flip Hidden Cards Early, While the Columns Are Short

You start with 16 face-down cards. The cheapest time to free them is at the very beginning, when only one or two cards sit on top of each.

• In the opening moves, value a flip above almost everything except a safe foundation play.
• A column that is fully face up early becomes your most flexible workspace for the rest of the game.
• Face-down cards that survive three or four stock deals may never see daylight again.

Manage Empty Columns Around the Deal Rule

Any card or sequence may fill an empty column, but the game refuses to deal while a gap exists. In a game with ten deals, you will face this trade-off many times.

• Empty a column, use it to reorganize, then fill it deliberately before dealing. Do all three as one planned operation, not as separate accidents.
• Kings and Queens are the natural fillers, since they anchor long alternating runs. In a two-deck game there are eight Kings, so you will rarely lack one.
• Avoid parking a random low card in a gap just to unlock the stock. That card becomes a foundation for eight more deals of rubble.

Hold Back Builders, Even With Two Decks

With duplicates of every card, it feels safe to send cards to the foundations quickly. It is safer than in the single-deck game, but only a little.

• Both copies of a rank can end up buried at once. Before sending a middle card up, check whether its twin is free to do that card's building work.
• Aces and 2s can go up on sight. From the 3s and 4s onward, glance at what still needs a landing spot.
• Keep the eight foundations rising roughly together. One suit racing to the Jack while another sits on a 2 usually means trouble in the tableau.

Play the Long Game

• Double Easthaven is a marathon. Around 1 deal in 10 is winnable in practice, so a loss usually means the deal was hard, not that you played badly.
• Use Undo without shame. Rewinding a stock deal to tidy one more sequence first is often the difference between a blocked board and a live one.
• When a seed defeats you, replay it. Knowing where the dangerous cards fall turns a 10% game into a puzzle you can actually solve.

Frequently Asked Questions

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