10 Card Games Played With Two Decks (and How to Play Them)

The best-known card games played with two decks are Spider Solitaire and Forty Thieves if you are playing alone, Russian Bank, Spite and Malice and Bezique for two players, and Canasta, double-deck Pinochle and Contract Rummy for a group. The second deck is never there for padding. Every one of these games depends on having two copies of each card, whether that means eight foundation piles instead of four, seven-card melds of a single rank, or a meld that only exists because there are two Queens of Spades.

"Two decks" covers three different things. Some games shuffle two full 52-card decks together. Some add jokers to that: Canasta uses four, for 108 cards. And some strip the low cards out first, so Bezique plays with 64 cards and double-deck Pinochle with 80. The table below says exactly what each game needs, and every game further down has the deal, the goal and the core rules, enough to start playing without another rulebook open.

All 10 two-deck card games compared

Difficulty is our own judgment of how hard the game is to learn and play well. Length is described as the unit a game is played to, because a single deal of Spider and a Canasta match to 5,000 points are very different evenings.

Two-deck solitaire games for one player

Most solitaire people play day to day uses one deck. Klondike does, FreeCell does, and so does TriPeaks, including the levels in our own game, Solitaire Castle Royal. Two-deck solitaire is its own branch of the family: bigger layouts, eight foundations instead of four, and deals that take longer to untangle. These three are the ones worth learning first.

1. Spider Solitaire

Objective: Build eight complete runs from King down to Ace, each in a single suit, inside the tableau. Each finished run is removed, and the eighth one wins.

Deal 54 cards into ten columns: six cards in each of the first four, five in each of the other six, with only the top card face up. The remaining 50 cards are the stock. You can place any card on a card one rank higher, regardless of suit, but you can only pick up a group of cards together when they form a descending run in one suit. When you run out of moves, deal ten more cards from the stock, one onto every column. You may only do that when no column is empty.

The suit count sets the difficulty. One-suit Spider uses eight sets of Spades, so every join is a useful one. Two-suit and four-suit Spider make you choose between joins that fit and joins that actually build a movable run, and four suits is a serious test. Microsoft first shipped it in Plus! 98 and later built it into Windows Me, XP, Vista and 7. Why play it: it is the two-deck game most people already half know, and you can play Spider Solitaire free in your browser on this site in 1-, 2- or 4-suit mode, with undo and hints.

2. Forty Thieves

Objective: Move all 104 cards to eight foundations, built up by suit from Ace to King.

Deal four rows of ten cards face up, making ten columns of four. The other 64 cards are the stock. Tableau columns build down in suit, and only the top card of a column can move, one card at a time. Any card can fill an empty column. Turn the stock one card at a time; each card can go to a foundation, onto the tableau, or onto the waste pile, where its top card stays playable. You get one pass through the stock and no redeal.

The game also goes by Napoleon at St Helena, Big Forty and Le Cadran. It is hard to win, and the deal decides a lot of games before you make a move. Why play it: with the whole tableau face up from the start, you can usually see where a lost game went wrong, and it is often the moment you filled an empty column too early.

3. Gargantua (Double Klondike)

Objective: Klondike with two decks: move every card to eight foundations, built up by suit from Ace.

Deal nine columns instead of Klondike's seven: one card in the first, two in the second, up to nine in the last, with only the top card of each face up. Build down in alternating colors, move partial or complete runs, and turn up face-down cards as they are uncovered. Only a King, or a run starting with a King, may fill an empty column. Turn the stock one card at a time, and you may go through it twice.

Why play it: if you know Klondike, you already know nearly all of Gargantua. The extra columns and the second deck give you more to work with and more to keep track of. Do not confuse it with Double Klondike as a two-player game, which is Double Solitaire below.

Two-deck card games for two players

Two decks suit two players well. Either each of you plays from your own deck, which is how the competitive solitaire games work, or the doubled cards create combinations that a single deck cannot. For the first kind, buy two decks with different back designs. You will need to sort them afterward, and in Double Solitaire the score depends on it.

4. Double Solitaire

Objective: Get more of your own cards onto the shared foundations than your opponent does.

Each player deals a normal Klondike layout from their own deck and plays it by normal Klondike rules. The difference is the foundations: up to eight of them sit between you, two per suit, and either player may play onto any of them. The game ends when neither of you can move. Separate the foundation cards by their backs, and whoever placed more of their own cards wins. Why play it: it is the gentlest way into two-player card games for anyone who already plays solitaire. Our guide to two-player Solitaire games covers it in full, along with Nerts.

5. Russian Bank

Objective: Be first to play off every card in your reserve, hand and waste pile.

Each player uses their own deck. You each deal a reserve pile with its top card face up, then four face-up cards in a column toward the middle, giving eight shared "houses" between you. The rest of your deck is your face-down hand. Eight foundations go in the middle, each started by an Ace and built up by suit to the King. Houses build down in alternating colors, and any available card can fill an empty one. You keep playing until you have to put a card from your hand onto your own waste pile, which ends your turn.

Two rules make it unlike any one-player game. You can load your opponent: a card of the same suit and one rank higher or lower can go onto their reserve or waste pile, giving them more to clear. And some moves are compulsory, such as playing a reserve card to a foundation when you can. If you skip one, your opponent calls "Stop" and takes over the turn. The game is also called Crapette, and in North America, Stop. Why play it: it is the deepest of the competitive solitaire games, and the only one where hurting your opponent is part of the plan.

6. Spite and Malice

Objective: Be first to empty your pay-off pile.

Shuffle two 52-card decks together. Deal each player a pay-off pile of 20 cards face down and turn the top one up, then deal each player a hand of five. The rest is a shared stock. Suits do not matter. Cards rank Ace (low) up to Queen, and Kings are wild. Up to three center stacks can be in play at once; each starts with an Ace and builds up one rank at a time, and a stack that reaches Queen is shuffled back into the stock.

At the start of your turn, draw back up to five cards. Play as many cards as you like to the center stacks from your hand, from the top of your pay-off pile, or from the top of one of your side stacks. End the turn by discarding one card from your hand onto one of your own side stacks, of which you may have up to four. Pay-off cards can only go to the center. If you play all five cards from your hand without discarding, draw five more and carry on. If the stock runs out before anyone wins, the game is a draw. Why play it: the rules fit on an index card, but deciding which card to bury on which side stack is a real puzzle. Pagat lists it under the alternative name Cat and Mouse.

7. Bezique

Objective: Score points by declaring melds and by winning Aces and Tens in tricks. The traditional target is 1,000 points.

Bezique uses 64 cards: two decks with the 2s through 6s removed, so each suit runs A, 10, K, Q, J, 9, 8, 7 twice, in that order from high to low. Deal eight cards each, turn the next card up to set trumps, and leave the rest as the stock. In the first phase, you do not have to follow suit. Whoever wins a trick may declare one meld, and then both players draw from the stock. The main melds are bezique, the Queen of Spades with the Jack of Diamonds (40), double bezique, both of those pairs (500), the A-10-K-Q-J of trumps (250), a royal marriage of trump King and Queen (40), a common marriage (20), and four Aces, Kings, Queens or Jacks (100, 80, 60, 40). Each Ace and Ten won in tricks is a brisque, worth 10.

When the stock runs out, melding stops and the play gets strict: you must follow suit and beat the card led if you can, and trump if you cannot follow. The last trick is worth 10. Why play it: it began in France in the early nineteenth century and was a British favorite in the early twentieth, and the first phase is a tense balance between keeping cards for melds and spending them to win tricks. Pinochle, below, comes from the same family.

Two-deck card games for groups

With four or more people, a single deck runs short fast. These three games use the second deck to give everyone a full hand and to make large melds possible.

8. Canasta

Objective: Score points by melding cards of the same rank, above all in seven-card melds called canastas, and reach 5,000 points as a partnership.

Canasta uses two 52-card decks plus four jokers, 108 cards in total. The classic game is for four players in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite, and each player is dealt 11 cards. Jokers and 2s are wild. On your turn you draw from the stock or take the whole discard pile, meld if you can, and discard one card. Melds are three or more cards of the same rank; there are no runs. A meld needs at least two natural cards and may hold no more than three wild ones. Seven cards make a canasta, worth a 500-point bonus if it has no wild cards and 300 if it does.

Threes are special. A red 3 is laid out straight away as a 100-point bonus card, or a 100-point penalty if your side never melds. A black 3 discarded blocks the next player from taking the pile. Your side's first meld of a deal has a minimum point value, starting at 50 and rising as your score grows, and you cannot go out until your side has at least one canasta. The game is said to have started in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939, and spread from there to Argentina and the United States.

Canasta for two: it works well head to head. Deal 15 cards each instead of 11, draw two cards from the stock each turn and discard one, and require two canastas to go out. Everything else stays the same. Why play it: it is the classic two-deck game for a table of four, and the two-player version makes it one of the better long games for a couple too. Our best card games for 2 players list covers more one-deck options.

9. Double-deck Pinochle

Objective: As a partnership, win the bid and then make it through melds and points won in tricks. First side to 500 wins.

The deck is 80 cards: four copies each of A, 10, K, Q and J in every suit. You can make it from two standard 48-card Pinochle decks by removing the 9s. Four players in two partnerships are each dealt 20 cards. Bidding opens at 50, and the high bidder names trumps; in the rules Pagat gives, they must hold a King and Queen of that suit. Players then lay down melds, including a run of A-10-K-Q-J in trumps (15), a pinochle, the Queen of Spades with the Jack of Diamonds (4), and Aces "around," one Ace of every suit (10). Doubled melds score far more, so double Aces around is worth 100.

In the trick play, you must follow suit if you can and must beat the winning card if you can. With no card of the suit led, you must trump. Each Ace, Ten and King won is worth one point, and the last trick two more, for 50 in all. If the bidding side's melds plus tricks fall short of the bid, they lose the bid amount instead. Why play it: the bidding gives partnerships a lot to talk about afterward. It is a heavier game than Canasta, and best learned from someone who already plays.

10. Contract Rummy

Objective: Complete each round's required melds, the "contract," and finish the seven rounds with the lowest penalty score.

Contract Rummy is for three to five players, with two 52-card decks and one joker fewer than the number of players. Deal ten cards for the first three rounds and twelve for the last four. The contracts, in order, are: two groups of three; a group of three and a run of four; two runs of four; three groups of three; two groups and a run; a group and two runs; and three runs of four with no final discard. Play is draw-and-discard Rummy, except that you cannot meld anything until you can put down the whole contract at once.

When someone goes out, everyone else scores penalty points for the cards still in their hand, and the lowest total after seven rounds wins. Liverpool Rummy is a very close variant, and Shanghai Rummy is a related one with an 11-card deal. Why play it: the rising contracts give the evening a shape, and the last round, three runs with nothing left to discard, is hard enough that it often decides the game.

Games that look like two-deck games but need more

Two Canasta relatives turn up in searches for two-deck games, and both need more cards than that. Samba adds runs of the same suit to Canasta and uses three 52-card decks plus six jokers, 162 cards. Hand and Foot gives every player a second hand, the foot, to play after the first; Pagat's rules call for one more deck than there are players, so five decks for the usual four-player partnership game. If you only have two decks, play Canasta instead. It is the game both are built on.

How to pick a two-deck game

• Playing alone: Spider Solitaire. Start with one suit and move up. Try Forty Thieves when Spider stops surprising you.
• Two players who both know solitaire: Double Solitaire tonight, Russian Bank once you want something with more bite.
• Two players, light rules: Spite and Malice.
• Two players, a long game with scoring: Canasta for two or Bezique.
• Four players: Canasta for a relaxed evening, double-deck Pinochle for a table that likes bidding.
• Three or five players: Contract Rummy.

Spider is the two-deck game you can start right now without finding anyone else or a second pack: play it free in your browser, or see 10 types of Solitaire for how it compares with the one-deck games.