How is Big Forty different from Ali Baba?

Two ways. The four Aces are not founded before play, and the stock may be recycled without limit. Ali Baba founds its Aces and, in this catalogue, allows one pass. Same ten columns of four dealt face up, same suit build, same run move.

Why is the stock only twelve cards?

Because forty of the fifty-two are dealt to the tableau, all face up. The stock is a small loop you will see again and again; the real game is the forty cards in the columns.

Can I recycle the stock forever?

Yes, by the source's rule. The game still ends honestly: once a full pass of the stock offers no play and the board cannot change, no further pass will differ, and the game reports the dead end.

What may go into an empty column?

Any card or suit run. There is no king rule.

Is this the same Big Forty some books describe?

Some sources use Big Forty as a name for Forty Thieves itself. This page follows PySolFC's registration, a one-deck game derived from Klondike with ten columns, and the research behind it records the conflict.

Big Forty Solitaire - Play Online & 100% Free

Play Big Forty Solitaire — Ali Baba Without the Aces, and Without the Mercy

Ali Baba is the friendly one-deck Forty Thieves: forty cards face up, the four Aces already on the foundations, runs that move. Big Forty is the same ten-by-four board played harder. The Aces are still in the pack, and the stock — only twelve cards — is turned as often as you like. It is PySolFC's Big Forty, the game Ali Baba is derived from. Free in your browser, no sign-up.

How Do You Play Big Forty?

Goal: build all four foundations from Ace to King by suit.

Setup

Deck: one standard 52-card deck.
Tableau: ten columns of four, every card face up.
Foundations: four, empty.
Stock: the remaining 12 cards, turned one at a time to a waste, with unlimited redeals.

Rules

Build tableau columns down by suit: the 7 of hearts onto the 8 of hearts.
A packed suit run moves as a unit.
Any card may enter an empty column.
Foundations build up by suit from the Ace and are one-way.
One card off the stock at a time, recycled as often as you like.

Big Forty Strategy

Every card is in view and the stock is tiny, so the game is almost entirely about which column to take apart, and in what order.

Find the Aces first. Nothing banks until an Ace is free, and all four are in view somewhere in the columns or waiting in the twelve-card stock. Cycle the stock once early to see what it holds, then work the columns that bury an Ace.
A suit run is a lever. Runs move whole, so a 9-8-7 of hearts lifted onto a 10 of hearts frees three cards' worth of column in one move. Build runs on purpose, then move them on purpose.
Spaces are precious. Any card may enter one, and an empty column lets you split a run at exactly the card you need. With ten columns you can afford to hold one open.
The stock is a loop, not a queue. Twelve cards recycled without limit means you will see them all repeatedly; a card you cannot use now is not lost. Spend your attention on the columns instead.
When a full pass yields nothing, the game is over. The stock cannot change on its own; if a whole cycle offers no play and the board is frozen, no further cycling will help.

Big Forty and Ali Baba

PySolFC registers Big Forty as a one-deck Klondike-type game with ten columns and a suit build, and derives Ali Baba from it by founding the four Aces before the deal. This catalogue built Ali Baba on the Forty Thieves engine because its board — an open tableau over a stock turned to a waste — is that family's, and Big Forty sits beside it for the same reason. The two differ by a real rule: Ali Baba's Aces are up before the deal, Big Forty's are in the pack; and Big Forty's stock recycles where this catalogue's Ali Baba allows one pass. Both deal every card face up.

The name has also been used for Forty Thieves itself; the research sheet behind this catalogue adjudicated that conflict, and this page is PySolFC's Big Forty.

Like every game in this family here, the first stock card is left for you to turn rather than dealt to the waste at the start.