Congress is a single-pass race to find every Ace before the stock runs out.
Two decks, eight columns, and one journey through the stock: every card you draw that has nowhere useful to go is permanently wasted. Congress rewards players who exhaust every tableau move before each draw and build sequences long enough to keep options open.
Last updated: May 2026
History and background
Congress, also known as Congress of Kings, belongs to the Forty Thieves family of two-deck patience games. The Forty Thieves family traces its popularity to the nineteenth century and was said to have been a favourite of Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile on St Helena (under the name Napoleon at St Helena). Congress is a friendlier variant: where Napoleon at St Helena insists on same-suit tableau building, Congress allows any card one rank lower to build downward regardless of suit. This wider rule makes Congress considerably more playable while keeping the core single-pass stock pressure of the family.
The game uses two 52-card decks (104 cards total) and eight foundations building from Ace to King. Eight Aces must be found and freed during play — none are pre-placed. That Ace-hunting challenge is the single most important thing separating Congress from its twin, Parliament, where all Aces start on the foundations.
How the game is set up
Two 52-card decks are shuffled together. Eight tableau columns of five face-up cards each are dealt (40 cards). The remaining 64 cards form the stock.
- Tableau sequences. Build downward, any suit. A 7 of any suit may go on an 8 of any suit. Cards move one at a time.
- Empty columns. May be filled with any card from the waste pile or directly from another tableau column.
- Stock and waste.The stock deals one card at a time to the waste pile. The top card of the waste is always available to play. The stock is single-pass only — once through, nothing redeals.
- Foundations. Eight foundations build upward by suit from Ace to King. Aces must be discovered and played during the game.
The single-pass constraint: why it changes everything
Many solitaire games reward patience: draw, see what happens, redeal if needed. Congress has no redeal. Every card that passes into the waste and cannot be played is gone from the game’s effective pool. By the time you reach the end of the stock, every card not on the tableau or foundations is permanently inaccessible.
This transforms the stock draw from a source of new options into a countdown clock. Before every draw, ask whether there is any tableau move available that would improve your position. Playing any legal tableau move before drawing is almost always correct: a tableau card placed now is not a card drawn and wasted later.
Delay every draw as long as possible. Each tableau move you make before drawing costs nothing. Each draw you make prematurely may waste the card you most needed.
Finding the Aces: the primary objective
Congress is played across 104 cards, but the game’s opening phase has one goal: free all eight Aces. With Aces buried in both the tableau and the stock, the only reliable approach is to build the tableau downward aggressively — moving cards off tableau tops to expose what is below.
Any-suit tableau building makes this easier than in Napoleon at St Helena, because any lower card can stack on any higher one. Use that flexibility fully. Do not wait for same-suit matches when building sequences; just build downward and expose as many cards as quickly as possible. An Ace found in the stock cost you a draw but is not wasted if you immediately play it to the foundation.
Strategic priorities in order
- Exhaust all legal tableau moves before every stock draw. This is the single most important habit in Congress. Moving cards within the tableau is free; drawing from the stock is a one-use resource.
- Build downward aggressively to expose tableau cards. Longer tableau sequences surface more cards and give the waste pile more legal destinations, reducing the number of draws that produce unplayable cards.
- Play Aces to foundations the instant they surface. An Ace in the foundation starts a build chain. An Ace sitting on a tableau column is wasted potential and blocks the column.
- Keep empty columns as landing pads for waste cards. An empty column can absorb an otherwise unplayable waste card, saving it from being permanently buried. Preserve at least one empty column through the early game if possible.
- Build foundations steadily but not prematurely. Sending a 2 to the foundation is correct when its removal improves your tableau position. Sending it when it is blocking nothing and you need it as a tableau sequence piece may cost flexibility.
Decision walkthroughs
Waste card has two possible tableau destinations
The top waste card is a 6 and there are two 7s on tableau tops. Both are legal plays.
Place the 6 on the 7 whose column is shorter or whose current top card is blocking the most useful card beneath it. The destination that reveals the better card (or extends the more useful sequence) is the better move. If one destination’s column has an Ace two cards down and the other does not, choose the one with the Ace.
Should I play a card to foundations now or hold it?
A 3 is on top of a tableau column. Its matching suit foundation is at 2, so it can go immediately. But the 3 also sits on top of a 4, and there is a 2 elsewhere that could move onto that 3 if you hold it.
Send the 3 to the foundation. The 2 building onto the 3 does not help you; both would still be in the tableau consuming space. The foundation is permanent progress; the tableau stack is temporary. Clear the 3, and then the 4 becomes a new top to work with.
An Ace appears on the waste pile
You draw and the waste top is an Ace. You also have a tableau move available.
Play the Ace to the foundation immediately — this is the one time you should not exhaust all tableau moves first. An Ace on the foundation never blocks anything. Make the tableau moves after. The Ace-then-tableau sequence is identical in cost but starts the foundation a move sooner.
Common mistakes
- Drawing from the stock when a tableau move is available. This is the most expensive habit in Congress. Unplayed waste cards cannot return.
- Building short sequences instead of long ones. A sequence of two cards gives the next waste card one possible home. A sequence of six gives six possibilities. Length is protection against wasted draws.
- Holding empty columns instead of using them.An empty column held in reserve “just in case” while waste cards pile up is a missed resource. Use empty columns to save useful waste cards; do not hoard them.
- Ignoring waste card sequencing. If a waste card would fit onto a tableau top, and there is no better play, take it even if the destination is not perfect. A card in the tableau can still move later; a card you skipped is gone.
Recognizing a losing position early
Congress positions fail when the stock runs out before all Aces are found or when the tableau becomes too congested to place incoming waste cards. Warning signs:
- Multiple Aces are still buried deep in the tableau and the stock is more than two-thirds spent. You are unlikely to free them all before the stock ends.
- All eight tableau columns are at maximum length with no cards on the foundation low enough to open movement. Every draw will produce an unplayable waste card.
- The waste pile is growing rapidly with no legal tableau destinations for consecutive draws. The mismatch between waste ranks and tableau tops will not resolve.
Unlike some solitaire games, Congress offers limited recovery once the stock approaches its end. The time to change strategy is early: when two or three draws in a row produce no playable card, that is the signal to exhaust every tableau combination first and stop drawing until you have rearranged all available options.