Rouge et Noir (patience)

Rouge et Noir, French for red and black, is a patience solitaire card game played with two full decks of fifty-two playing cards shuffled together. Its distinguishing feature among patience games is that it combines two different styles of building within the same layout: some of its piles are built in the usual ascending or descending sequence familiar from other solitaire games, while others follow a separate building method running alongside them, giving the game a noticeably larger and more varied spread of cards across the table than most single-deck patience games. Despite the shared name, Rouge et Noir should not be confused with the similarly titled solitaire game Red and Black, which is sometimes also called by this same French name, nor with the unrelated gambling card game Trente et Quarante, which likewise carries the Rouge et Noir name in some traditions. Commentators on patience games describe Rouge et Noir as interesting chiefly for its large layout and for offering wins that are achievable but never automatic, rewarding careful sequencing over pure luck.