Baker's Game Solitaire
How to play Baker's Game
FreeCell's ancestor, with columns built down by suit.
About Baker's Game
Baker's Game is a one-deck solitaire game played like FreeCell, on eight columns with four free cells, except that the columns build down in the same suit.
Columns build down by suit, so the Six of hearts goes only on the Seven of hearts. Every card has just one place to land on a column, which makes free cells and empty columns even more precious than in FreeCell.
A run of one suit is already in foundation order, so it goes up to its foundation card by card as soon as the card just below its lowest one is home.
Sending a card to its foundation is always safe in Baker's Game. The only card that could build on it is the next lower card of its suit, and that one is already home, so move cards up as soon as they fit. In FreeCell the same move can leave a card of the other colour with nowhere to go.
Many Baker's Game deals have no winning line at all, so a stuck board is not always a mistake. Given 100 shuffled deals, the solver settled every one within the Hint button's search: 71 winnable and 29 impossible, where the same test found a win in all but one FreeCell deal. Switch on Winnable in the menu beside New deal and each new board is shuffled until the solver proves it can be won, unless it runs out of tries; the daily Baker's Game board is dealt the same way.
The goal of FreeCell
Move every card onto the four foundations, building each one up by suit from Ace to King.
How to set up FreeCell
The whole deck is dealt face up into eight columns, the first four with seven cards and the last four with six. Four free cells and four foundations start empty above them. There is no stock, so every card is in view from the first move.
FreeCell rules
A free cell holds one card. The top card of a column, or a card in a free cell, can move onto its foundation, into an empty free cell, or onto a column where it builds. Columns build down one rank at a time: in FreeCell the colours must alternate, and in Baker's Game the suit must match. Any card can move into an empty column.
A run of cards already built in order can move together as one move. It can be at most one card longer than the number of empty free cells, doubled for each empty column, and when it moves into an empty column that column does not count, so the limit halves. A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to play it: to its foundation if it fits, otherwise onto another column, otherwise into a free cell, and only then into an empty column. A run you click only ever moves onto a column. Drag a card or a run to choose where it goes yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
The full FreeCell guide, with strategy tips and common questions