Good Measure Solitaire
How to play Good Measure
Good Measure is a one-deck solitaire game that starts two Aces on the foundations and deals the other 50 cards face up into ten columns of five, with every King moved to the bottom and columns built down regardless of suit.
Baker's Dozen on ten columns of five, with two Aces already on the foundations.
The goal of Good Measure
Move every card onto the four foundations, building each one up by suit from Ace to King.
How to set up Good Measure
The first two Aces in the shuffled deck start on their foundations, and the other 50 cards are dealt face up into ten columns of five. Any King dealt higher up a column is moved to the bottom of it. The other two foundations start empty, and there are no free cells and no stock.
Good Measure rules
Columns build down one rank at a time regardless of suit. Only the top card of a column moves, one card at a time, onto its foundation or onto a column where it builds.
An empty column can never be filled, so once a column is cleared it stays empty. A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to play it: to its foundation if it fits, otherwise onto a column. Drag a card to choose where it goes yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Good Measure
You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. Once every column is in descending order, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, moves the remaining cards up for you. The game is stuck when no card has a legal move left.
Good Measure strategy tips
The two Aces that start home are whichever two the shuffle reached first, so they can be any two suits, even two of one colour. Check which foundations are open before your first move.
Find the two Aces still in the columns first. Until they go home, no card of their suits can leave the columns.
Five cards to a column means a card can start four deep, one deeper than in Baker's Dozen, and an emptied column never comes back. Work first on the columns where the next cards the foundations want lie deepest.
Good Measure questions and answers
How do you play Good Measure solitaire?
Put two Aces on their foundations and deal the other 50 cards into ten columns of five, with every King moved to the bottom of its column. Move the top card of a column onto the next higher card of any suit, or up to its foundation, one card at a time. The foundations build up by suit from Ace to King, and an empty column stays empty.
What is the difference between Good Measure and Baker's Dozen?
The rules of play are the same. Good Measure starts two Aces on their foundations and deals the other 50 cards into ten columns of five, where Baker's Dozen deals all 52 into thirteen columns of four. With fewer, deeper columns, more cards start buried.
Can every Good Measure deal be won?
Not every one can be shown to. Of 100 shuffled Good Measure deals, the solver proved only 20 winnable within its dealing search and 43 within the Hint button's search; those counts are a floor, not the odds. Deeper columns than Baker's Dozen make it harder to settle, so the Hint button often falls back to ranking the moves in front of you, and Winnable in the menu beside New deal takes about five shuffles to find a board it can prove.
Is there a daily Good Measure game?
Yes. Good Measure has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. You need to be logged in to play it.