Baker's Game Solitaire Rules

Baker's Game SolitaireIn the June 1968 edition of Scientific American, Martin Gardner described a game by mathematician C. L. Baker. The game was a variation of the well-known solitaire Eight Off, in which there were four free cells (rather than eight), and which allowed any card to be used to fill empty spaces in the tableau (as opposed to Eight Off, in which only kings could be used to start new tableau piles).

The game came to be known as Baker's Game, and ultimately spawned the FreeCell family of games.

Number of Decks: 1

Initial Layout: The tableau consists of 8 piles. The first four contain 7 cards, and the last four contain 6 cards. There are four free cells and four foundations located above the tableau.

Object: Build the four foundations up in suit from Ace to King.

Play: On the Tableau, build down in suit. Only the top card of each pile is available for play, either to a free cell, a foundation pile, or to another tableau pile.

Spaces in the tableau may be filled by any card.

The game is won when all cards have been moved to the Foundations.

Other Sources of Baker's Game Solitaire Rules

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Games Featuring Baker's Game Solitaire

BVS Solitaire Collection
Classic Solitaire for Mac OSX
Pretty Good Solitaire
Solavant