Introduction: Baker's Game Solitaire is a more difficult variety of Freecell, one of the most popular solitaire card games. It is easy to play, requires some strategy, and is sometimes winnable. For people who like the solitaire game of Freecell, and want a game that is harder to win, this one is a must to try.
Goal: Build up all cards in sequence, from ace to king, on the four foundation piles.
Time: About 20 minutes
Wins: Sometimes
Decks: One Deck
Layout: The initial layout for Baker's Game is identical to that of FreeCell Solitaire. The initial layout for Freecell Solitaire will look like this.
Play: The goal in Baker's Game Solitaire is to build each foundation pile in suit from ace to king (Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King). When you have an Ace available (on the top of a tableau column, or on one of the freecells), place it in any foundation pile that hasn't been started yet. Then when you uncover a 2 in the same suit, it may be placed on the ace, followed by a 3, etc.
The top face-up card on the each tableau pile is available for play. Also, any card in a freecell is available for play. In order to build up the foundation, you need to uncover the covered-up cards in the tableau, to get them into play. You do this by moving tableau cards onto the foundation and onto the four freecells, and onto other columns in the tableau. Each freecell can hold only one card at a time.
Cards on the tableau are build down in suit. So, in this way, a queen of diamonds may only be placed on the king of diamonds. And the six of hearts may only be placed on the seven of hearts. These cards are all overlapped, so that you can see what they are. The high card is a king and the low card is an ace, so a king may not be placed on an ace in Baker's Game. When a card becomes uncovered, and hence, becomes the top-most card in a column, that card is now available for play.
Cards in sequence on a column in the tableau may be moved as a unit, but the number of cards which may be moved at one time depends on the current layout. The general rule is that the number of cards in a valid sequence which may be moved as a unit depends on the number of empty freecells and the number of gaps in the tableau. Actually, cards on the tableau may be moved only one at a time, but as a shortcut, a valid sequence of cards may be moved. They may be moved only if there would be room enough on the tableau and freecells to move the same set of cards one at a time. So, for example, at an early point in the game, there are no gaps open in the tableau, but there no freecells used either, a sequence of up to 5 cards may be moved because four of them can be moved to the freecells, then the fifth card moved from one tableau column to another, and then the four cards from the freecells may be moved back onto the tableau. Moving more than one card at one time is often a useful move.
Freecells can hold only one card at a time, and the cards in the freecells are available for play. It is best to keep as many freecells empty as possible. This allows you to move more cards in sequence, and allows flexibility in moving cards around the tableau. If at all possible, try to move cards onto the freecells only when necessary, and only when you can move them back off the freecells back onto the tableau piles, or foundation, as soon as possible.
Cards may not be moved from the foundation back to the tableau or onto any of the freecells. Because of this, it may make more sense to keep cards on the tableau and in the freecells, and available for play, rather than moving them early on to the foundation.
Gaps in the tableau may be filled with any available card or valid sequence. Remember the rule described above about the number of cards in a sequence that can be moved at one time. Creating a gap is usually a good move in any variation of Freecell solitaire. When you have created a gap, try to fill the gap with as large a sequence of cards as possible.
Continue playing in this manner. Move cards from the freecells to the tableau and the foundation, and from the tableau to the foundation and to the freecells, and within the tableau, trying to uncover tableau cards and move them to the foundation.
When no more moves can be made on the tableau, freecells, and foundation, the game is over and lost.
Gaps: Gaps in the tableau in Bake's Game are made when all of the cards are moved out of a column of the tableau. When this happens, the gap may be filled with any available card or valid sequence. Try to fill a gap with as large a sequence as is valid.
Redeals: In Baker's Game there are no redeals.