| A Patience game | |
 A partially completed game of Baker's Game on PySolFC | |
| Alternative names | Brain Jam |
|---|---|
| Named variants | FreeCell |
| Type | Open packer |
| Family | Freecell |
| Deck | Single 52-card |
Baker's Game is a patience or solitaire card game similar to FreeCell. It predates FreeCell, and differs from it only in the fact that sequences are built by suit, instead of by alternate color. This makes the game more difficult to complete successfully.
One of the oldest ancestors of Baker's Game is Eight Off. In the June 1968 edition of Scientific American , Martin Gardner described in his "Mathematical Games" column a game by C. L. Baker, that is now known as Baker's Game. Gardner wrote "The game was taught to Baker by his father, who in turn learned it from an Englishman during the 1920s". [1]
The description of Baker's Game in the "Mathematical Games" column inspired Paul Alfille to create FreeCell and he coded it for the PLATO educational computer system, which ended up becoming more popular than Baker's Game. [2]
(Adapted from the FreeCell's article Rules.)
Construction and layout:
Building during play:
Moves:
Victory:
Variant: To make the game even more difficult, allow only kings to be placed on an empty tableau spot.
Freecell Solver, a solver for some variants of Patience game, including Baker's Game, [3] was run on the first 10 million deals of Baker's Game with 4 reserve cells based on the Microsoft FreeCell deals, in order to collect statistics. [4] The solver was run using a preset that guarantees an accurate verdict. Out of the 10 million deals, 7,431,962 were solvable (making for an average win rate of 74.3%), and the average number of moves required to solve was 107.5 moves (unoptimized).
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in describing, succinctly and accurately, how the games are played. Patience games are usually for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of patience grouped by object.
Klondike, also known as Canfield, is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family, something which "defies explanation" as it has one of the lowest rates of success of any such game. Partly because of that, it has spawned numerous variants including Batsford, Easthaven, King Albert, Thumb and Pouch, Somerset or Usk and Whitehead, as well as the American variants of the games, Agnes and Westcliff. The distinguishing feature of all variants is a triangular layout of the tableau, building in ascending sequence and packing in descending order.
FreeCell is a solitaire card game played using the standard 52-card deck. It is fundamentally different from most solitaire games in that very few deals are unsolvable, and all cards are dealt face-up from the very beginning of the game. Although software implementations vary, most versions label the hands with a number.
Simple Simon is a patience or solitaire card game played with a regular 52 cards deck. It is a close relative of the well-known Spider Solitaire. It became somewhat popular being featured in some computerized collections of Solitaire card games, but its origins possibly predate its implementation as a computerized game.
Eight Off is a patience or solitaire card game, named after its employment of eight cells, played with one deck of playing cards. The object of the game is to move all the cards into the foundations. It served as a partial inspiration for and is very similar to the popular solitaire game FreeCell.
Napoleon at St Helena is a 2-deck patience or solitaire card game for one player. It is quite difficult to win, and luck-of-the-draw is a significant factor. The Emperor Napoleon often played patience during his final exile to the island of St Helena, and this is said to be the version he probably played. Along with its variants, it is one of the most popular two-deck patiences or solitaires. The winning chances have been estimated as 1 in 10 games, with success typically dependent on the player's ability to clear one or more columns. The game is the progenitor of a large family of similar games, mostly with variations designed to make it easier to get out.
Canfield (US) or Demon (UK) is a patience or solitaire card game with a very low probability of winning. It was an English game first called Demon Patience and described as "the best game for one pack that has yet been invented", but was popularised in the United States at the turn of the 20th century by casino owner Richard A. Canfield, who turned it into a casino game. As a result it became known as Canfield in the United States, while continuing to be called Demon Patience in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It is closely related to Klondike, and is one of the most popular games of its type.
Stalactites is a solitaire card game which uses a deck of 52 playing cards. The game is similar to Freecell, but it is different because of the way building onto the foundations and the tableau.
Baker's Dozen is a patience or card solitaire using a single pack of fifty-two playing cards. The game is so called because of the 13 columns in the game, the number in a baker's dozen.
Beleaguered Castle is a patience or solitaire card game played with a deck of 52 playing cards. It is sometimes described as "Freecell without cells" because its game play is somewhat akin to the popular solitaire computer game of that name but without extra empty spaces to maneuver. Beleaguered Castle is also called Laying Siege and Sham Battle.
Queen of Italy is a solitaire card game played with two decks of playing cards. It is a very strategic game that rewards careful planning, since the cards that potentially block the game are presented at the start, and with care it can be completed about half the number of attempts.
Persian Patience is a patience card game which is played with two decks of playing cards. The unusual feature of this game is the fact that the two decks are decks used in Piquet and Bezique, i.e. those that have the Deuces (twos), Treys (Threes), Fours, Fives, and Sixes removed.
Penguin is a patience or solitaire card game, invented by David Parlett, which uses a deck of 52 playing cards. The game play is similar to solitaire card games like the popular Freecell and its predecessor Eight Off.
Westcliff is the name of two closely-related patience or card solitaire games of the simple packer type, both of which are played using a deck of 52 playing cards. One version is particularly easy to win, with odds of 9 in 10; the other is harder with odds closer to 1 in 4. The game has a variant, Easthaven.
Miss Milligan is a patience game which is played using two decks of playing cards, and is one of the most popular of the double-deck games. According to Peter Arnold, author of Card Games for One, this classic game's enduring popularity is in part due to its amazing tendency to enable complete recovery from seemingly hopeless positions. Winning chances with good play are about 1 in 20 games.
Four Seasons is a patience or card solitaire which is played with a single deck of playing cards. It is also known as Corner Card and Vanishing Cross, due to the arrangement of the foundations and the tableau respectively. Another alternate name is Cross Currents.
Seahaven Towers is a patience or solitaire card game that uses a deck of 52 playing cards, and is closely related to the popular solitaire game FreeCell. Good players can expect to win more than three-quarters of their games by clever card manipulation.
La Belle Lucie is a patience or card solitaire where the object is to build the cards into the foundations. It is considered to be representative of the "fan" family of solitaire card games, and has a pleasing layout.
American Toad is a solitaire game using two decks of playing cards. This game is similar to Canfield except that the tableau builds down in suit, and a partial tableau stack cannot be moved. The object of the game is to move all cards to the foundations.
Batsford is a patience or card solitaire similar to Klondike except that it uses two decks instead of one. The cards are turned up one at a time during a single pass through the deck, and there is also a reserve pile available for a single King.
| Closed games |
|  | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half-open games |
| |||||||||||
| Open games |
| |||||||||||
| Competitive games | ||||||||||||