Baker's Solitaire: where our rules part company with the textbook

Baker's Solitaire, often called Baker's Game, is FreeCell's stricter ancestor. You still get eight face-up columns and four free cells, but cards must be built down in the same suit, not in alternating colours. That one change already makes it harder than FreeCell. On this site there is a second restriction as well: only a King may be placed in an empty column.

This page is a good example of why we test our own games rather than borrow published numbers. The St Andrews study by Blake and Gent reports that 75.053% of classic Baker's Game deals can be won. Our solver agrees with them almost exactly under the classic rules. But under this site's Kings-only rule, the answer is less than half that: 31.8%.

Our results against the published figure

The first row matters because it validates our solver. It reproduces a published, peer-reviewed result for the classic game. That gives us confidence in the second row, which the published research does not cover.

Out of St Andrews' ten million classic deals, 7,505,266 were winnable and 2,494,734 were not. In our 10,000 deals under the Kings-only rule, just 3,184 could be won.

How the game works here

• All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns (four of seven, four of six).
• Four free cells, each holding one card, and four foundations built up by suit from Ace.
• In the columns, build downwards in suit: the 6 of clubs on the 7 of clubs only.
• Only a King, or a run starting with a King, may be placed in an empty column.
• Runs of several cards can be moved using empty free cells, but on this site empty columns do not add to how many you can move at once.

Why one rule halves your chances

In FreeCell and classic Baker's Game, an empty column is the most flexible space on the table: any card can sit there while you rearrange. Under the Kings-only rule, an empty column is useless until a King comes free, and it does nothing to help you shift runs. You lose your best tool.

The effect is not subtle. Our solver decided every single deal under both rule sets, so there is no uncertainty from undecided games. The classic game is winnable about three times in four; this site's version is winnable about one time in three.

Playing well under the Kings-only rule

Find the Kings before anything else

Since only Kings can use an empty column, the moment a King reaches the top of a column that could be emptied is the moment the game opens up. Before your first move, note where each King sits and how many cards cover it.

Do not empty a column without a King to put in it

Without a King to fill it, an empty column does nothing for you. Unless clearing it sends cards home, it is often better to leave a short column alone until a King is ready.

Guard the free cells

With empty columns so limited, the four cells are almost all the working room you have. Fill one only when the next few moves clearly pay it back.

Look for early Aces

In 49.7% of our deals an Ace was playable straight away. When one is not, the first job is to reach the nearest Ace, and the second is to follow it with the Two of the same suit.

Accept that some games cannot be won

Under this site's rule, 68.2% of deals are impossible even for a perfect player. Losing here is not the same as losing at FreeCell. When Undo shows you every line fails, deal again with a clear conscience.

On solitaire-free.uk

Baker's Solitaire is free to play in any modern browser on a computer, tablet or phone, with nothing to download and no account to create. Big, clear cards with zoom; Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart and Auto Play; drag and drop or tap to move; your wins, time and moves for the game in progress; and optional sound, fullscreen and table colours.

Mistakes to avoid

• Playing it like FreeCell. Here a card only goes on the next card up of the same suit, so many moves that look natural in FreeCell are not allowed.
• Clearing a column too early. Unless a King is ready to move in, the empty column cannot be used at all under this site's rule.
• Filling the last free cell. With so little other room, a full set of cells usually ends the game.
• Blaming yourself for every loss. Most Baker's deals here cannot be won by anyone. Use Undo to check a few lines, then move on.

How we ran the research, step by step

The solitaire-free.uk team ran this study in September 2026 to measure this site's Baker's Solitaire and to check our solver against the published result for the classic game.

1. Rules from the site's code. Building in suit, Kings only into empty columns, and empty columns not counted towards multi-card moves. We noted that this differs from the classic Baker's Game studied in the literature.
2. A program version. We rebuilt the game in Python, sharing most of the code with our FreeCell solver. On deals 1 to 5, an independent brute-force search reached the same verdicts as the main solver.
3. Numbered deals. 10,000 deals under the site's rule and 2,000 under the classic rule, each shuffled from a numbered seed so they can be repeated.
4. The player. Nothing is hidden in Baker's Solitaire, so the solver sees exactly what you see. It was allowed up to 200,000 positions per deal.
5. Running it. Every deal under both rule sets was fully decided: solved or proven impossible. None ran out of budget.
6. Comparing with St Andrews. Under the classic rule our 76.0% sits alongside the published 75.053%, well within our margin of error. The Kings-only rule has no published counterpart, so our 31.8% stands on its own.
7. The margin of error. A 95% range is where the true figure very probably lies given our sample. For the site's rule, 31.8% means between 30.9% and 32.8%.
8. Limits. The solver does not use the site's option of moving a card back off a foundation, which can only make our figure slightly low. Our solutions averaged about 39 moves, but they are the first found, not the shortest.

Behind the numbers: the code

The study was written in Python 3.11 using only the standard library. Baker's Solitaire shares freecell.py with FreeCell, switched to same-suit building and the Kings-only rule. The solver is a best-first search that explores the most promising position first and records every position it has seen, in a standard form, so nothing is searched twice. Within that budget the search reached a verdict on every deal. A shared runner spread the 10,000 deals across 19 processes on a 20-core machine in about sixteen minutes; the 2,000 classic-rule deals took about three. Percentage ranges use the Wilson score interval.

An AI assistant, Claude from Anthropic, helped us write and review the code and draft this page. It did not produce the figures. They all come from running the solver, and we tested the solver against the published classic-game result before publishing.

Frequently asked questions

Are Baker's Solitaire and Baker's Game one game?

They are the same game under two names, but rules vary between versions. On this site only Kings may fill an empty column, which is stricter than the classic game.

What share of Baker's deals can be won?

Under this site's rules, 31.8% with perfect play. Under the classic rules, about 75%, which matches the St Andrews study.

Why not just use the classic rule?

We report the game exactly as it plays here. If you want the more forgiving experience, FreeCell is the closest relative.

Is it harder than Spider?

By our numbers, fewer Baker's deals can be won even with perfect play (31.8%) than our simple bot wins at one-suit Spider (52.8%). Every Baker's card is visible, though, so what you can win comes down to planning.

Where can I see all the comparisons?

Each game page has one. Golf shows the opposite effect: a rule on this site that doubles your chances. See the full list on our games page.

By Admin, solitaire-free.uk. Study date: 18 September 2026.