Trace a route to low cards before removing their landing places.
All 52 cards are face-up in thirteen columns of four. Kings are moved to column bottoms before play. Only a top card moves, and an emptied column cannot be refilled. Unlike FreeCell, there are no cells or empty-column staging moves to undo a blocked route.
Last updated: September 2026
Find a route to each Ace and Two
Foundations build up by suit from Ace. Locate each Ace and the cards above it. A single exposed card can move onto any exposed card one rank higher, regardless of suit, or onto its foundation when the preceding rank is there. Check whether each blocker has a reachable base before moving the first one.
An Ace is covered by a Five, which is covered by a Nine at the top of its column. If a Ten and a Six are exposed elsewhere, the Nine can move to the Ten, then the Five to the Six, exposing the Ace. If the Ten is itself covering the only Six, that Six is not yet available; find another Ten or a way to uncover a different Six before committing to the chain.
Count remaining destinations, not empty spaces
An empty column is unavailable for the rest of the deal. Clearing one exposes its final card for a foundation move, but removes a tableau top that could accept a lower rank. Before emptying a column, check whether that top card is the only accessible base for a blocker elsewhere.
The deal’s King relocation means Kings begin beneath other cards in their columns. It does not ensure the low cards above them can all be reached. Track the order of exposed ranks and use Undo to compare different legal branches.
Do not treat an ordered stack as a movable run
A stack such as Eight–Seven–Six still moves one exposed card at a time. A same-suit stack may also delay foundations: if a Four of Hearts covers a Five of Hearts while the heart foundation ends at Three, the Four can go up first and then reveal the Five. Reverse their order and the Five must wait for the Four to be freed by another route.
The FreeCell family guide explains access dependencies across open-tableau games. Baker’s Dozen requires separate planning because it has no cells, no group transfers, and no refillable gaps.
Good Measure: use the two seeded Aces
Good Measureputs two Aces on their suit foundations before play. Its other 50 face-up cards form ten columns of five, with Kings moved to column bottoms. Rank-only single-card moves and unfillable empty columns work as in Baker’s Dozen.
An exposed Two matching one of the seeded Aces can move to its foundation immediately. A Two of either other suit must wait for its Ace. Before covering a Two with a convenient tableau move, check which foundation is already ready and what card that Two would expose. A column cleared in Good Measure is still lost as a rank destination for the rest of the deal.
Portuguese Solitaire: an empty column accepts a King
Portuguese Solitaire keeps Baker’s Dozen’s thirteen open columns, King relocation, and rank-only single-card moves. Its key change is that a King can refill an empty column. A gap is useful when a buried King is close to becoming exposed, because moving that King can uncover the card beneath it.
If a King is under three cards, name destinations for those three blockers before clearing a different column to make space. A non-King still cannot use the gap. Filling it with a King changes the set of available tableau tops, so check which Queen could eventually move onto that King.