Open the next needed card in each fan
La Belle Lucie deals one deck into seventeen three-card fans and one one-card fan. Only top cards move. Foundations build upward by suit from Ace; tableau cards build down on the same suit. Empty fans cannot be refilled. The two redeals are offered only after no normal move remains.
Last updated: September 2026
Compare what each top-card move reveals
A fan-to-fan move changes two access paths: it exposes the card beneath the source top and covers the destination top. Before moving a Five of Spades onto a Six of Spades, check whether the Six is itself needed at its foundation soon and what the Five currently hides. Moving a legal card to foundation can be helpful, but it may remove a landing place for a card still buried elsewhere.
A Five of Spades covers an Ace of Hearts, and a Six of Spades is exposed in another fan. Moving the Five onto the Six reveals the Ace for its foundation. The new Six–Five fan cannot be moved as a group: only the top Five is available on the next turn. The route exposes one card while covering another.
Use a forced redeal for a new arrangement
In this site's implementation, a redeal becomes legal only when no top-card move remains. Remaining tableau cards are shuffled into fans again; foundation cards stay in place. A redeal changes access rather than reversing a poor foundation choice. If several legal moves remain, compare them before the game offers its next shuffle.
Trefoil starts with four Aces exposed
Trefoil seeds the four Ace foundations before dealing its remaining 48 cards into sixteen three-card fans. The same top-card, same-suit, no-empty-refill rules apply, and it has two forced redeals. The opening question becomes which exposed Two can advance a seeded foundation and which fan top should move first to reveal another Two. There is no need to search for buried Aces.
Three Shuffles and a Draw adds one final buried-card move
Three Shuffles and a Draw uses the La Belle Lucie opening and two forced redeals. After both redeals are spent and no normal move remains, it offers one merci draw: move a buried fan card to a legally matching foundation or another fan. It is not a free extraction at any time, and the destination must still obey ordinary placement rules.
At that last impasse, compare eligible buried cards by what each extraction exposes and the destination it covers. The special move may restart normal play; it does not guarantee that the deal can be finished.
Other fan branches
The Fan permits Kings in empty fans but has no redeals. Shamrocks uses rank-adjacent moves regardless of suit and limits each fan to three cards. Those changes need different placement decisions. Crescent and Bristol share the fan layout without sharing these exact movement rules.