La Belle Lucie rewards disciplined move ordering.
Only top cards move, empty fans never refill, and you get just two redeals. Every move is potentially irreversible. The game rewards players who think several steps ahead and resist the temptation to make any legal move just because it is available.
Last updated: May 2026
History and background
La Belle Lucie is one of the oldest documented patience games, appearing under various names in nineteenth-century patience compendiums. It is also known as Clover Leaf and The Fan. The game is notable for its fan-based layout and for being one of the few patience games where virtually every move has lasting consequences.
The game has a very low win rate — estimated at around 10 to 15 percent even with optimal play — because the combination of limited movement (only top cards move), limited redeals (typically two), and the fan structure means many deals are impossible to clear. When a deal is winnable, it usually requires finding a specific order of moves that avoids burying any critical card.
La Belle Lucie is related to Trefoil and Three Shuffles and a Draw, which add an Ace-out rule or additional redeals. Those variants are meaningfully easier because they relax one of La Belle Lucie’s strictest constraints.
How the game is set up
The 52 cards are dealt into 17 fans of three cards each, plus one leftover card that forms its own fan of one. The top card of each fan is the only card available for play.
- Tableau movement — A top card can be moved to another fan if it is one rank below and the same suit as the top card of the destination fan. Example: 5 of spades can move on top of 6 of spades.
- Foundations — Four foundation piles build upward by suit from Ace to King. Moving a card to its foundation is permanent.
- Empty fans — When all cards are removed from a fan, that space does not refill and cannot receive new cards. Empty fans are gone.
- Redeals — When stuck, pick up all remaining tableau cards, shuffle them, and re-deal into new fans of three. This is limited to two redeals in most implementations.
Foundation-first thinking
The single most important habit in La Belle Lucie is checking for foundation moves before making any tableau-to-tableau move. Foundation moves remove cards permanently, expose the card below them in the fan, and create new playable tops — all without consuming any reversibility budget.
Every foundation move is almost always good because it reduces the total number of cards in the tableau and potentially opens a chain of further foundation plays. When an Ace is on top of a fan, move it immediately. When a 2 of that suit becomes available (by clearing whatever was above it), move it immediately.
1. Make all available foundation moves. 2. Look for tableau moves that will enable further foundation moves. 3. Only then consider tableau moves that build suit ladders without an immediate foundation payoff.
Why move order is critical
Because only top cards can move, and because fans never refill once emptied, a card placed incorrectly can stay buried for the rest of the game — or until a redeal shuffles it to a new position. This makes La Belle Lucie different from almost all other solitaire games, where mistakes are usually recoverable within a few moves.
Fan A has a 9 of clubs on top, with an 8 of clubs below it. Fan B has a 10 of clubs on top. You can move A’s 9♣ onto B’s 10♣, making B’s top the 9♣. This reveals the 8♣ in fan A.
Now fan C has a 9 of diamonds on top. If you had moved C’s 9♦ onto B’s 10♣ instead, the 9♣ would remain available as a separate top card. Moving A’s 9♣ first buries it under the 9♦ if you then move the 9♦ on top — but they cannot stack; only same-suit moves are legal.
The real trap is: if A’s 9♣ was moved onto B and then the 8♣ (now revealed in A) needs to go somewhere but all 9♣ landing spots are occupied, you have no move. Checking whether the revealed card can go anywhere before making the initial move would have caught this.
Before every tableau move, ask: will the card I am revealing have a legal destination? If not, do I need this reveal, or is there a safer order?
Redeal timing and value
A redeal picks up all remaining non-foundation cards, shuffles them, and re-deals into fans of three. This is powerful because it gives a buried card a chance to reach the top of a new fan — but it is limited. Spending a redeal carelessly leaves you without options when you are truly stuck.
The best time to redeal is when:
- You have exhausted all possible foundation moves and tableau chains.
- At least three or four critical cards are buried deep in their fans with no path to reach them on the current layout.
- You have enough redeals remaining to absorb a bad result (i.e., you are using your first redeal, not your last).
Avoid redealing just because you are stuck after two moves. The fewer tableau cards remain when you redeal, the better your odds of a useful new layout. Exhaust all foundation and tableau opportunities first.
With one redeal remaining, be especially careful. Once you use it and are stuck again, the game is over. Consider whether the current stuck position is truly unsolvable or whether a different order of moves would unstick it without spending a redeal.
Common mistakes
- Moving a card just because a legal same-suit move exists.Legal does not mean good in La Belle Lucie. Always ask whether the move exposes a useful card and whether the moved card can still reach where it needs to go.
- Burying a suit’s low cards. Moving a 6 onto a 7 of the same suit may look like progress, but if the 5 of that suit is buried two cards deep in another fan, you are building a sequence that cannot be extended anytime soon.
- Using a redeal too early. A first redeal used after three turns of play is almost always wasted. Exhaust every legal line before spending a redeal.
- Ignoring Aces and Twos. Because foundations build from Ace up, any Ace buried in a fan is a priority target. Tracing the path to each Ace at the start of the game — before any moves — is good practice.
Related fan games
La Belle Lucie belongs to a family of fan-layout patience games:
- Trefoil — Aces are removed to foundations before dealing, which gives the game a much cleaner start and raises the win rate considerably.
- The Fan — Only one redeal is allowed (or none), making it harder, or the deal rules differ slightly. Shares the core fan mechanic.
- Three Shuffles and a Draw — Allows three redeals plus one draw (moving any one buried card to the top of its fan), which makes completion far more likely.