What is Trefoil?
Trefoil is a fan-layout patience game in the La Belle Lucie family. Like La Belle Lucie, cards are dealt into fans of three and only top cards move. The key difference: before dealing, all four Aces are removed from the deck and placed on the foundations. The remaining 48 cards fill sixteen fans of three cards each.
Removing the Aces before dealing ensures that foundation building can begin immediately from move one, and eliminates the frustration of having Aces buried deep in fans. This makes Trefoil measurably more winnable than La Belle Lucie while preserving the same core mechanics.
Full rules
Four Aces are placed on the foundations. The remaining 48 cards are dealt face-up into sixteen fans of three cards each. Only the top card of each fan is available.
A top card moves to a foundation (building upward by suit, Ace already placed) or to another fan (building downward by suit — same suit, one rank lower). Empty fans cannot be refilled. When no moves remain, one redeal is typically permitted: gather all tableau cards, shuffle, and re-deal into fans. Win when all cards reach the foundations.
How Trefoil differs from La Belle Lucie
La Belle Lucie: Aces are in the fans, 18 fans (17 of three + 1 of one), up to two redeals. Trefoil: Aces start on foundations, 16 fans of three, typically one redeal. Fewer fans means more average cards per fan but a cleaner starting position. The missing two redeals are partly offset by the guaranteed Ace availability — you never spend a redeal trying to reach a buried Ace.
Foundation-first discipline still applies in Trefoil. Scan all sixteen fan tops for foundation plays before making any fan-to-fan transfer.
Read the Trefoil strategy guide →