How to Play Baker's Solitaire

A strategic solitaire in the FreeCell family, with four temporary storage cells and eight tableau piles where you build sequences in descending order by suit only—no alternating colors. This stricter building rule makes it more challenging than FreeCell.

Setup

1. Four foundation piles start empty (one for each suit)
2. Four cells sit above the tableau—each holds only one card
3. Eight tableau piles contain all 52 cards dealt to them

How to play

• Build the foundations up in suit order from Ace to King
• In the tableau, stack cards in descending order within the same suit (10♠ on J♠)
• Only the top card of each tableau pile can move at a time
• Move any card to an empty cell for temporary storage
• Move cards from cells back to the tableau or directly to the foundations
• Any card can fill an empty tableau pile
• Cards automatically move to the foundations once there are no more tableau moves available for them

How to win

Objective: Move all 52 cards to the foundations by building in ascending suit order.

You win when all cards are built onto the four foundation piles. You lose when no legal moves remain and cards are still in play.

Tips

• Treat cells as workspace—plan carefully what you store there since you only have four
• Create tableau sequences strategically to access buried cards
• Consider which cards you'll need to move before filling your cells

Play Baker's free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Baker's alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the FreeCell family:

• Chinese FreeCell — A streamlined version of FreeCell using only Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds.
• Double Sea Towers — A two-deck FreeCell variant where nine temporary cells hold single cards, helping you maneuver through 11 tableau piles.
• Eight Off — This FreeCell relative gives you eight reserve cells to work with, but tableau sequences must stay within the same suit as you dig out buried cards.
• Eight On — This tougher cousin of Eight Off starts with all eight reserve cells already full, so you have no free storage until you clear one.
• ForeCell — An early ancestor of FreeCell: use four cells and build the tableau with King-only spaces to work all cards onto the foundations.