Baker’s Dozen
All 52 cards are dealt face up in thirteen columns of four, with every king moved to the bottom of its column. Build down by rank in any suit and send every card home to its foundation. Every deal here has been played to a win by a solver.
Also try Beleaguered Castle → Also try La Belle Lucie →
How to play Baker’s Dozen
How to play
Move the top card of a column onto a card one rank higher, whatever its suit: the 6 of clubs on the 7 of hearts. Only one card moves at a time. Build the four foundations up by suit from ace to king. In Classic an empty column stays empty for the rest of the game. Drag a card, or tap it and then tap where it should go; double-tap sends it to its foundation or to a column where it fits.
Why the kings start at the bottom
A king can never go onto another card, and in Classic it can’t go into an empty column either, so a king dealt on top of lower cards would bury them for good. That is why the deal moves every king to the bottom of its column, under the other cards, which keep their order.
Tips
Find the next card each foundation needs and count the cards on top of it. Try not to put a card on top of a lower card you will need soon: everything above it has to move first. A card moves to its foundation by itself only when no other card could ever need to sit on it, so keep an eye on the foundations yourself too.
Levels
Classic is Baker’s Dozen as usually played, and it has the daily deal. Spanish Patience plays the same way except that any card may go into an empty column, which makes it a lot easier. Every deal on both levels was played to a win by a solver first.
Questions
How do you play Baker’s Dozen solitaire?
The whole deck is dealt face up in 13 columns of four, kings at the bottom. Move one top card at a time onto a card one rank higher of any suit, or to its foundation. Build the foundations up by suit from ace to king to win.
Why are the kings moved to the bottom of their columns?
Because a king can’t be moved onto anything in the tableau, a king on top of other cards would trap them. Moving the kings to the bottom at the deal is part of the standard rules of Baker’s Dozen.
Can every game of Baker’s Dozen be won?
Not every one. Our solver, which sees every card just as you do, wins nearly four in five random Classic deals within its search limit. It proved only one deal in about 500 impossible and ran out of time on the rest, so many of those may be winnable too. Every deal here, on both levels and in the daily, was first won by the solver and the win was replayed through the rules.
How is Baker’s Dozen different from Beleaguered Castle and FreeCell?
All three are dealt face up. Beleaguered Castle has eight rows, starts with the aces on the foundations and lets any card into an empty row. FreeCell has free cells and builds down in alternating colours. Baker’s Dozen has thirteen columns, no free cells, and in Classic an empty column can’t be used again.
What does the hint do?
Hint uses a solver that sees the same cards you do: every card is face up, so it knows nothing you can’t see. It looks for a way to win from your position and highlights the first move; when it finds one, the hint says the deal is still winnable.