Baker's Game is a
patience
(or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when faced ...
or
solitaire
Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
similar to
FreeCell. It predates FreeCell, and differs from it only in the fact that sequences are built by suit, instead of by alternate color. This makes the game more difficult to complete successfully.
History
One of the oldest ancestors of Baker's Game is
Eight Off. In the June 1968 edition of ''
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'',
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...
described in his "Mathematical Games" column a game by C. L. Baker, that is now known as Baker's Game. Gardner wrote "The game was taught to Baker by his father, who in turn learned it from an Englishman during the 1920s".
The description of Baker's Game in the "Mathematical Games" column inspired Paul Alfille to create
FreeCell and he coded it for the
PLATO
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
educational computer system, which ended up becoming more popular than Baker's Game.
Rules
(Adapted from
the FreeCell's article Rules.)
Construction and layout:
*One standard 52-card deck is used.
*There are four open
cell
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...
s and four open
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
s. (Some alternate rules use between one and ten cells.)
*The entire deck is dealt out left to right into eight
cascade
Cascade, Cascades or Cascading may refer to:
Science and technology Science
*Cascade waterfalls, or series of waterfalls
* Cascade, the CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (a protein complex)
* Cascade (grape), a type of fruit
* Bioc ...
s, four of which comprise seven cards and four of which comprise six. (Some alternate rules will use between four and ten cascades.)
Building during play:
*The top card of each cascade begins a
tableau
Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to:
Arts
* ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled ''Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV''
* ''Tableau viv ...
.
*Tableau must be
built down by the same
suit
A suit, lounge suit, or business suit is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt suit is similar, but with a matching skirt instead of tr ...
.
*Foundations are built up by suit.
Moves:
*Any cell card or top card of any cascade may be moved to build on a tableau, or moved to an empty cell, an empty cascade, or its foundation (to make the game harder, only put kings on an empty cascade spot).
*Complete or partial tableaus may be moved to build on existing tableaus, or moved to empty cascades, by recursively placing and removing cards through intermediate locations. While computer implementations often show this motion, players using physical decks typically move the tableau at once.
Victory:
*The game is won after all cards are moved in ascending number by suit to their foundation piles.
Variant: To make the game even more difficult, allow only kings to be placed on an empty tableau spot.
Statistics
Freecell Solver, a solver for some variants of Patience game, including Baker's Game, was run on the first 10 million deals of Baker's Game with 4 reserve cells based on the
Microsoft FreeCell deals, in order to collect statistics.
The solver was run using a preset that guarantees an accurate verdict. Out of the 10 million deals, 7,431,962 were solvable (making for an average win rate of 74.3%), and the average number of moves required to solve was 107.5 moves (unoptimized).
See also
*
FreeCell
*
Eight Off
*
List of patiences and solitaires
This is a list of patiences, which are card games that are also referred to as solitaires or as card solitaire.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but only includes games that have met the usual Wikipedia requirements (e.g. notability ...
*
Glossary of patience and solitaire terms
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in de ...
References
{{Solitaire
English card games
Card games introduced in the 1920s
Open packers
Patience video games
Single-deck patience card games