Eight Off 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 ...

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 ...

, named after its employment of eight

cells 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 w ...

, played with one deck of playing cards. The object of the game is to move all the cards into the

foundations 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 ...

. It served as a partial inspiration for and is very similar to the popular solitaire game FreeCell."Eight Off" (p.201) in ''Hoyle's Rules of Games'' (3rd edition) by Philip D. Morehead (ed.), 2001.

Rules

The cards are dealt, face up, into eight columns (or piles) of six cards each. (These eight columns make up the

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 ...

.) The remaining four cards go into the first four

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 w ...

s. When dealt, the table should bear some resemblance to the picture on the right, although a layout with the cells on the left and the foundations at the top is another option. The eight slots along the top of the picture represent the cells. These cells can be used to temporarily store any available card from the table. Four of the cells are filled at the beginning of the game. The four slots along the left of the picture represent the four foundations. These, as in Klondike, are meant to be built up in suit from Ace to King. That is, each foundation begins with the Ace of one suit and is followed by the 2 of the same suit, which is followed by the 3 of the same suit, and so forth, until all the cards through the King have been placed on the foundation. The tableau piles which fill the majority of the figure are where most of the game play occurs. The cards are, again, all face up, and are

built down 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 ...

, traditionally by suit. (Players can modify the difficulty of the game, if they like, by building down in a different manner. For example, one could play by alternating colours, the way Klondike is played). Technically, one may only move the cards between columns one at a time; however, the presence of a free cell essentially increases the number of cards that can be moved. (e.g., if there are three open cells, four cards can be moved at once—one for each cell, and the one that can always be moved.) If a column is emptied, most rules allow for one to only place Kings in the empty space, regardless of suit (as long as it follows the other restrictions on moving cards). Players, however, may prefer to simplify this rule to any card (as it is in FreeCell).

Descendants

Eight Off is similar to

Baker's Game Baker's Game is a patience or solitaire card game 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 su ...

, which was named after the

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

C.L. Baker. Both games were precursors to the more popular FreeCell. While not as popular as FreeCell, they are included in some collections of computer solitaire games.

Rules

Descendants

References

See also