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
card solitaire
Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are inte ...
that is played with a single deck of 52
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
s. It is similar to other members of the
Simple Addition Simple Addition or Totals is a family of patience (game), patience or card solitaire games that share certain aims and procedures.Moyse (1950), p. 5.Parlett (1979), pp. 177–179.
Composition
Moyse counts the games of Elevens, Fifteens, Tens and ...
The original name was The Baroness Patience, although the most common name since is just Baroness. It has also been occasionally referred to "boringly and not very descriptively" as Five Piles or Thirteens after two of its
ludeme A ludeme is "an element of play" within a card game or board game, as distinct from an "instrument of play" which forms part of the equipment with which a game is played. An example of a ludeme is the L-shaped movement of a knight in chess, whereas ...
s. Arnold describes Baroness as "a most pleasant name... maintaining a tradition in which patience games were often named after ladies of the aristocracy."Arnold (2011), p.13.
History
The first author to publish its rules,
Mary Whitmore Jones
Mary Elizabeth Whitmore Jones ( 1823 – 1915) was an English author and the first female heir of Chastleton House. She was unmarried and did not have any children.Whitmore Jones (1900), p. 54. Brock plagiarises the text verbatim in his 1909 work, but renames it The Baroness Solitaire.Brock (1909), p. 10. In these earliest accounts, the Kings are first discarded as they do not pair with any other card. In later accounts, the Kings are discarded singly. Baroness has continued to feature in games literature down to the present day.
Rules
In the classic rules, the Kings are discarded at the outset; otherwise they are discarded singly during play. The following is based on Arnold (2011), except where noted:
Five cards are dealt in a
row
Row or ROW may refer to:
Exercise
*Rowing, or a form of aquatic movement using oars
*Row (weight-lifting), a form of weight-lifting exercise
Math
*Row vector, a 1 × ''n'' matrix in linear algebra.
*Row (database), a single, implicitly structured ...
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 top cards of each pile are
available
In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings:
* The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at a ...
for removal to the
discard pile
The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to Bridge, Hearts, Poker or Rummy), ...
.
The aim is to discard all the cards by removing any Kings and pairs of available cards that total 13. In this game, spot cards are taken at face value, Jacks are worth 11, Queens 12, and Kings 13. So the following combinations of cards may be discarded:
* Queen and Ace
* Jack and 2
* 10 and 3
* 9 and 4
* 8 and 5
* 7 and 6
* Kings on their own.
When all available discards have been made, five fresh cards are dealt, one onto each pile in the tableau either filling a
space
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...
or covering the existing card. The new
top card
''Top Card'' is a game show that aired on TNN and produced by Reid-Land Productions, replacing TNN's original game show ''Fandango''. The show aired from April 3, 1989 to March 26, 1993 and was based on the card game Blackjack.
Jim Caldwell was ...
s are available for play and, once again, any Kings or combinations totalling 13 are moved to the discard pile. When the top card of a pile is discarded, the card beneath becomes immediately available. Play continues in this way until there are only two cards left in hand; these are used as
grace card
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 des ...
s, being added to the end of the tableau, face up and side by side, and are available for play.
The
game is out
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 ...
when all cards have been discarded.
Variations
Keller records several variations to increase the chances of winning:
* Six or seven piles are used.
* Available cards may be moved to any spaces in the tableau.
* Available cards may be paired with the card immediately beneath it.
Closely related games
The name ''
Thirteens
Baroness is a patience (game), patience or card solitaire that is played with a single deck of 52 playing cards. It is similar to other members of the Simple Addition family and is also distantly related to Aces Up.Thirteens
Baroness is a patience (game), patience or card solitaire that is played with a single deck of 52 playing cards. It is similar to other members of the Simple Addition family and is also distantly related to Aces Up.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
Bibliography
* Arnold, Peter (2011). ''Card Games for One''. 2nd edn. London: Chambers.
* Bonaventure, George A. (1931) ''Games of Solitaire''. NY: Duffield & Green. 100 games. 199 pp.
* Coops, Helen L. (1939). ''100 Games of Solitaire'' (as "Thirteens"). Whitman. 128 pp.
*
Goren, Charles
Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s – or 1940s and 1950s, as " ...
(1961). ''Goren's Hoyle Encyclopedia of Games''. NY: Greystone.
* Moyse Jr, Alphonse (1950). ''150 Ways to play Solitaire''. USPCC. 128 pp.
*
Morehead, Albert H.
Albert Hodges Morehead, Jr. (August 7, 1909 – October 5, 1966) was a writer for ''The New York Times'', a bridge player, a lexicographer, and an author and editor of reference works.
Early years
Morehead was born in Flintstone, Taylor County, ...
&
Mott-Smith, Geoffrey
The Mott-Smith Trophy, named for writer and cryptographer Geoffrey Mott-Smith, is awarded to the player with the best overall individual performance in the Spring Nationals, the spring event of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North Amer ...
(2001). ''The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games'' (as "Five Piles"). Foulsham, Slough.
*
Parlett, David
David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association.
His published works include many pop ...
(1979). ''The Penguin Book of Patience''. London: Penguin.
* Whitmore Jones, Mary (1890). ''Games of Patience for One or More Players''. 2nd series. London: L. Upcott Gill. NY: Scribner's.