Baker's Solitaire: an open deal where the empty-column rule does the damage
On a site built around the three-card draw, Baker's Solitaire is a useful contrast. It has no stock at all. All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns, with four free cells beside them, so there is no Turn 1 or Turn 3 to choose and no card that shows up late. Whatever makes a deal hard here is already visible on the table.
And something does make it hard. On this site only a King may fill an empty column, and builds go down in suit. Our solver settled every one of 10,000 deals: 31.84% can be won (95% range 30.93%–32.76%) and 68.16% cannot (67.24%–69.07%). In Solitaire Turn 3 the draw rule is what hurts; a simple bot won 10.6% of 10,000 deals (10.0%–11.2%) against 42.3% at Turn 1. In Baker's, one table rule does the same kind of work without any drawing at all.
At a glance: Baker's Solitaire on this site
| Measure | Result | 95% range | Deals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winnable (Kings only in empty columns, this site) | 31.84% | 30.93–32.76% | 10,000 |
| Proven impossible | 68.16% | 67.24–69.07% | 10,000 |
| Undecided | 0.00% | 0.00–0.04% | 10,000 |
| At least one Ace playable at once | 49.66% | 48.68–50.64% | 10,000 |
| Length of the first solution found | 39.12 moves | 38.79–39.44 | 3,184 solved deals |
| Classic rule, any card in an empty column (comparison) | 76.00% | 74.08–77.82% | 2,000 |
Every deal was decided, so these shares are exact for the deals tested. The classic-rule figure of 76.00% agrees with the published 75.05% (Blake and Gent, 2026), which gives us confidence in the solver; the site's own Kings-only rule is simply much harder.
Where the "stock" of Baker's lives
In Klondike, the stock is where stuck cards wait, and the three-card draw makes some of them hard to reach. Baker's has no stock, but its empty columns and free cells serve as the reserve. When only Kings may enter an empty column, that reserve shrinks sharply: winnable deals drop from 76.00% under the classic rule to 31.84% here. It is a bigger swing than the draw rule causes for the Klondike solver on this site (76.6% solved at Turn 1 vs 66.2% at Turn 3, 1,000 deals each, with many deals undecided).
The lesson carries across games: whatever gives you access to buried cards, a stock turn or an empty column, is worth more than it looks.
Baker's Solitaire rules on this site
- Deal: 52 cards face up in eight columns (7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6).
- Free cells: four, one card each.
- Building: down in suit on the columns; up by suit from Ace on the foundations.
- Empty columns: Kings only.
- Moving runs: sized by empty free cells; empty columns do not add to it.
- No stock: nothing to draw or redeal.
Playing Baker's Solitaire
Check the Kings first
A King sitting low in a column, on top of cards you need, is the classic Baker's trap. Where are the four Kings, and can any reach an empty column?
Suits, not colors
A 7 of hearts goes only on the 8 of hearts. Before moving anything, trace each suit's path to its foundation.
Cells are precious
With Kings-only columns, the four cells are your main reserve. Fill one only when you see how to empty it.
Accept a lost deal
About two deals in three cannot be won on these rules, even with perfect play. When the solver would lose too, a restart is no failure.
Solutions are short
A winning line averaged about 39 moves. If you are far past that and still stuck, rethink the plan.
Turn 1, Turn 3 or no draw at all
For reference, here is what the draw rule does in Klondike on this site. Our simple bot, which sees only face-up cards and never undoes, won 42.3% of 10,000 Turn 1 deals (41.3%–43.3%) and 10.6% of 10,000 Turn 3 deals (10.0%–11.2%). In the games it did win, it went through the stock 2.34 times at Turn 1 and 3.81 times at Turn 3. Baker's has no laps to make, so its difficulty comes from somewhere else entirely. We did not run a bot on Baker's, so we have no floor figure to put next to those Klondike numbers; only the solver's exact 31.84%.
Without a stock, the chance a deal gives you is fixed the moment the cards land. Nothing you turn later can help or hurt, so every decision you make on the table counts for more.
Playing on solitaire-turn-3.com
Baker's Solitaire is free in any current browser on computer, tablet or phone, with no account. Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart and Auto Play are included, along with zoom, fullscreen, drag or tap moves, a counter for wins, time and moves, and sound and table-color settings. For the same open deal with gentler rules, try FreeCell. For the draw-three challenge, go back to Solitaire Turn 3.
How the figures were made
The solitaire-turn-3.com team ran these tests in September 2026 on this site's rules, in Python 3.11 with the standard library only.
- Rules from the code: in-suit building, Kings only in empty columns, empty columns not counted for run moves.
- Numbered deals: seeds 1 to 10,000 for the site rule, 1 to 2,000 for the classic rule.
- Best-first solver that sees every card, up to 200,000 positions per deal; every deal was fully decided.
- Published check: classic Baker's Game, 75.05% winnable in Blake and Gent (2026), against our 76.00%.
- Independent check: proofs on seeds 1–5 were confirmed by a separate brute-force search.
- 95% ranges: Wilson score intervals for shares, normal intervals for averages.
Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic, helped write and review the code and draft this page. Every figure comes from running the code or from the linked study, and the team checked them.
Baker's Solitaire questions
Why do I lose so often?
Because 68.16% of deals on these rules cannot be won by anyone.
Is there a draw-three option?
No. There is no stock, so the Turn 1 / Turn 3 question never comes up.
What should I play next?
Eight Off also builds in suit with Kings-only columns, but gives you eight cells. All games are on the games page; articles are on the blog.
By Admin, solitaire-turn-3.com (Forty Media). Research run September 2026.