Eight Off: eight cells, a full view and nothing left to draw
Eight Off answers a question our home page keeps asking: how much of your chance depends on how the cards reach you? In Solitaire Turn 3, cards arrive three at a time from a stock and only the top one is yours, which cut our simple bot's wins to 10.6% of 10,000 deals (10.0%–11.2%) from 42.3% at Turn 1. Eight Off has no stock at all. Forty-eight cards lie face up in eight columns of six, and the other four already sit in four of the eight cells. Everything is visible, and nothing is waiting to be turned.
The result is one of the most winnable games on the site. Our solver decided every one of 10,000 deals on this site's rules and won 99.89% (95% range 99.80%–99.94%). Only 0.11% (0.06%–0.20%) were proven impossible. With no draw to go against you, the deal and your planning decide the game.
At a glance: Eight Off on this site
| Measure | Result | 95% range | Deals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solved, site rule (runs may move) | 99.89% | 99.80–99.94% | 10,000 |
| Proven impossible, site rule | 0.11% | 0.06–0.20% | 10,000 |
| Undecided, site rule | 0.00% | 0.00–0.04% | 10,000 |
| An Ace playable at once (column bottom or cell) | 66.44% | 65.51–67.36% | 10,000 |
| At least one Ace starts in the pre-filled cells | 28.05% | 27.18–28.94% | 10,000 |
| Length of the first solution found | 35.49 moves | 35.29–35.70 | 9,989 solved deals |
| Solved, one card at a time (comparison) | 99.80% | 99.69–99.87% | 10,000 |
| Proven impossible, one card at a time | 0.14% | 0.08–0.24% | 10,000 |
The single-card version matches the rules in Blake and Gent (2026), who report 99.8805% winnable, about 0.12% impossible; that lies inside our range. The site's run moves rescue only about 0.03% of deals.
Cells in place of a stock
A Klondike stock is a reserve you cannot arrange: it comes in the order it was shuffled, one or three cards at a time. Eight Off's eight cells are a reserve you control completely. Four start full, four start empty, and you decide what goes in and out. That control is a big part of why nearly every deal can be won, while Klondike Turn 3's solver on this site proved 9.5% of 1,000 deals impossible and left 24.3% undecided.
The rules are not soft, though. Builds go in suit and only Kings may fill an empty column, the same rules that make Baker's Solitaire so hard (31.84% winnable). The extra cells make the difference.
Eight Off rules on this site
- Deal: eight columns of six cards, all face up.
- Cells: eight, with four already holding one card each.
- Building: down in suit; foundations up by suit from Ace to King.
- Empty columns: Kings only.
- Moving runs: a same-suit run of up to (empty cells + empty columns + 1) cards moves at once.
- No stock: nothing to draw or redeal.
Playing Eight Off
Look in the cells for Aces
In 28.05% of deals an Ace starts in a pre-filled cell. Two deals in three give you an Ace to play right away.
Empty the pre-filled cells early
The four cards dealt into cells are the first ones to find homes for. Every cell you clear is a move you can make later.
Follow the suits
Each card has exactly one card it can sit on. Trace each suit from its low cards up before you start moving.
Make a spot for a King
Since only Kings fill empty columns, clear a column when a King is ready to take it.
Expect short wins
A first solution averaged about 35 moves, much shorter than a Klondike win.
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. Eight Off has no laps to make. We did not run a bot on Eight Off, so there is no floor figure to compare with those numbers; the solver's 99.89% is the figure we have.
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
Eight Off 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. To bring back a stock and the three-card draw, go to Solitaire Draw 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: as listed above, including the run-move size.
- Numbered deals: seeds 1 to 10,000, for both the site rule and the single-card rule.
- Best-first solver that sees every card, with safe automatic moves, up to 200,000 positions per deal.
- Three outcomes: solved, proven impossible or undecided; with the site rule every deal was decided.
- Published check: Blake and Gent (2026), 99.8805% winnable.
- 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.
Eight Off questions
Can every deal be won?
Nearly: 99.89% on this site's rules; 0.11% are proven impossible.
Is there a Turn 3 version?
No. Without a stock there is no draw setting.
Where next?
Try FreeCell for four cells and color building. All games are on the games page, and articles on the blog.
By Admin, solitaire-turn-3.com (Forty Media). Research run September 2026.