What is Baker's Game?
Baker's Game is played exactly like FreeCell except for one rule. The whole deck is dealt face up into eight columns, you have four free cells that hold one card each, and you build the four foundations up by suit from Ace to King. The difference is in the columns: a card may only go on the next higher card of the same suit, a 7 of Hearts on the 8 of Hearts and nowhere else.
In FreeCell a red 7 can go on either black 8, so most cards have two possible places in the columns. In Baker's Game every card has just one, and that card may be buried. Runs in the columns are made of one suit, and a run can move in one go under the same limit as in FreeCell: the number of empty free cells plus one, doubled for each empty column.
Any card may still fill an empty column. The stricter building rule makes the game a good deal harder: deals get stuck more often, and empty columns and free cells matter even more than in FreeCell.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard FreeCell | Baker's Game |
|---|---|---|
| Building in the columns | Standard FreeCellDown in alternating colors: a red 7 on a black 8. | Baker's GameDown by suit: the 7 of Hearts only on the 8 of Hearts. |
| Places a card can go in the columns | Standard FreeCellUsually two: either card of the other color one rank higher. | Baker's GameOne: the card of the same suit one rank higher. |
| Empty columns | Standard FreeCellTake any card or ordered run. | Baker's GameThe same: any card or run of one suit. |
| Moving runs | Standard FreeCellRuns in alternating colors move together, up to (empty free cells + 1) doubled for each empty column. | Baker's GameRuns of one suit move together, under the same limit. |
| Difficulty | Standard FreeCellNearly every deal can be won with careful play. | Baker's GameMuch harder: more deals end with no moves left. |
History
Baker's Game is the older of the two games. The mathematics writer Martin Gardner described it in his magazine column in 1968 and credited it to C. L. Baker.
In 1978 Paul Alfille changed its building rule from same suit to alternating colors and programmed the result for an educational computer system at the University of Illinois under the name FreeCell. The free cells, the deal and the foundations stayed as they were, so Baker's Game and FreeCell differ only in how the columns are built.