Baker's Dozen is a single-deck patience with all 52 cards face-up from the start. Thirteen tableau columns of four cards each — that's where the name comes from — and no stock or reserve to draw from. You build the tableau down regardless of suit, but only one card at a time. Kings sink to the bottom of their columns at the start, which keeps them out of the way. The all-face-up open information makes Baker's Dozen a pure planning puzzle. Free in your browser, no sign-up. Works offline once the page has loaded.
Goal: build all four foundations from Ace to King by suit.
Baker's Dozen is a 19th-century single-deck patience that appears in many anthologies. The name refers to the 13 tableau columns — a baker's dozen — not to a person. The variant has stayed in print since at least the early 20th century and is included in many modern multi-game digital collections. Its fixed structure (no stock, no reserves, single-card moves) makes it one of the purest open-information solitaires.
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Kings are moved to the bottom of their columns at the deal so they don't block lower-ranking cards above them. A King at the top of a column is permanent dead weight in Baker's Dozen — there's no way to lift it onto another column (build-down regardless of suit doesn't include rank-wrap), and no foundation accepts it until 12 same-suit cards are already there.
No. Only one card at a time. Baker's Dozen has no super-move equivalent — every transfer is a single card. This is the rule that makes the game challenging despite all cards being visible from the start.
Empty columns cannot be filled. Once a column empties, the slot is gone for the rest of the game. This makes emptying a column a one-way commitment — only do it when you have a clear plan that benefits from the move.
Not every deal can be promised. The all-face-up start removes luck-of-the-draw, so you can plan the whole deal from the first move. The build-anywhere tableau rule gives more flexibility than same-suit variants, but single-card moves mean a low card buried under a long column can still block the game.
The 13 tableau columns are a baker's dozen — the colloquial term for thirteen. The name has nothing to do with C. L. Baker (whose namesake game, Baker's Game, is the FreeCell predecessor). The two games share only the surname coincidence.