Eight Off is a

patience or forbearance, is the ability to endure difficult or undesired long-term circumstances. Patience involves perseverance or tolerance in the face of delay, provocation, or stress without responding negatively, such as reacting with disrespect ...

solitaire Solitaire may refer to: Film and television *'' Le Solitaire'', a 1987 French film * ''Solitaire'' (1991 film), a Canadian drama film * ''Solitaire'' (2008 film), a drama film *''Solitaire'', 2016 Lebanese comedy film with Bassam Kousa *"Solit ...

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

, named after its employment of eight

cells Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a d ...

, played with one deck of playing cards. The object of the game is to move all the cards into the

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

. It served as a partial inspiration for and is very similar to the popular solitaire game

FreeCell FreeCell is a solitaire card game played using the standard 52-card deck. It is fundamentally different from most solitaire games in that very few deals are unsolvable, and all cards are dealt face-up from the beginning of the game. Microsoft h ...

."Eight Off" (p.201) in ''Hoyle's Rules of Games'' (3rd edition) by Philip D. Morehead (ed.), 2001.

Rules

The cards are dealt, face up, into eight columns (or piles) of six cards each. (These eight columns make up the

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 ...

.) The remaining four cards go into the first four

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...

s. When dealt, the table should bear some resemblance to the picture on the right, although a layout with the cells on the left and the foundations at the top is another option. The eight slots along the top of the picture represent the cells. These cells can be used to temporarily store any available card from the table. Four of the cells are filled at the beginning of the game. The four slots along the left of the picture represent the four foundations. These, as in Klondike, are meant to be built up in suit from Ace to King. That is, each foundation begins with the Ace of one suit and is followed by the 2 of the same suit, which is followed by the 3 of the same suit, and so forth, until all the cards through the King have been placed on the foundation. The tableau piles which fill the majority of the figure are where most of the game play occurs. The cards are, again, all face up, and are built down, traditionally by suit. (Players can modify the difficulty of the game, if they like, by building down in a different manner. For example, one could play by

alternating colours Games of patience (game), patience, or patience (game), (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as #building down, "building down", #packing, "packing", #foundations, "foun ...

, the way Klondike is played). Technically, one may only move the cards between columns one at a time; however, the presence of a free cell essentially increases the number of cards that can be moved. (e.g., if there are three open cells, four cards can be moved at once—one for each cell, and the one that can always be moved.) If a column is emptied, most rules allow for one to only place Kings in the empty space, regardless of suit (as long as it follows the other restrictions on moving cards). Players, however, may prefer to simplify this rule to any card (as it is in

Descendants

Eight Off is similar to Baker's Game, which was named after the

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

C.L. Baker. Both games were precursors to the more popular

. While not as popular as FreeCell, they are included in some collections of computer solitaire games.

Rules

Descendants

References

See also