Eight Off Solitaire: an open deal where almost nothing is out of reach
Eight Off is FreeCell's disciplined cousin. Every card is face up, there are eight cells instead of four, and four of those cells already hold a card when the game starts. The catch is that you build down in suit, not alternating colour, and only a King may go into an empty column.
It is also one of the most winnable games we measured. Our solver settled every one of 10,000 deals on this site's rules: 99.89% could be won and just 0.11%, eleven deals, were proven impossible. That result agrees with the published research, so if a game of Eight Off gets away from you, the odds say the deal was fine.
What an Eight Off deal gives you
| What we measured | Result | Deals | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| An Ace is playable at once (bottom of a column or in a filled cell) | 66.4% (95% range 65.5–67.4%) | 10,000 | Deal inspection |
| At least one Ace starts in the four filled cells | 28.1% (27.2–28.9%) | 10,000 | Deal inspection |
| Winnable on this site's rules | 99.89% (99.80–99.94%) | 10,000 | Solver, every deal decided: an exact answer for these deals |
| Proven impossible | 0.11% | 10,000 | Same solver |
| Length of the solver's first solution | about 35 moves | 9,989 solved deals | Not necessarily the shortest |
| Published figure (one card at a time) | 99.8805% | — | Blake & Gent, 2026 |
| Our figure with one card at a time | 99.80% solved, 0.14% impossible | 10,000 | Same solver, stricter rule, for comparison |
How Eight Off is played here
The layout
- One standard pack of 52 cards, all face up.
- Eight tableau columns of six cards each (48 cards).
- Eight cells, each holding one card. Four start with a card already in them; four start empty.
- Four foundations, built up in suit from Ace to King.
Moves
- A card may go on the next higher card of the same suit: the 6 of hearts on the 7 of hearts.
- Any available card can go into an empty cell, and cards in cells can be played back to the tableau or the foundations.
- Only a King, or a same-suit run headed by a King, may go into an empty column.
- You can move a same-suit run in one go, up to a limit of empty cells plus empty columns plus one.
- You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations.
Reading the deal
Two times in three, you can start with an Ace
In 66.4% of our deals, at least one Ace was available immediately, either at the bottom of a column or sitting in one of the pre-filled cells. That is far more often than in FreeCell, where about half of deals give you an Ace on the first move.
Check the four filled cells first
Those four cards are free to play from the start, and in 28.1% of deals one of them is an Ace. They are also the four cards that are occupying your working space, so the sooner you can place them, the more room you have.
Find the same-suit chains
Because building is in suit, look down each column for cards of one suit in the right order. A column that already has a 9, 8 and 7 of clubs stacked together is a gift; one where the 3 of clubs sits under the 4 of clubs is a knot you will need to untie.
Look for low cards under Kings
A King can only move to an empty column, so any card buried beneath a King is hard to reach. Note those spots early.
Strategy
Free the cells before filling them
You start with only four empty cells. Placing the four pre-filled cards, onto a foundation or the tableau, is often the best early work, because it gives you eight cells of room.
Empty a column only for a King
With the Kings-only rule, an empty column is valuable only if a King is ready for it. Plan the King first, then clear the column.
Send cards home freely
Because building is by suit, a card on the foundation is never needed to hold a card of another suit. You can play cards home as soon as they are ready.
Think in short games
The solver's first solutions averaged about 35 moves. A well-planned game of Eight Off is quick, so it is a good choice when you only have a few minutes.
Similar games
If you enjoy Eight Off, try FreeCell (four cells, alternating colours, any card into a space) and Baker's Solitaire (four cells, in-suit building and Kings-only spaces). For a much longer open game, there is FreeCell Two Decks.
Playing Eight Off on klondike.nz
It is free, with nothing to download or sign up for, and it works in any modern browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Cards are large and clear, with a zoom control. You can drag or tap to move, use Hint and unlimited Undo, Restart a deal, and let Auto Play finish a won game. Wins, time and moves are tracked for your current game.
Where these numbers come from
This study was run by the klondike.nz team in September 2026 using the rules in this site's code.
- Rules from our code. The game's Eight Off settings: eight columns of six, eight cells with four pre-filled, same-suit building, Kings only into empty columns, and same-suit runs that can move when there is space (empty cells plus empty columns plus one).
- A program copy of the game. We built Eight Off on the same solver we use for FreeCell and Baker's.
- Numbered deals. 10,000 deals, each shuffled from a numbered seed, so the test can be repeated.
- Reading each deal. We checked where the Aces were at the start.
- The solver. It sees every card, as you do. It decided all 10,000 deals: each was either solved or shown to be impossible.
- Comparison. The 2026 study by Blake and Gent at the University of St Andrews (Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research) reports 99.8805% winnable when only one card may move at a time. We ran that rule too and got 99.80% solved with 0.14% proven impossible (95% range 0.08–0.24%); their implied share of impossible deals, about 0.12%, sits inside that range. The site's run moves save only a handful of extra deals.
- Error bars. The 95% range for the site rule is 99.80–99.94%.
- Limits. The solver does not move cards back off the foundations, which this site allows; that could only make our figure slightly low.
Under the bonnet
The solver is written in Python 3.11 using only the standard library, in the module freecell2.py. It is a best-first search that always explores the most promising position next, remembers positions already seen, and allows up to 200,000 positions per deal. A shared runner spreads deals over processor cores using multiprocessing, and ranges are Wilson score 95% intervals. Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, helped write and review the code and draft this page. The results were produced by running the code, not by the AI.
Questions players ask
Where do the four cards in the cells come from?
That is how Eight Off is dealt: 48 cards go to the tableau and the remaining four go straight into cells.
What can I put in an empty column?
No. In Eight Off only a King, or a same-suit run headed by one, can fill a space.
How often is an Eight Off deal impossible?
Rarely: 11 of our 10,000 deals on this site's rules, or 0.11%.
Should I learn Eight Off or FreeCell first?
Both are very winnable. Eight Off gives you more cells and more Aces up front; FreeCell gives you more flexible building. Our solver's Eight Off solutions were also shorter: about 35 moves, against about 62 for FreeCell.
Who is behind these figures?
The klondike.nz team; see our about page.
By Admin, klondike.nz. Study date: 19 September 2026.