Intermediate difficulty
Eight Off
A roomier FreeCell cousin with eight free cells and stricter suit-based tableau building.
- One-Deck Games
- Four-Suit Games
- FreeCell Games
- Mobile-Friendly Games
- Strategy Games
- Card Puzzle Games
- Tableau Builders
- Foundation-Building Games
| Decks | One deck |
|---|---|
| Suits | 4 |
| Typical length | 16 min |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| How much skill matters | High |
| How much the shuffle matters | Low |
| Family | FreeCell family |
There is no playable version of Eight Off on this site yet — this page covers its rules and strategy. The game suits a touchscreen well, so it is a good candidate once a build exists.
About Eight Off
Eight Off gives you twice FreeCell's cells and then takes half of them back before you start: four of the eight arrive already occupied by the cards that would not fit into the eight columns of six.
Combined with suit-strict tableau building and a rule that usually lets only Kings into an emptied column, the effect is a game that feels roomy and plays tight. Your first several moves are really about unloading those four starting cells, and how well you do that decides the rest. It sits between FreeCell and Baker's Game in difficulty — the extra cells offset the suit restriction, but only just.
How to play
Eight columns of six cards are dealt face up, and the four cards left over go straight into cells — so of the eight cells you start with, half are already occupied. Columns build down by suit in the traditional rules, foundations build each suit up from Ace to King, and you move one card at a time, though free cells effectively let you shift a whole run. Most rulesets allow only a King into an emptied column, which is a significant restriction given how hard columns are to empty in the first place.
Strategy
Eight cells sounds luxurious and is not, because four are already full and suit-strict building consumes the rest quickly. The first job is emptying those four starting cells into the tableau, and doing it in an order that does not strand them. Because only Kings can fill an empty column, clearing one is rarely the plan — treat the cells as your working space and the columns as fixed. The generous cell count makes this the most forgiving of the suit-strict FreeCell relatives, which is what makes it a reasonable step up from FreeCell before attempting Baker's Game.
What works
- Eight cells give real working room for a suit-strict game
- Everything face up from the first move
- A natural difficulty step between FreeCell and Baker's Game
What to know
- Four cells start occupied, so the effective space is smaller than it looks
- Usually only Kings may fill an emptied column
- Suit-strict building leaves little room for improvisation
Frequently asked questions
- How many decks does Eight Off use?
- Eight Off is played with a single standard deck.
- Is Eight Off good for beginners?
- Eight Off is generally better suited to players who already know the basics of solitaire, as it involves more planning than a typical beginner game.
- Is Eight Off based more on luck or strategy?
- Eight Off rewards careful planning — skilled play meaningfully improves your odds of winning.
Others in this family
- Baker's Game
The predecessor to FreeCell — identical rules, except tableau sequences must build by suit rather than alternating color.
- FreeCell
Nearly every deal is winnable with the right plan — four free cells give just enough room to maneuver every card into place.
- Penguin
A seven-cell FreeCell relative where the first card dealt sets the starting rank for every foundation.
- Seahaven Towers
A FreeCell relative played with ten tableau columns and only two free cells.