How many free cells does Eight Off have?

Eight, twice FreeCell's four — though four of them are already occupied at the start of the deal, so effectively you begin with four free.

Can any card fill an empty column in Eight Off?

No — a King only, or a same-suit run headed by one. This is stricter than FreeCell, where any card can start a new column.

Is Eight Off easier than FreeCell?

Most players find it more forgiving overall, since eight free cells give far more room to manoeuvre than four, even with the tighter same-suit build rule and King-only empty columns.

Where did Eight Off come from?

It predates FreeCell and is widely credited as the game FreeCell was designed to improve on, trading some of Eight Off's free-cell space for a looser, alternating-colour build rule.

Eight Off Solitaire

Eight Off deals eight tableau columns of six cards each, face up, with the last four cards dealt into four of the eight free cells. It plays like FreeCell with twice the free cells — but the tableau builds down in suit, not merely alternating colour, and an empty column takes only a King. Move a run of up to free-cells-plus-one cards at once. Bank all 52 cards to win.

Time0:00Moves0Score0Deal#20260726

New game deals a fresh shuffle, Hint highlights a legal move, and the three-dot menu at the end of the bar holds redo, auto-finish, today’s deal, the keyboard shortcuts and the rule set.

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Today’s deal

Everyone playing Eight Off today gets deal #430144600. It changes at midnight UTC.

Track the month on the daily challenge page.

Replay a deal

Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.

Keyboard

U / Z: Undo
R: Redo
H: Hint
N: New deal (asks first)
F: Full screen
A: Auto-finish
Esc: Deselect, or leave full screen

Deck: One deck, 52 cards
Free cells: 8 (4 start full)
Tableau: 8 columns of 6, all face up
Build: Down, same suit

How do you play Eight Off solitaire?

All 52 cards are dealt face up: six to each of eight tableau columns (48 cards), and the last four cards go one each into four of the game's eight free cells — so the game opens with half its cells already occupied. There is no stock and nothing hidden; every card is visible from the first move.

The tableau builds down in the same suit, matching Spider and Forty Thieves rather than Klondike's alternating colours. A run of cards may travel together onto a matching card one rank higher, up to a limit of free cells plus one — exactly the FreeCell formula, just with double the cells to work with.

How is Eight Off different from FreeCell?

Eight Off against FreeCell
	Eight Off	FreeCell
Free cells	8	4
Tableau columns	8, of 6 cards	8, of 6-7 cards
Build rule	Down, same suit	Down, alternating colour
Empty column takes	King only	Any card
Run size limit	Free cells + 1	(Free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns)

Eight Off predates FreeCell and is generally considered the more forgiving of the two — twice the free cells more than makes up for the stricter same-suit build. The one place it is stricter than FreeCell is the empty column: FreeCell will take any card there, Eight Off only a King, so an empty column here is not the flexible extra free cell it is in FreeCell.

Is every eligible foundation move always safe in Eight Off?

Yes, and this is the one genuinely useful shortcut same-suit building buys you. In FreeCell, sending a card to its foundation the moment it is eligible can occasionally strand a card of the opposite colour that needed it as a landing spot. In Eight Off, because the tableau only ever builds within a suit, the only card that could ever have wanted a given rank as a base is the very next rank down in that same suit — and that card is already gone from the tableau by the time the higher one is offered to the foundation. Sending a card up the moment it is offered is never a mistake here.

How do you get better at eight off?

Bank foundation cards the moment they are eligibleUnlike FreeCell, there is no risk in this same-suit game: a card offered to its foundation can never be needed as a landing spot for anything still in play.
Empty a free cell before you empty a columnClearing a cell buys capacity for every later move; clearing a column only helps once you have a King ready to fill it back up.
Hunt for Kings earlyA King buried deep in a column is a column you cannot use as scratch space until you dig it out. Freeing one early is often worth more than a run of smaller tidy moves.
Count your travelling-run capacity before committingThe free-cells-plus-one limit is a hard ceiling with no bonus for empty columns, unlike FreeCell. Check the number before planning a move that depends on shifting a long run.

Eight Off Solitaire questions people ask

How many free cells does Eight Off have?: Eight, twice FreeCell's four — though four of them are already occupied at the start of the deal, so effectively you begin with four free.
Can any card fill an empty column in Eight Off?: No — a King only, or a same-suit run headed by one. This is stricter than FreeCell, where any card can start a new column.
Is Eight Off easier than FreeCell?: Most players find it more forgiving overall, since eight free cells give far more room to manoeuvre than four, even with the tighter same-suit build rule and King-only empty columns.
Where did Eight Off come from?: It predates FreeCell and is widely credited as the game FreeCell was designed to improve on, trading some of Eight Off's free-cell space for a looser, alternating-colour build rule.

The rules in six lines

1Deal eight columns of six, all face upForty-eight cards, six to each of eight tableau columns, everything face up from the start.
2Fill four of the eight free cellsThe remaining four cards go one each into four of the eight free cells, leaving the other four empty.
3Build the tableau down in suitA card may be placed on a card one rank higher of its own suit.
4Move a run up to free-cells-plus-one longA same-suit sequence may travel as a unit onto a matching card, as long as it is no longer than the number of empty free cells plus one.
5Only a King starts a new columnAn empty tableau column accepts a King, or a run headed by one — never any other card.
6Bank all 52 cards to winFoundations build up Ace to King in suit. Sending an eligible card there is always safe in this game — see above for why.

The long version, with worked examples and the questions beginners actually ask, is on how to play eight off solitaire.

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