How to Play Eight Off Solitaire
Deal six face-up cards to each of eight tableau columns, then one card into each of four of the eight free cells. Build the tableau down in the same suit, moving runs up to free-cells-plus-one long. Only a King fills an empty column. Bank all 52 cards, Ace to King by suit, to win.
The rules, step by step
- 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.
Try it — the rules above, running
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.
Your statistics
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Kept in this browser, on this device only. Abandoning a deal in progress counts as a loss, so the win rate means something.
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
What does the Eight Off deal look like?
- 1Deal the tableauSix cards face up to each of eight columns — 48 cards.
- 2Fill four free cellsThe last four cards go one each into four of the eight free cells, leaving four empty.
- 3Leave four foundations emptyOne per suit, built up from Ace once the first Ace is freed.
How many cards can you move at once?
A same-suit run may move as a unit onto a matching destination card, as long as its length does not exceed the number of currently empty free cells plus one. There is no bonus for empty tableau columns the way FreeCell grants one — an empty column in Eight Off is useful only as a King's new home.
How do you win more often?
- 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.
Common questions about eight off solitaire
- Do the free cells in Eight Off start empty?
- No — four of the eight start occupied, one card each, from the deal itself. Only the other four are free at the start of the game.
- Can you undo a move in Eight Off?
- Yes, as many times as you like on this board, all the way back to the deal.
Ready to stop reading? Play eight off solitaire on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.