How to Play La Belle Lucie
Deal the pack face up into seventeen fans of three and one single card. Move one top card at a time: onto its foundation, built up from the Ace in suit, or onto the next card up in its suit on another fan. Empty fans stay empty. When stuck, gather the fans, shuffle and redeal in threes, twice. In the last deal, draw one buried card once — the merci.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal eighteen fansSeventeen fans of three cards and one of a single card, all 52 cards face up.
- 2Move only a fan's top cardOne card at a time. The cards beneath it are free only once it has gone.
- 3Build down in suitA top card may go onto the top card of another fan that is one rank higher in the same suit.
- 4Build the foundations up in suitAces start the four foundations as they come free; each builds up to the King in its suit.
- 5Never refill an empty fanAn emptied fan is gone until the next redeal. Kings, with nothing to build on, can only go up to a foundation.
- 6Redeal twice, then draw onceWhen stuck, gather the fans, shuffle and deal them again in threes — twice. In the third deal, one buried card may be drawn and played: the merci.
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
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
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 La Belle Lucie today gets the same deal. 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
- Space
- Redeal
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
How are the La Belle Lucie fans dealt?
| Deal | Cards | Fans |
|---|---|---|
| First deal | 52 | 17 fans of three and 1 single card |
| First redeal | Whatever is left in the fans | Threes, plus a short fan for any one or two left over |
| Second redeal | Whatever is left in the fans | Threes again — the last deal, with the merci |
What moves are allowed in La Belle Lucie?
- A fan's top card to its foundation: the Ace to an empty foundation, then each card on the one below it in its suit.
- A fan's top card onto another fan's top card that is one rank higher in the same suit.
- Nothing into an empty fan, and never more than one card at a time.
- In the last deal only, once: one buried card out from under the cards on it, to its foundation or onto a fan.
How do you win more often?
- Bank everything as soon as it can goSame-suit building makes every foundation move safe: no card still in the fans could ever have needed the one you banked.
- Free the blocked low cards firstLook for a card sitting on a lower card of its own suit — the Nine of Spades on the Four. Moving that Nine onto the Ten of Spades frees the Four; nothing else will.
- Play everything out before you redealA redeal shuffles away the sequences you have built as well as the blockages, so take every move the fans offer first. The Redeal control shows how many you have left.
- Save the merci for the card that unlocks a suitThe best card to draw is usually the lowest missing card of a suit whose next cards are sitting free on top of fans — one draw can then run the whole suit up.
Common questions about la belle lucie
- What happens to the foundations when you redeal?
- Nothing. Only the cards still in the fans are gathered and shuffled; everything already banked stays banked.
Ready to stop reading? Play la belle lucie on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.