Eight Off: the cell game where almost every deal comes out
Eight Off is a cousin of FreeCell with a twist: you get eight cells instead of four, but four of them start already full, and on the tableau you may only build down in the same suit. It sounds strict. The numbers say otherwise. Our solver played 10,000 deals under this site's rules and won 99.89% of them. It settled every single deal: the other 0.11% (11 deals) were proven impossible.
In other words, Eight Off is one of the most winnable games on the site. When you lose, the deal was almost certainly winnable, and a different order of moves would have got you there.
At a glance: Eight Off in numbers
| What we measured | Result | Deals | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deals won, this site's rules | 99.89% (95% range 99.80–99.94%) | 10,000 | Solver, every card visible (as in the game), 200,000 positions per deal |
| Deals proven impossible | 0.11% | 10,000 | Same solver; no deal left undecided |
| Deals won, one card at a time | 99.80% (99.69–99.87%) | 10,000 | Same solver, stricter move rule |
| Published figure, one card at a time | 99.8805% | about 10 million | Blake & Gent, 2026 |
| Deals with an Ace playable at once | 66.4% | 10,000 | Counted from the deal (column bottom or pre-filled cell) |
| Deals with an Ace already in a pre-filled cell | 28.1% | 10,000 | Counted from the deal |
| Length of the first solution found | about 35 moves | 9,989 won deals | Not necessarily the shortest |
The rules on this site
- One pack of 52 cards, all face up.
- Eight tableau columns of six cards (48 cards).
- Eight cells. The remaining four cards start in four of them; the other four cells are empty.
- Four foundations, built up by suit from Ace to King.
- On the tableau you build down in the same suit: an 8 of clubs can only ever sit on a 9 of clubs.
- Only a King (or a run starting with a King) may go into an empty column.
- You can move a same-suit run in one go. The most cards you can move at once is empty cells + empty columns + 1.
What the numbers tell you
Same-suit building is less harsh than it looks
Building only in suit halves the places a card can go compared with FreeCell's alternating colours. Eight cells more than make up for it. Our solver lost only 11 deals in 10,000.
You often start with a free move
In two deals out of three (66.4%), at least one Ace is ready to play immediately, from the bottom of a column or from a pre-filled cell. In 28.1% of deals an Ace is sitting in one of the pre-filled cells from the start.
Games are short when you plan them
The first solution our solver found averaged about 35 moves. That is shorter than one-deck FreeCell, where first solutions averaged about 62. A well-planned Eight Off game moves quickly.
Bigger moves barely change the odds
The site lets you move a run using empty columns as well as cells. With the stricter one-card-at-a-time rule, the solver won 99.80%; with the site's rule, 99.89%. The bigger moves save you clicks far more often than they save a game.
Strategy for Eight Off
Start with the pre-filled cells
Four of your eight cells are occupied before you move. Emptying them, usually by playing those cards to the foundations or onto their same-suit neighbour, gives you back working space quickly.
Think in suits
Because building is in suit, every column you tidy becomes a single-suit run heading for one foundation. Look for columns that are nearly one suit already and finish them.
An empty column needs a King waiting
Only a King can fill a space. An empty column with no King to put in it is still useful for the move limit, but it will not hold a run you are trying to park.
Keep at least two cells free
Cells are your flexibility. With two free cells and no empty column you can still move a three-card run; with none you are down to one card at a time.
Trust the deal
With 99.89% of deals winnable, a stuck game almost always means an earlier choice needs changing. Use Undo freely and try the other order.
Playing Eight Off here
Eight Off is free on this site and runs in any modern browser on a computer, tablet or phone. There is nothing to download or install, and no sign-up, account or email. The cards are large and clear, with a zoom control; Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart and Auto Play are always available; and you can drag cards or tap to move them. The game keeps count of your wins, time and moves for the current deal. Sound, fullscreen and table colour are all in the settings.
How we did the research, step by step
The free-solitaire.nz team ran this study in September 2026 to measure Eight Off exactly as it is played on this site, and to check our method against published research.
- Read the rules from the site's code. Eight Off is a branch of the site's FreeCell engine: eight columns of six, eight cells with four pre-filled, same-suit building, Kings only in spaces, and a move limit of empty cells + empty columns + 1.
- Rebuilt the game as a program and checked it only makes legal moves under those rules.
- Dealt 10,000 numbered games, seeds 1 to 10,000, so any deal can be replayed card for card.
- Chose a solver. Every card is visible in Eight Off, so the solver knows exactly what you know. For each deal it either finds a win or proves there is none.
- Ran two versions. One with this site's move rule, and one where only one card moves at a time, which is the rule the published study uses. Each deal had a budget of 200,000 positions; the site-rule run took under a minute and the stricter run about two minutes.
- Compared with published research. Blake and Gent (2026, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research) report that 99.8805% of Eight Off deals can be won under the one-card rule. Our one-card run proved 0.14% of deals impossible (95% range 0.08–0.24%); the published impossible share of about 0.12% sits inside that range. The two agree.
- Worked out the margin of error. For the site-rule win rate the 95% range is 99.80–99.94%. Repeat the test with fresh deals and the true figure lands there 95 times in 100.
- Stated the limits. Our sample is 10,000 deals, far smaller than the published study's, so our range is wider. The solver's solutions are the first ones it found, not the shortest possible.
The technical side
Our Eight Off code is plain Python 3.11, with no packages beyond the standard library. Eight Off lives in freecell2.py, alongside FreeCell Two Decks. The solver is a best-first search: it scores each position by how many cards are still to go home and how many sit on a lower card, always explores the best-scoring position next, and keeps a table of positions it has already seen. Provably safe foundation moves are made automatically. A shared runner.py farms the deals out to parallel worker processes with multiprocessing, each deal is shuffled from a numbered seed, and the 95% ranges are Wilson score intervals. An AI assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic) helped us write and review the code and draft this page; it did not supply any figure. Every number comes from running the solver, and our result was checked against the published study before we published it.
By Admin, free-solitaire.nz. Study date: 19 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Can every Eight Off game be won?
Almost. Our solver won 99.89% of 10,000 deals under this site's rules and proved the other 0.11% impossible.
Why do four cells start full?
The pack is dealt into eight columns of six, which uses 48 cards. The last four go into cells.
Is Eight Off harder than FreeCell?
Same-suit building makes each move more restricted, but the extra cells balance it. Both are close to fully winnable.
What can go in an empty column?
Only a King, or a same-suit run headed by a King.
What should I try next?
Try Baker's Solitaire, which builds in suit with only four cells, or FreeCell Two Decks for a bigger board.