Baker's Dozen Solitaire
Baker's Dozen deals 52 face-up cards into 13 columns and leaves you no stock or holding cells. Its most restrictive rule is permanent: once a column empties, nothing can refill it. The 4 games covered here share that layout but differ in how the columns build and what an empty column accepts. Those differences explain why the same-looking move may be legal in Spanish Patience and rejected in Baker's Dozen.
What the 4 games share
All 4 tables begin with 13 columns of 4 cards. In 3 of them every card is face up. Castles in Spain hides a few, as you will see below. Move only the exposed end card of a column, never a group. It can go to a legal tableau destination or to a foundation, where each suit builds from Ace to King. There is no draw pile to change the position later, so blocked cards must be reached by rearranging what is already visible.
Baker's Dozen: the strict original
In Baker's Dozen, any 6 can go on any 7, whatever the suit or color. Empty columns cannot be used again. At the deal every King is moved to the back of its column, so no lower card starts trapped under one. That matters because a King has nowhere to go but its foundation, and one sitting on top of lower cards would block them for most of the game. Dig toward the Aces and the low cards that follow them, and leave the cards you can land on in place until you are done with them.
Spanish Patience: the empties open up
Spanish Patience keeps everything about Baker's Dozen except its harshest rule. Here a column you empty will accept any card you like, so a cleared column becomes somewhere to set a card aside while you dig into a pile. That single freedom makes it much gentler than Baker's Dozen, with the same build by rank underneath and suit ignored.
Portuguese Solitaire: Kings for the empties
Portuguese Solitaire lands between the two. It builds the same way, down by rank in any suit, but a cleared column takes only a King, the same way Klondike guards its spaces. So an empty column is useful, yet only when you have a King ready to drop in, which turns those otherwise stranded Kings into cards you can finally place somewhere. It makes a tidy middle ground, more giving than Baker's Dozen and a shade tighter than Spanish Patience.
Castles in Spain: build by color
The Castles in Spain table here changes 3 things from Baker's Dozen. The first 3 cards of each column are dealt face down, and each one turns over when the cards on it are gone. Tableau cards must descend in alternating colors. And an empty column accepts any card. A red 6 therefore needs a black 7 or an empty column. It cannot go on a red 7, even though that placement works in the other 3 games.
The alternating-color rule is stricter than building in any suit, so even with the empty columns open, keeping the colors in step makes for a careful game. If red on black is the pattern you know best, this is the most familiar member of the family.
How to play them well
Free the low cards early
Aces and 2s trapped in the columns are what stall a game, because the foundations cannot get going without them. Work toward your lowest cards first, and send each Ace up the instant it comes clear.
Keep the foundations climbing together
None of these games gives you a holding cell, so the foundations are your main outlet for cards, and it pays to bring all 4 suits up in step instead of racing one ahead. When the suits climb together, the card you next uncover usually has a foundation ready for it. Otherwise it tends to be a middle rank stranded on the table.
Spend empty columns with care
Where a game lets you refill them, an empty column is your one work space, so think before filling it and try to keep one open when you can. In Baker's Dozen, where they never refill, emptying a column is simply a step toward the win.
Trace a line before you build
Move a card you cannot get back and you may bury the one you need next. With the entire board on show you can follow a line through before you start, and Undo is there to test one.
How hard are they
These games make you plan around exposed cards instead of stock draws. A short column can still be blocked if its end card has nowhere to go, and with one card per move, freeing a card 3 deep can take several separate moves. Players who would prefer separate holding spaces can compare the FreeCell variants.
Common questions
Why does Baker's Dozen have 13 columns?
Because 13 columns of 4 cards use the whole 52-card pack exactly, and 13 is a baker's dozen, which is where the game takes its name. Every column starts the same length, 4 cards deep and all face up.
Can you fill an empty column in Baker's Dozen?
No. In Baker's Dozen an emptied column stays empty for good. That is the rule its 3 relatives relax: Spanish Patience and Castles in Spain let any card fill a space, and Portuguese Solitaire lets a King fill one.
What is the difference between Baker's Dozen and Spanish Patience?
Only the empty columns. Both build down by rank in any suit across 13 columns, but Baker's Dozen never lets you refill a cleared column, while Spanish Patience lets you drop any card into one. That makes Spanish Patience the easier of the pair.
Are these solitaire games hard?
They can be, mainly because you have no cells and can move only one card at a time. Baker's Dozen is the strictest of the 4, since a cleared column is gone for good, and Spanish Patience is the most forgiving. Every Winnable deal on the site has a known solution, so a stuck game usually means an earlier choice went wrong. How we check that a deal can be won.