Babette

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Playing
4. Redeal
5. End of the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Babette is a patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) played with two decks. You deal the cards in rows of eight and move them onto eight foundations – piles built in a fixed order: four start with an Ace and go up to the King, four start with a King and go down to the Ace, each pile in a single suit. A card can only be taken when nothing lies directly below it, so the gaps you leave in the layout decide what you can play next.

• Players: 1
• You need: two standard 52-card decks without jokers, shuffled together.

Setup

1. Shuffle both decks together and hold them face down: this is the stock.
2. Deal a row of 8 cards face up from left to right. Each card is the top of one of eight columns that will grow downwards during the game.
3. Leave room above the layout for the eight foundations. None are laid out at the start.

Playing

Foundations: whenever an Ace or a King is available (see below), you may move it above the layout to start a foundation. Only one Ace and one King of each suit start foundations; the second Ace of a suit finishes that suit's King foundation, the second King finishes its Ace foundation. Then:

• on an Ace foundation goes the next higher card of the same suit: A, 2, 3 … Q, K;
• on a King foundation goes the next lower card of the same suit: K, Q, J … 2, A.

Available cards: a card is available if its lower edge is free – that is, if no card lies directly below it in its column. That means:

• every card in the most recently dealt row, and
• any card directly above a gap left by a card that has already been moved.

Available cards may only go onto the foundations; there is no building within the layout. Gaps are never filled, and the rows always stay in line, so a gap stays visible even after more rows are dealt below it.

Dealing a new row: when you can't – or don't want to – make any more moves, deal the next 8 cards face up in a new row below the last one, one card per column. Overlap the rows by about half a card to save space. Keep playing and dealing until the stock runs out; 104 cards make exactly 13 rows.

Example: the 5♣ lies in the second row, the 9♦ below it in the third. You move the 9♦ to a foundation, leaving a gap. Now the 5♣ is available – and it stays available after you deal a fourth row, because the gap below it remains.

Redeal

When the stock is empty and you are stuck, you get one redeal. Gather the columns from left to right, each placed face up on top of the one before, turn the whole pile face down and use it as your new stock. Then deal rows of 8 and play exactly as before.

End of the game

You win when all 104 cards are on the foundations. If the stock runs out a second time and no more moves are possible, the game is lost.

Tips for beginners

• You don't have to play a card just because you can. As a rule, don't release a card above a gap before its duplicate has been dealt, unless you need to free an important card.
• A card directly above a gap stays available for the rest of the deal – there is no hurry to use it.
• Before the redeal, remember roughly where the blocking cards lie; the order of the new stock follows from how you gather the columns.

Variants

• Foundation transfers (optional): some computer versions allow you to move cards between the Ace and the King foundation of the same suit, as long as the order stays correct and the Ace and King at the bottom stay put.