Rules for Good Measure

Family: Bisley
Categories: Large
Variants: Baker's Dozen,Hamlet
Also Known As:

Here’s a variant that the many fans of Baker’s Dozen will enjoy. This is a game for planners and thinkers, because all cards are revealed in the initial layout. A special rule about laying out the Kings helps reduce the number of unwinnable games, and two Aces start the game already in place to give you a head start. But there are fewer tableaus, making it harder to dig out the cards you need!

Layout

Lay out the entire deck in 10 tableaus of five cards each, face-up and fanned down. Place the first two Aces that you find onto two of the four foundations; the other two foundations start the game empty. When Kings appear, slip them under their tableaus instead of placing them on top, so that no lower-ranked cards start out under the Kings.

Play

Top cards of tableaus are available for building on each other, and on the foundations. Tableaus build down regardless of suit or color; empty tableaus are never filled. The foundations begin with Aces and build up in suit to Kings.

Goal

The goal is to move all cards to the foundations.

Tips

Build the foundations evenly; don’t play up a five until all other foundations are built at least to the three. (You’ll break this rule sometimes at need, but only when it’s the only available move.)

Never empty a pile unless its last card can go to a foundation. Empty piles are useless in Good Measure.

It’s always safe to play onto a pile that has only one card in it, or any pile that contains only a single continuous build.