Goodsol Newsletter #397 - La Belle Lucie Solitaire

Goodsol Newsletter #397 La Belle Lucie Solitaire This newsletter looks at the classic game La Belle Lucie and its close variant, Three Shuffles and a Draw. I'm back to working on the next Windows update of Pretty Good Solitaire. I was further along when everything happened than I remembered, so it is moving along well. - - Pretty Good Solitaire for Windows - Goodsol.com/download Pretty Good Solitaire for Windows is currently at version 20.1 with 1040 games and Daily Quests. If you haven't downloaded the new version yet, give it a try! Download Now!   Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition - Goodsol.com/mac Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition is currently at version 3.56 with 750 games. If you have the full version installed, just go to the Internet menu, select Download Latest Version to update.   Our iPad Games - Goodsol.com/iPad Pretty Good Solitaire for iPad recently updated to version 1.61 with 750 games.   Pretty Good Solitaire Mini - Goodsol.com/iPhone Pretty Good Solitaire for iPhone is currently at version 1.0 with 720 games.   Pretty Good MahJongg - Goodsol.com/pgmj Our companion game to Pretty Good Solitaire is Pretty Good MahJongg, solitaire with MahJongg tiles. Pretty Good MahJongg for Windows and Mac currently have 410 games and layouts.   Lost Codes - Lost Code Lookup If you lost your registration code or you need it to install on a new computer, request your code again from our site at: https://www.goodsol.com/regusers.html.   Featured Game - La Belle Lucie La Belle Lucie is an old, classic game of solitaire. It is also known under many other names, including Fair Lucy and Midnight Oil. It is the most popular of the fan type games, where cards are dealt out in small groups of usually three cards. At the start of La Belle Lucie, the single deck of cards is dealt out in 17 packets (or fans) of three cards each (except for the last fan, which will have only one card). These fans constitute the tableau. The top card of each fan is available and all the cards are face up so that they can be seen. As Aces become available, they are moved to the four foundation piles, which are built up in suit from the Aces to Kings. The game is won when all the cards are moved here. Within the tableau, cards are built in descending sequence by suit. No card may be played to an empty fan. You must be very careful not to block yourself when moving cards about the fans. It is very easy to block play by moving a card onto a fan where a lower card of the same suit is already buried. When all available moves have been played, all the cards in the fans are taken up, shuffled, and then redealt again in fans of three cards. There are two such shuffles allowed, resulting in three deals in all. Some sources allow a grace during the last deal. This grace permits one buried card in one fan to be moved to the top of its fan during the last deal. This variant is often called "Three Shuffles and a Draw" rather than La Belle Lucie. The two main 20th century solitaire book sources disagree about whether this draw is allowed in La Belle Lucie. Albert H. Morehead & Geoffrey Mott-Smith allow the draw (on the last deal only) in their 1949 book "The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games". David Parlett does not allow a draw at all in his comprehensive "The Penguin Book of Patience." This disagreement in the rules in La Belle Lucie goes way back. William B. Dick, in his 1883 solitaire book, allowed the draw. Mary Whitmore Jones did also in her solitaire book from the 1890s. But Lady Cadogan in her "Illustrated Book of Patience" from 1870 does not. So the best solution is probably to just consider the draw another (very similar) game. Without the draw, an average player can win La Belle Lucie about 40% of the time, but there is wide latitude for skill, and actual scores can be much better (or worse) than this. Using the draw, an average player can win about 60% of the time. La Belle Lucie is one of the 1040 games in Pretty Good Solitaire (for Windows), one of the 750 games in Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition and Pretty Good Solitaire for iPad, and one of the 720 games in Pretty Good Solitaire Mini for iPhone. For more featured games, see the Solitaire Guide. -- Contact Us - Goodsol.com/contact.html Lost Code - Goodsol.com/regusers.html -- Thomas Warfield - Software Designer - [email protected] Anne Warfield - Order Fulfillment - [email protected] ©2021 Goodsol Development Inc. PO Box 9155, Springfield IL  62791 Pretty Good Solitaire, Pretty Good MahJongg, and more.  Visit us at Goodsol.com. List Archive:  View past newsletters.