La Belle Lucie is a solitaire game which originated in France. This game also goes by a number of other names including Clover Leaves, Alexander the Great and Midnight Oil. There are also several other games which are played very similarly to La Belle Lucie which are described in the variants section below. La Belle Lucie is considered one of the "fan" type members the solitaire family, mostly due to the layout pattern in a series of fans of face-up cards on the table.

Being a solitaire game, La Belle Lucie is of course designed for play by one and uses one standard 52 card deck. The ranking of the cards in this game are as follows (from highest to lowest): King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace.

The game begins with the player thoroughly shuffling the cards. After the shuffle and an optional cut, the player begins the deal. He deals a series of small fans consisting of three face-up cards, with the cards in that fan overlapping each other. He continues dealing until the entire deck has been dealt which will result in 17 such fans, and one remaining card left over which will create one last "fan" consisting of a single card. This layout on the table is the tableau.

Once the cards have been dealt, the play begins. The object of the game, as in many solitaire games, is to create and build on four, initially empty foundation piles, starting with the Ace and being completed with the King. There is one foundation pile corresponding to each suit. Cards on these foundation piles are built using cards in ascending order of the same suit. The pile will start with the Ace and build to the King of that same suit, which will complete that foundation pile.

The following are the legal plays which can be made by the player during the course of the game:

• The player may play an Ace, if that card is the top, fully exposed card of any fan to begin one of four foundation piles.
• The player may play the top, exposed card from any fan to one of the foundation piles if that card is next in ascending sequence and of the same suit as the top card on an existing foundation pile.
• The player may move the top, exposed card from any fan, onto the top of another fan on the table, if the card it is played on is of the same suit and exactly one rank higher (i.e. a nine of Clubs could be played on a 10 of Clubs which is the top card of another fan).

If the last card is played from a fan, the empty space is not refilled by any other cards.

After the player has exhausted all available moves (or all moves he wants to make) he has the option to take up all the cards (except those in the foundation piles) into a pile and reshuffle these cards. After reshuffling, the player then begins dealing a new series of face-up, three card fans, with the cards partially overlapping. If the remaining cards do not evenly divide by three, he may have one or two extra cards left-over which are dealt into a smaller fan consisting of these one or two cards. The player may perform this redeal exactly two times during a game.

If the player manages to, during his initial deal and two redeals, get all the cards legally played to the four foundation piles, he is said to have won the game. However, if, after the second redeal, the player has not yet managed to play all the cards to the foundations and has no more available moves, he has not won the game.

The standard solitaire game of La Belle Lucie can be quite challenging, with the average probability of winning any given hand found to be about 1 in 10 games.

Variations and Optional Rules

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Single Move Cards: One popular rule variant that is often used is the rule that a card can only be moved within the tableau one time during each deal or redeal. Thus, once a card has been moved from one fan to the top of another, that card is locked and may only be further moved to a foundation pile. If a redeal occurs, that particular card is no longer locked and is again available to move one time during that redeal. This rule makes the game slightly more difficult to win.

Alternating Color Plays: Another optional rule which is sometimes introduced is that of Alternating Color plays. This optional rule allows a card from one fan to be played to the top of another fan if that card is exactly one rank lower and is of the opposite color. A card is considered of the opposite color, in the event that a red suited card can be played on a black suited card, or a black suited card could be played on a red suited card.

Trefoil: Trefoil is a game played very similar to La Belle Lucie. However, the game has one major difference which makes this version somewhat easier to win than the standard game.

Before the deal, the four Aces are removed from the deck and placed to begin the four foundation piles. After these Aces have been removed, the player then shuffles the deck and deals out similar to the standard game, forming a tableau of 16 three card fans.

In all other aspects Trefoil is played identically to the standard game of La Belle Lucie as described above.

The Fan: Another solitaire game which is very similar to La Belle Lucie is "The Fan". This variant has two features which cause it to differ from that game:

• No redeals are allowed. Thus, once a player has exhausted all his moves, the game is over and the player is not considered to have won the game.
• If the last card from any fan is played elsewhere (either to the top of another fan or to a foundation pile), a new one-card fan can be started in this location, but this first card to that fan must be any King.

Other than these differences, The Fan is played identically to the standard game.

Three Shuffles and a Draw: Three Shuffles and a Draw is also played identically to La Bella Lucie. However, this game contains one major difference from that parent game.

After the player has used his three total shuffles and if he has no further moves that can be made within the Tableau, he has the option, one time, and only during this last shuffle, to select any card that may not normally be available (not the top card of a fan) and pull it from where it lies and play it appropriately.

Shamrocks: Shamrocks is another game which has many similarities to La Belle Lucie. The game is played the same as La Belle Lucie, however with the following differences:

• After the cards have been dealt, but before the player begins play, the player examines each of the fans comprising this layout. If any pile has a King as the top or second from top card in that pile, the King should be moved to be the bottom card of that pile.
• The top card of any fan can be played to the top of any other fan if the card it is moved to is exactly one rank higher or one rank lower of any suit.
• The maximum size of any fan is exactly three cards. Thus, if a fan already contains three cards, no additional cards can be moved to that fan until cards are first played from the top of the fan.

In all other aspects this game is played identically to the standard game of La Belle Lucie.

House in the Woods: House in the Woods can be thought of as a two deck variant of La Belle Lucie. House in the Woods is played identically to La Belle Lucie, with the following differences:

• House in the Woods uses two standard 52 card decks shuffled together to make one larger 104 card deck.
• Due to the larger deck, the initial tableau will consist of 34, three-card fans and one smaller fan consisting of the remaining two cards.
• The top card of any fan can be played on the top card of any other fan if the card it is played onto is of the same suit and exactly one rank higher or lower. An Ace however may not be played on a King and a King may not be played on an Ace.
• There are eight total foundations, two in each suit, each starting with an Ace of that suit.

In all other aspects this game is played the same as La Belle Lucie.

House on the Hill: House on the Hill is played identically to House in the Woods, with one key difference. In House on the Hill, four of the foundations must start with the Aces in each suit and are built in ascending sequence (up to King), and the other four foundations must start with the Kings of each suit and are built in a descending sequence (down to Ace). In all other aspects this game is played identically to House in the Woods.

Super Flower Garden: Super Flower Garden is another game which is played very similarly to La Belle Lucie. This game is unrelated to another popular solitaire game, Flower Garden. Super Flower Garden is played identically to the standard game of La Belle Lucie, with one key difference.

During play of a hand of Super Flower Garden, a card on the top of any fan may be played to the top of another fan if the card is exactly one rank higher, irregardless of suit, than the current top card on that fan. Other than this one difference, this variant is played identically to the standard game of La Belle Lucie.

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