La Belle Lucie is a solitaire also known as "Alexander the Great", "Three Shuffles and a Draw", and "Midnight Oil". It is one of the most popular solitaires, offering an attractive layout, simple rules, challenging play, and a reasonable chance to win.

Number of Decks: 1 (52 cards)

Alternate Names: Alexander the Great, Three Shuffles and a Draw, Midnight Oil

Initial Layout: The deck is shuffled, then dealt face-up, one card at a time, into seventeen piles of three cards each. The last card is placed by itself as an eighteenth pile. These piles are also known as "fans".

Object: The object of the game is to move all of the cards from the eighteen fans into four new piles, arranged by suit, in order from Ace (low) to King (high). These four destination piles are known as the "foundations". Only the top card of each fan is available for play.

Play: In addition to moving cards from fans to foundations, cards can also be moved from one fan to another, building down in suit. In this way submerged cards can be freed up for play to the foundations or to other fans. Once a fan becomes empty, no additional moves can be made to that fan.

When you have made all the moves you can, from the fans to the foundations and from fan to fan, the remaining cards in all the fans may be reshuffled and re-dealt in the same manner as at the beginning of the game (three cards to a fan). In all, the deck may be shuffled three times (once to begin the game, and twice more during the game).

At some point during the game, you may draw one submerged card from a fan and play it on any valid foundation or fan. It is generally better to save this draw for as long as possible.

If you reach an impasse, in which no more moves can be made and no shuffles or draws are left, then the game is over, and you have lost.