The Herring-Bone is a free cell solitaire card game that is played with 104 playing cards. It is also known as "Braid" or under its original German name "Der Zopf". The game needs little planning but plays well as medium hard solitaire rule. The English name was mentioned by Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience in 1914.
Build the herring-bone with 21 cards (24 for the Long Braid) in the middle of the tableau. Then allocate 6 free cells to the left and to the right of the bone and place the 8 foundations (four on each side) farther out to the left and the right.
The goal is to build in either direction (but all the same direction) on the 8 wrap-around foundations to the left and the right of the tableau. Only the lowest card of the herring-bone is available for play. One cannot build on the herring-bone. Four free cells are linked to “the herring-bone” in the center. You are allowed to fill them with the last card from the herring-bone if it does not fit to the foundations. When playing Long Braid one can drop to all free cells from the braid/bone. All free cells can be used to hold cards from the waste that may be useful soon. The biggest decision for the success of the game is whether to start building the families up or down.