FreeCell
FreeCell is the solitaire with no hidden cards and almost no luck. All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns, four free cells hold one card each, and you build four foundations from Ace to King. Of Microsoft's 32,000 numbered deals, exactly one — number 11982 — has been proven unwinnable. Every other deal can be solved.
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Kept in this browser, on this device only. Abandoning a deal in progress counts as a loss, so the win rate means something.
Today’s deal
Everyone playing FreeCell today gets deal #1000140030. It changes at midnight UTC.
Track the month on the daily challenge page.
Replay a deal
Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.
Keyboard
- U / Z
- Undo
- R
- Redo
- H
- Hint
- N
- New deal (asks first)
- F
- Full screen
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
- Deck
- 52 cards, all face up
- Columns
- 8 (four of 7, four of 6)
- Free cells
- 4
- Unwinnable deals
- 1 of Microsoft's 32,000
How do you play the FreeCell card game?
Every card is on the table from the start. Build the tableau downward in alternating colours, exactly as in Klondike, and build the four foundations upward in suit from the Aces. The four free cells each hold one card, which is your only manoeuvring space — an empty column is worth much more, because it can hold a whole sequence.
How many cards can you move at once in FreeCell?
Strictly, one. Everything else is bookkeeping: to move a sequence you park cards in free cells and empty columns and reassemble them on the far side. The board does it in a single drag, but the limit is real and it is worth knowing the arithmetic:
(free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns)
| Free cells | Empty columns | Cards you can move |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 4 | 2 | 20 |
| 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 |
One catch, and it is the one people trip over: if you are moving into an empty column, that column cannot also be used as staging space. With four free cells and one empty column you can move ten cards onto an occupied column, but only five into the empty one.
Is every FreeCell game winnable?
Almost. The 32,000 deals numbered in Microsoft's implementation were exhaustively analysed and only game #11982 resists solution. Beyond that set the rate is about one deal in 85,000: Blake and Gent measured FreeCell at 99.99888% winnable, and an exhaustive run over 8.5 billion deals turned up 102,075 unsolvable ones. In practice, if you lose a FreeCell game, the deal was not the problem — which is exactly why the game has the following it does.
What does the safe auto-play do?
Sending a card to the foundation too early can strand a lower card of the opposite colour that still needed somewhere to land. The auto-play here only advances a card when it can no longer be needed: Aces and Twos always, and anything higher only once both opposite-colour foundations are within one rank and the other same-colour suit is within two. That is the standard safe-autoplay rule, and it never costs you a winnable position.
How do you get better at freecell?
- Empty a column before you fill the cellsAn empty column doubles your capacity; a free cell adds one. Four free cells and no empty column moves five cards. Three free cells and one empty column moves eight.
- Get the Aces out early, then stopAces and Twos cost nothing to bank. After that, every card sent up is a card that can no longer catch a lower one, so pause and check what still needs a landing spot.
- Plan the whole unstacking before you start itBecause all cards are visible, you can count the move exactly. If you cannot see the end of a manoeuvre, you are guessing — and in FreeCell guessing is how deals are lost.
- Do not park a low card in a cellCards in cells are dead until something accepts them. A card with no landing place — a lone Six with both black Sevens already banked — will sit there for the rest of the game.
FreeCell questions people ask
- What is the hardest FreeCell game?
- Microsoft deal #11982 is the only one of the 32,000 numbered deals that cannot be won. Among solvable deals, #617 and #1941 have long reputations for being brutal.
- Can you put a card back in a free cell?
- Yes. Free cells can be filled and emptied freely; the only restriction is one card per cell.
- Does an empty column accept any card in FreeCell?
- Yes, unlike Klondike. Any card or movable sequence can go into an empty FreeCell column, which is why empty columns are so much more valuable than free cells.
- Is FreeCell a game of skill?
- Almost entirely. With every card visible from the deal and nearly all deals solvable, FreeCell is closer to a logic puzzle than to a card game of chance.
The rules in six lines
- 1Deal all 52 cards face upEight columns: the first four get seven cards each, the last four get six. Nothing is hidden.
- 2Build the tableau down in alternating coloursA red seven goes on a black eight. Sequences move together only if you have the capacity for it.
- 3Use the four free cells as temporary storageEach cell holds exactly one card, retrievable at any time.
- 4Any card may fill an empty columnEmpty columns double your moving capacity, so guard them.
- 5Build foundations up in suitAce first, then 2, 3, 4 … K in the same suit. Cards may be taken back down.
- 6Move all 52 cards to the foundationsThe game is won when every card is banked. With no hidden cards there is no luck left at the end — if the position is winnable, finishing it is bookkeeping.
The long version, with worked examples and the questions beginners actually ask, is on how to play freecell.
Put FreeCell on your own site
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<iframe src="https://www.cardgamenook.com/embed/freecell" width="100%" height="620" style="border:0;border-radius:10px;max-width:900px" title="FreeCell — free online" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:14px system-ui;margin:6px 0 0"><a href="https://www.cardgamenook.com/freecell">Play FreeCell</a> at Card Game Nook</p>