FreeCell rules
FreeCell is the solitaire with no hidden cards and almost no bad luck. All 52 cards are face up from the first second, and nearly every deal can be won, so when you lose, the answer was there to find. Below: the rules, the one formula that decides how many cards you can move, the odds, and how to plan a game. Eight Off, FreeCell's older cousin, is at the end.
FreeCell in 30 seconds
- Deal all 52 cards face up into eight columns: four of seven cards, four of six.
- Four free cells each hold one card. Four foundations build each suit from Ace to King.
- On the columns, build down in alternating colors. Officially you move one card at a time; moving a run is a shortcut for several single moves through empty cells and columns.
- Any card can go into an empty column.
The rules
Setup
Use one deck without jokers. Deal every card face up, left to right across eight columns, overlapping so you can read each one. The first four columns end up with seven cards and the last four with six. Leave room above for four free cells on the left and four foundations on the right.
What you can move
The available cards are the last card of each column and any card sitting in a free cell. An available card can go:
- to a foundation, if it is the Ace of a new suit or the next card up in that suit;
- onto the last card of another column, if it is one rank lower and the opposite color (a red 4 on a black 5);
- into an empty free cell, where it waits until it can be played out;
- into an empty column, whatever its rank.
You win when all four foundations reach the King. You lose when you have no legal move that helps, which usually means all four cells are full and nothing can come out of them.
How many cards can you move at once?
Strictly, FreeCell moves one card at a time. But if you have empty cells, you can shuffle a run across by parking cards one by one, so most computer versions let you drag the whole run in one go (often called a supermove). The most you can carry is:
(empty free cells + 1) × 2 to the power of (empty columns)
With real cards, use the same limit: if the run is longer than this, the move is not possible even one card at a time. The formula comes from the Wikipedia FreeCell article. If the run is going into an empty column, do not count that column.
| Empty columns | 0 cells | 1 cell | 2 cells | 3 cells | 4 cells |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| 2 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
Read across the top row: with no empty column, every free cell adds one card. Read down: each empty column doubles the run you can carry. That is why an empty column is worth more than any single free cell.
Can every FreeCell game be won?
Almost. Blake and Gent's solver study (arXiv 1906.12314) found about 99.999% of random deals solvable, matching earlier work by Shlomi Fish. The famous example of a loser is game number 11982 from Windows: of the original "Microsoft 32,000" numbered deals, it is the only one that cannot be won (Wikipedia).
Solvable is not the same as easy. Players on Solitaire Bliss win about 33% of their FreeCell games by that site's own count. The gap between 33% and 99.999% is all planning, which is good news: practice moves your number.
The number of free cells matters a lot. The same study measured about 99.4% with three cells, 79.5% with two, 19.3% with one and 0.2% with none, a handy way to make the game harder once four cells feels easy.
Strategy
- Find the Aces and 2s before your first move. Everything is face up, so spend ten seconds spotting where the low cards are buried. The deepest Ace usually decides which column you work on first.
- Treat free cells as borrowed, not owned. Each filled cell shrinks the runs you can move (see the table). Before you put a card in a cell, know how it will come out.
- Empty a column, then protect it. An empty column doubles your carrying power. Do not drop a lone card into it unless that move wins something now.
- Unblock, do not just tidy. A move that puts a red 9 on a black 10 feels neat, but if it buries a 2 you need next, it cost you. Judge each move by what it uncovers.
- Use the undo honestly when learning. Since almost every deal is winnable, replaying a lost one from the start is the fastest way to see where a plan went wrong.
Play FreeCell online or at home
Play at home: one deck and a coin or four sticky notes to mark the free cells. Because every card is face up, FreeCell is one of the few solitaires a second person can watch and help plan.
Eight Off
Eight Off is the older game FreeCell grew from (Wikipedia). It feels similar but plays tighter, because runs must stay in suit.
How it differs from FreeCell
- Deal: eight columns of six face-up cards (48), and the last four cards go into four of the eight cells.
- Eight cells instead of four, but only four start empty.
- Build down in the same suit, not alternating colors: only the 6 of hearts may go on the 7 of hearts.
- Only a King (or a run headed by a King) may fill an empty column.
- Cards move one at a time; a run moves only if you have enough empty cells to shuttle it.
These rules match BVS Solitaire's Eight Off page and the rule set used in the solver study, which found about 99.88% of deals winnable (Blake and Gent). So Eight Off is also nearly always solvable; it just asks for more care with the cells.
Eight Off tips
- With same-suit building, each card has exactly one home on the tableau. Before moving, check whether that home is free or buried.
- Kings stuck mid-column are the biggest problem, because only a King may use an empty column. Plan the King's exit before you empty one.
- You start with four cards already in cells. Getting those four out early gives you room to work.