How to play Freecell?

How to lay out cards in Freecell?

To play Freecell, you need a deck of 52 cards. Remove the Jokers and shuffle the cards. Lay them out in eight columns. It does not matter whether you lay them out row by row or column by column as long as you shuffle the deck well. The four columns on the left must have seven cards each. The remaining four columns have six cards each.

In the picture you can see a typical Freecell layout. In addition to the eight columns, there are four free cells in the upper left corner of the game board and four foundation fields to the right. Initially, they are empty, but as the game progresses, you will use the free cells to temporarily store the cards and the foundations to build orderly piles.

What is the game objective in Freecell?

As in most solitaire games, the objective is to build orderly piles in the foundation fields. Each field can hold cards of a single suit (Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, or Clubs). You start by placing an Ace in an empty foundation. Following the Ace, you can place a 2 of the same suit, and then the cards of higher ranks: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and King. The game is won when the entire deck is sorted in the foundations and there are no cards left in the columns.

Most players just try to win. Some players try to win the game as quickly as possible while others try to win by making as few moves as possible. However, this last way of playing is not popular because many Freecell video games do not count moves.

What are the rules of Freecell?

You can only play the cards that are not covered by other cards. Initially, there are eight of them: one in each column. You may be able to take such a card from a column and place it in a foundation. If the foundation field is empty, you can place an Ace in it. Otherwise, you can put on the card already there a card that is one rank higher and of the same suit. This way, you build piles sorted by rank and suit. Once in the foundation field, a card cannot be moved.

If no suitable cards can be placed in the foundations, you can place a card in a free cell. There are four free cells, and each can hold one card. If a free cell is empty, you can put any card in it. A card in a free call can be moved to a foundation field or to a column.

In the columns, you can only build sequential stacks of alternating colors. The card you are moving must be one rank lower than the card you are placing it on. Moreover, the two cards must have opposite colors, i.e., you can place a red card on a black card and a black card on a red card. For example, only two cards can be placed on the 10 of Spades: the 9 of Hearts and the 9 of Diamonds.

Remember that you can only play cards not covered by other cards. To move a stack between two columns, you must first store it in the free cells. Then, you can move the cards from the free cells to the new column. Therefore, the number of available free cells limits the size of the stack you can move. If you have no available free cells, you can move only one card. If you have one available free cell, you can move a stack of two cards. For two free cells – a stack of three cards, and so on. This limit can be increased by having empty columns.

When you remove all cards from a column, it becomes empty. You can use an empty column to store any card and build stacks in it.

Freecell Guide

If you want to see how to put these rules into practice, here is what a Freecell gameplay looks like:

It is essential to focus on low-value cards at the beginning of the game. Try to free the Aces and the 2s so that you can put them in the foundation fields. Whenever possible, try to achieve that by moving cards between the columns. If you fill up the free cells early in the game, you may get stuck and lose. Having many available free cells is essential. Empty columns are even more useful. They serve as better free cells in which you can store more cards than one.

Compared to other solitaires, Freecell is easy. There are no face-down cards, so there is no element of surprise. Luck is involved only in how favorably the cards are shuffled before they are dealt. But once the cards are laid out, everything depends on your strategy and planning. With enough skill, you should be able to win almost every game. Studies have shown that with the right strategy more than 99.99% of games can be won.

If you are learning how to play other solitaire games like Klondike Solitaire or Spider Solitaire, it may be easy to confuse their rules. Here is a summary of Freecell rules to clear the differences:

• There is no stock (both Klondike Solitaire and Spider Solitaire have one).
• There are eight columns (Klondike has seven, and Spider has 10).
• Cards can be moved only one by one (you can move entire stacks in other solitaires).
• Stacks must have alternating colors (unlike in Spider Solitaire).
• All cards are face-up (in other solitaires, most are initially face-down).

Now that you know all the basics, it is time to start playing Freecell Solitaire! You can also check out our other Freecell game. And if you want to learn more, we invite you to read our Freecell Strategy Guide.