How to Play FreeCell Solitaire: Setup and Rules

How to set up a game of FreeCell

FreeCell uses one standard 52-card deck with the Jokers taken out. Shuffle, then deal every card face up into eight columns in a row, together called the tableau. Deal by rows from left to right, one card to each column at a time, until the deck runs out: four columns of seven cards and four of six. Overlap the cards down each column so you can see every one.

Above the columns, leave room for eight more places. On the left go four free cells, which start empty and each hold any one card. On the right go four foundations, where you build each suit from Ace to King. Nothing else is dealt: there is no stock and no face-down card, so from the first move you can see the whole game.

In Snowberry Cabin Solitaire the free cells are the four green felt pockets in a wooden tray at the top left, over the first four columns, and the foundations are the four stitched places marked A at the top right. On a phone turned sideways, the free cells move to a strip on the left and the foundations to a strip on the right.

FreeCell rules and the goal

The goal is to move all 52 cards to the four foundations, each one a single suit built up in order from Ace to King. Any Ace can start an empty foundation, and after that only the next card of the same suit goes on it: the 2 of hearts on the Ace of hearts, then the 3 of hearts, and so on.

In the columns, only the last card of each column, the one nearest you, can move. It can go onto the last card of another column if it is one rank lower and the opposite color: a red 7 on a black 8, or a black Jack on a red Queen. Any card can go into an empty column, not only a King.

Any card can also go into an empty free cell. A card in a free cell can move back onto a column where it fits, into an empty column, or home to its foundation. Free cells are the heart of the game: they let you lift cards out of the way, but each one you fill is one less place to work with.

In the classic computer version, cards on the foundations stay there. Snowberry Cabin Solitaire follows that rule, so think before sending a card home if a lower card of the other color might still need it as a place to land.

Moving more than one card at a time

Strictly, FreeCell moves one card at a time. But if the last few cards of a column are already a run in order, alternating in color, you could move them to another column one by one through the empty free cells and empty columns, and put them back together there. Computer versions, Snowberry Cabin included, do that for you as a single move, as long as there is room to do it card by card.

The room you have is the number of empty free cells plus one, doubled for each empty column. With two empty free cells and no empty column, you can move three cards at once. Add one empty column and you can move six. When the run is going into an empty column, that column cannot also help, so the limit is half: three cards in the same example. If a move is too big, the game tells you how many cards it can move right now.

Cards that go home by themselves

Many FreeCell programs move some cards to the foundations for you. Snowberry Cabin uses the safe rule: a card goes home by itself only when nothing could ever be built on it again. That is every Ace and 2, and any other card once both cards of the other color one rank lower are already home. A red 6, for example, goes home by itself once both black 5s are home, because the only cards that could ever sit on it, the black 5s, are gone.

Because of that rule, a card that goes home by itself can never cost you a win, and it never counts as a move. Every other card waits for you to send it, with a double-tap or by dragging it onto its foundation. And once every card left can go straight home, one after another, the game plays the rest home for you.

Deal numbers and the famous deal 11982

The classic Windows FreeCell numbered its deals from 1 to 32,000, each number standing for one shuffle made by a simple formula. Players began trading deal numbers, and other FreeCell programs often use the same shuffle, so a deal number can mean the same cards wherever you play. Snowberry Cabin Solitaire uses it too: deal 1 here has the same cards in the same places as deal 1 there. Use Choose a deal in the menu to play any number, or share one with a friend.

Deal 11982 is the famous one: the only deal of the first 32,000 that cannot be won. We checked it with our own solver, which searched every position deal 11982 can reach, 61,643 in all, and found no win. A new deal in Snowberry Cabin is never 11982; you get it only if you choose it.

Every other deal can be won. Our solver won all 31,999 of them. With its normal limit of 200,000 positions a deal it won 31,996 outright; the other three, deals 2198, 20202 and 21554, needed a longer search, and it won each of them in 57 to 62 moves.

How often can you win at FreeCell?

Almost always, if you play carefully. Since nothing is hidden, a winnable deal never turns on a lucky card, and nearly every deal is winnable. Our solver’s winning lines for the classic deals were about 50 moves long on average, the longest 97, counting a run moved together as one move and leaving out the cards that went home by themselves.

The difference is in the planning. In our own tests on deals 1 to 1,000, a scripted player that followed the game’s own hint every move, which searches for a whole way to win before it suggests a move, won all 1,000, in about 50 moves a win. A scripted player with simple habits did far worse: it sent any card home it could, otherwise moved a run onto another column, otherwise played a free cell card back to a column, otherwise parked a card in a free cell when the card under it could then move, never went back to a position it had already seen, and stopped when it ran out of such moves or after 1,500 moves. It won 40 of the same 1,000 deals, 4 percent, and got fewer than 10 cards home on average. FreeCell rewards looking a few moves ahead.

Controls in Snowberry Cabin Solitaire

Drag a card, or a run in order at the end of a column, to its new place, or tap it and then tap where it should go; the places it can go glow. Double-tap or double-click a card to send it home, or else onto a column, or else into a free cell. Undo, Hint and Menu sit on a wooden shelf below the cards, or beside them on a wide screen.

On a keyboard, the arrow keys move between the free cells, the foundations and the eight columns, and in a column Up and Down choose how many cards of the run at its end to pick up. Enter or Space picks up and puts down, the number keys 1 to 8 pick up from or drop onto a column, C parks a card in a free cell, F sends a card home, U undoes, H shows a hint and Escape puts the cards back.

Undo is unlimited and never changes your result. The hint searches for a whole way to win from where you are and shows its first move. If the search runs out of time it says the move is only a best guess, and if no way to win is left it says so, so you know to undo. If no move at all is possible, the game offers to undo, replay the deal or start a new one. Columns of up to 14 cards show every card’s rank and suit whole; a longer column closes up only where its cards are already in order. The deal in progress, today’s deal and your statistics are saved on your device as you play.

Beginner strategy

Look at the whole deal before your first move. Find the Aces and 2s, see which are buried deepest, and plan how to dig them out. The first few moves often decide whether the free cells stay open or fill up.

Keep the free cells empty. Each empty cell lets you move a longer run and gives you somewhere to put a card in a pinch. Park a card only when it frees something you need, and play it back out as soon as you can.

Empty a column when you can. An empty column doubles the size of run you can move, and it is worth more than a free cell. A short column with a low card at the back is often the best one to clear first.

Build tidy runs. Cards in order, alternating in color, can travel together later; a jumble of cards in a column can only be taken apart one at a time.

Common mistakes

Filling the free cells too soon. It is easy to park cards just to see what is under them, and then find no room left for the move that matters. If a move puts a card in the last free cell, look twice.

Filling an empty column with a single card. An empty column is your biggest tool; dropping one card into it, when that card could sit in a free cell or on a column, throws away the chance to move a long run.

Sending cards home too early. Low cards are always safe, but a high card sent home may be the only place for a card of the other color one rank lower. The game sends cards home by itself only when it is safe; the rest is up to you.

Breaking a run apart for nothing. Moving the end of a good run to another column loses a link you built. Do it only when it gains something, such as freeing a card you need or joining a longer run.

Burying low cards under a King. A King can only move to an empty column or a free cell, so piling a King and its run onto a column that hides an Ace can block that Ace for a long time.

Tips for winning more deals

Use undo to explore. Undo never changes your result in Snowberry Cabin, so try a line and take it back if it fills your free cells without getting anywhere.

Count before a big move. Before moving a run, check how many empty free cells and empty columns you have. The game will tell you if a run is too long, but planning for it lets you clear a cell first.

Ask for a hint, then ask why. The hint usually comes from a full plan to win, so when it surprises you, work out what it is setting up. If it says no way to win is left, undo a few moves and look for where things went wrong.

Try a famous deal, or trade numbers with a friend. Deal 11982 is the one nobody can win: see how many cards you can get home before you run out of moves. Any other number makes a fair race: same cards, fewest moves wins.