FreeCell Strategy: How to Plan, Use Free Cells and Win More

The core of FreeCell strategy is protecting your free space. Four free cells and any empty columns decide how many cards you can move at once and how many mistakes you can recover from. So read the whole deal before you move, find the buried Aces and low cards, spend free cells only with a plan to get them back, and work toward emptying a column early. Do that and you will win the large majority of deals.

This guide turns that idea into a routine, then walks through a real opening from game #1, with every move checked in Poozee's FreeCell engine. If you are brand new to the game, read how to play FreeCell first.

Why free space is everything

In FreeCell, how many cards you can move in one go depends only on your free space:

The rule is (empty free cells + 1), doubled for every empty column. Two things follow from it:

• An empty column is worth more than a free cell. A cell adds one card to your limit. A column doubles it.
• Every card you park in a cell costs you. Four full cells and no empty column means you can move only one card at a time, and that is where most games are lost.

Read the deal before your first move

Every card is face up from the start, so take a moment before you touch anything:

1. Find the four Aces and count the cards sitting on each. Deeply buried Aces are your long-term job.
2. Find the 2s and 3s for the same reason. A low card under a pile of high cards blocks a whole suit.
3. Look for a column you could empty in a few moves. A short column, or one whose cards all have obvious homes, is a great target.
4. Spot the free moves: cards that can go straight onto another column without using a cell.

Buried Aces are a warning sign, not a verdict. The famous impossible deal, #11982, has 22 cards covering its Aces, but game #617, which many players find hard, has 20, and it is solvable. What matters more is how the blocking cards fit together.

Spend free cells like money

A free cell is a loan. Before you put a card in one, know how it comes back out: which card it will go on, or which foundation it will go to.

Good reasons to use a cell:

• It frees an Ace or a 2 that goes home right away.
• It completes the emptying of a column.
• It lets a card join a run so a whole stack can move later.

Bad reasons:

• "I can't see anything else to do."
• Parking a high card (a King or Queen) with no empty column coming. It may sit there for the rest of the game.

Pro tip: When you have a choice between two cards to put in a cell, pick the lower one. Low cards leave the cells sooner, because they go home to the foundations earlier.

A worked opening: game #1

Game #1 is a good deal to practice on. After the deal, the cards at the bottom of the eight columns are:

6♠ · 9♣ · 2♥ · 6♥ · 6♣ · 3♦ · 8♣ · 10♣

None of them can go onto another column and no Ace is showing. Column 6 is interesting, though. From the top of the column down to the bottom card it holds 7♥, Q♣, A♠, A♣, 2♣, 3♦. The Ace of clubs is covered by only two cards, and the Ace of spades sits right above it.

1. Move 3♦ to a free cell. Now 2♣ is at the bottom of column 6. Nothing goes home yet, because the Ace of clubs is still underneath it.
2. Move 2♣ to a free cell. That uncovers A♣, which goes home by itself. The 2♣ follows it out of the free cell, and then A♠, now uncovered, goes home too.

Two moves in, three cards are on the foundations and you have spent only one free cell (the 3♦ is still there). That is what a good opening looks like: a small, planned spend of free space that buys several cards of progress. We checked this exact sequence in Poozee's FreeCell engine. For reference, Poozee's solver can win game #1 in 75 moves.

Try it yourself: open FreeCell, click the Game # button, enter 1 and press Deal.

Empty a column early

An empty column doubles your moving power, so aim for one early:

• Pick the shortest reasonable column and look at where each of its cards can go.
• Don't fill an empty column with a single card unless it achieves something. A lone card in an empty column halves your power again.
• The best card to put in an empty column is the start of a long run, such as a King with a built sequence under it, because it turns a hard-to-place stack into a finished one.

Build runs, don't just move cards

Stacks in order (alternating colors, going down) are easy to move later as a unit. A column with cards in the wrong order is a problem you will have to take apart one card at a time.

• When two cards could go on the same target, choose the one that leaves a better column behind.
• Avoid splitting a long run unless it wins you something concrete. Rebuilding it costs free space you may not have.

Let the foundations take care of themselves

Sending a card home early can hurt you: once it is on a foundation, it can't hold a card of the opposite color one rank lower. The safe rule is simple. A card can go home when both cards of the opposite color one rank lower are already there, and Aces and 2s can always go.

Poozee's FreeCell follows exactly this rule automatically, so you never have to think about it. If you play elsewhere, keep it in mind before you move a middle card home.

When you get stuck

• Undo to the last real decision. In FreeCell there are no hidden cards, so a stuck position means an earlier choice went wrong. The usual culprit is a free cell spent too early.
• Ask for a hint. Poozee's hint runs a solver from your exact position. If it finds a winning line, it shows the next move. If it says there is no winning line from here, undo a few moves and ask again.
• Restart the deal with what you learned. FreeCell deals reward a second attempt far more than luck-based games do.

Keep playing

Put this into practice with FreeCell on Poozee. New games are picked from the 32,000 classic deals, skipping the impossible one, so every deal you get can be won. Curious about that exception? Read why FreeCell game #11982 can't be won. And if you'd like a solitaire where planning meets hidden cards, try Spider Solitaire. For a quicker game where card counting pays off, read our Pyramid Solitaire strategy guide.