Freecell Solitaire: A Beginner’s Strategy Guide

Gaming

Freecell Solitaire is a very popular game, made famous by Microsoft. Freecell is included in Windows and is considered by many to be a classic solitaire game. Because you can see ALL the cards from the beginning, there is no luck involved, making Freecell one of the few solitaire games that relies entirely on the player’s skill.

Freecell is quite a difficult game, but despite that, all offers (except the offer number

11982) can be resolved in the 32000 offerings in the Microsoft version.

USE FREECELLS WITH SATISFACTION

The key to ending Freecell is the judicious use of freecells. They should be used as

temporary storage: just store cards in them for a short time to help you get around

longer sequences around.

For example, suppose you have a column with the following (taken from agreement 14396)


5 Hearts
Ace Spades
Ace Hearts
4 Clubs

In this situation, it is okay to move the 4 of Clubs to a free cell, because we know

that right after that, we can move the two Aces to the base, and then move

the 4 of Clubs returns from the free cell to the 5 of Hearts. Look how was the free cell

Is it only used temporarily?

SAFE MOVEMENTS

There are certain movements that you can do at any time in Freecell and you know not

it will “catch” you later in the game. You can move the Aces (and both when they can

play), at any time, since no other card depends on them. For the other cards, you

you can safely move them to the base if the cards are rank one less, otherwise

color, they are already in the base. For example, you can safely move the 5th of

Diamonds, if all 4 blacks have already moved to the base.

Top Freecell games will automatically perform these safe moves for you, so you can

focus on the moves that matter, rather than having to do it manually

inconsequential movements.

THE NEED TO EMPTY THE COLUMNS

Your first goal in Freecell is to empty a column.

Why is this?

Because an empty column allows you to move longer sequences. The size of

the sequence you can move in Freecell is based on the number of free cells available

and empty columns. The more free cells and empty columns you have, the longer the

sequence is that you can move.

The formula for how many cards you can move is:

(number of empty freecells + 1) * 2 ^ (num empty columns)

For those less inclined to mathematics, here is a table showing how many cards

can move in a few different scenarios …


Empty Freecells Empty Columns Card Sequence Length
0 0 1
1 0 2
2 0 3
3 0 4
0 1 2
1 1 4
2 1 6
3 1 8
0 2 4
1 2 8
2 2 12
3 2 16

As you can see, empty columns are particularly valuable as they allow you to move around

considerably longer sequences. By the time you have two free columns (particularly

with two or more free freecells), you can move very long sequences, and the game is

generally pretty easy to complete from there.

HOW TO EMPTY COLUMNS

So what is the easiest way to empty a column?

Start by emptying the columns that do not contain any king. A column with a king

It cannot be emptied initially, because there is nowhere for the King to go.

Don’t make moves just because you can. Have a mini plan in mind and only

Move the cards if they help clear the column you are pointing to.

Another popular strategy is to go straight to throw the Aces, and then the

2, etc. This strategy is easier and requires less thought. It will work for the easiest

games, but won’t help tough deals (like the 1941 deal)

However, the most important strategy of all is to try to keep the free cells empty. Yes

you can do that, and empty a couple of columns as well, then you should find it very

easy to finish the game.

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