Uno 108-card deck, 2–10 players◆ Skip-Bo 162 cards, first to empty the stock pile◆ Cribbage highest possible hand: 29 points◆ Phase 10 10 phases, completed in order◆ Five Crowns five suits, 116 cards, 11 rounds◆ Pinochle 250 trick points on the table each hand◆ Euchre 24-card short deck, lone march scores 4◆ Canasta natural canasta: 500 points◆ Gin Rummy knock at deadwood 10 or less◆ Spades 13 cards each, spades always trump◆ Farkle rolling three 1s scores 1,000 points, the same as many six-of-a-kind rolls◆ Yahtzee a full scorecard has 13 categories split across an upper and lower section◆ Dominoes a standard double-six set has exactly 28 tiles◆ Mexican Train commonly played with a double-12 domino set of 91 tiles◆ Chinese Checkers invented in Germany in 1892, not China — the name was a 1920s US marketing move◆ Solitaire not every deal of Klondike is winnable, even with perfect play◆ Spider Solitaire combines two full decks, 104 cards in play at once◆ FreeCell of the original 32,000 numbered deals, only game #11982 has never been solved◆ Hearts taking every point card lets you "shoot the moon" and flip the scoring on everyone else◆ Go Fish a completed "book" is all four cards of a single rank◆ War has no fixed length — in theory, a game can go on until one player has drawn every card◆ Old Maid can be played with a Joker added or a Queen removed, depending on which house convention a group prefers◆ Bridge a bid of "1" actually means 7 tricks: an automatic 6-trick "book" plus 1 more◆ Sequence combines a 10x10 board with two full decks of cards instead of dice or a single deck◆ Bunco a full party is commonly played across 4 tables at once, with players rotating between them◆ Kings Corner only a King can start a brand new pile in one of the board's 4 corners◆ Exploding Kittens every player starts with a guaranteed Defuse card in hand◆ LCR a player rolls one die for every chip they're still holding, up to a maximum of 3◆ Apples to Apples the judge never knows which player submitted which card◆ Pyramid Solitaire a King can be removed on its own since it's already worth exactly 13

FreeCell rules: how to play and use your free cells

Dice & solo division · Solitaire family
4 Free cells
1 Players
By Ethan Walker · Updated
Quick answer

FreeCell is a one-player card game played with a standard 52-card deck, dealt entirely face-up across 8 tableau columns from the very start. Four free cells each hold one card temporarily, giving you extra room to maneuver. Build the four foundation piles up by suit from Ace to King to win.

Chapter 1

Setup

FreeCell uses one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, dealt across 8 tableau columns.

ColumnCards dealt
Columns 1–47 cards each
Columns 5–86 cards each

That's all 52 cards dealt out, since FreeCell has no separate stock or waste pile at all. Every single card is visible from the moment the deal is complete, which is the single biggest structural difference from Klondike, where most of the tableau starts hidden face-down.

Above the tableau, set aside 4 empty free cells and 4 empty foundation piles, one foundation per suit. Free cells each hold exactly one card at a time, acting as a small, flexible holding area rather than a discard pile or a stock.

A FreeCell tableau with eight columns and four free cells above
Chapter 2

Gameplay

Using free cells

Any single card can be moved into an empty free cell at any time, parked there temporarily until you find a place to play it, and moved back out again whenever it becomes useful. Having all 4 free cells open at once, combined with any empty tableau columns, lets you move a whole multi-card sequence in one action, since most digital FreeCell implementations calculate how many cards you can shift at once based on how many free cells and empty columns are currently available.

Building the tableau

Cards build downward in the tableau in alternating colors, the same convention Klondike uses: a red 9 can hold a black 8, which can hold a red 7, and so on. Since every card is visible from the start, planning a sequence of moves is mostly a matter of working out an order, not a matter of hoping a hidden card underneath turns out to be useful.

Building the foundations

The four foundations build up from the Ace of each suit, exactly as in Klondike. Once a suit's Ace is available in the tableau or a free cell, move it up, then add that suit's 2, 3, and every following rank in order. Because there's no stock hiding extra cards, every Ace is visible and reachable from turn one, which is part of why FreeCell games tend to open up faster than a typical Klondike deal.

Icon illustrating a card parked in a FreeCell free cell
Chapter 3

How FreeCell differs from Klondike

KlondikeFreeCell
Card visibility at dealMost cards start face-downEvery card is face-up from the start
Temporary storageNo equivalent, only the waste pile from the stock4 free cells, each holding one card temporarily
Stock or hidden reserveStock pile of face-down cards, worked through graduallyNone — the entire deck is dealt onto the tableau at once
SolvabilityNot every deal is winnable, even with perfect playThe large majority of standard deals are winnable with correct play

That solvability point is worth being precise about rather than repeating a number that's easy to inflate. Of the original 32,000 numbered deals from Microsoft's version of FreeCell, all but one have been proven solvable: deal #11982 is the one confirmed exception, worked out and verified by dedicated solvers in the 1990s. That works out to roughly 99.997% of that specific, well-documented set of deals, not a claim that literally every possible FreeCell shuffle in existence is winnable. A small handful of other numbered deals from later, larger deal sets have also since been identified as unsolvable, but the overall rate of unsolvable deals stays extremely low compared to standard solitaire, where unwinnable deals are common enough that no one bothers keeping an exact count.

Frequently asked questions

FAQ

What are free cells used for?

Free cells are small temporary holding spots, 4 of them in a standard game, each able to hold exactly one card. You park a card there when you need to clear space in the tableau or free up a card underneath it, then move that parked card back out once you have somewhere useful to play it.

Can every FreeCell game be won?

Not every single possible deal, but the large majority can be. Of the original 32,000 numbered deals from Microsoft's FreeCell, all but one, deal #11982, have been proven solvable, a figure independently confirmed by dedicated solver communities rather than a marketing claim. That's a dramatically higher solvability rate than standard Klondike solitaire, where unwinnable deals are common enough that they're simply expected.

How is FreeCell different from regular solitaire?

The biggest difference is visibility: every card in FreeCell is dealt face-up from the start, while Klondike hides most of its tableau behind face-down cards that only reveal themselves as you clear the ones on top. That's exactly how Klondike solitaire compares to the game on this page: FreeCell replaces Klondike's stock pile with 4 free cells for temporary card storage, and it has no separate waste pile at all, since the whole deck is already out on the table from the first move.

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