FreeCell Solitaire Rules

FreeCell is played with one 52-card deck, dealt face up into eight columns. You win by moving all 52 cards onto four foundation piles, one per suit, each built from Ace up to King. Four free cells hold one card each as temporary storage. Nothing is hidden, so every game is a puzzle you can reason about rather than a gamble.

This page is the reference version of the rules. If you have never dealt a game before, the step by step guide to playing FreeCell Solitaire is an easier place to start.

Rules at a Glance

The Deal

The whole deck is dealt face up, left to right, one card at a time across eight columns. The first four columns receive seven cards each and the last four receive six, which accounts for all 52. The free cells and the foundations both start empty.

Because nothing is face down, the entire problem is visible on move one. That is the single biggest difference between FreeCell and most other solitaire games, and it is why skill matters so much more here.

Tableau Rules

• Build downward in alternating colours, so a black 9 accepts either red 8
• Only the exposed card at the bottom of a column is directly available
• A run of cards already in descending alternating-colour order can move together, subject to the capacity limit below
• Any card or legal run may be moved into an empty column
• Suits do not matter for tableau building, only colours

Free Cell Rules

• Each of the four cells holds exactly one card, of any rank or suit
• A card in a cell can move back to the tableau or on to a foundation whenever the move is legal
• A card in a cell is out of play until you move it, so an occupied cell is a resource you have spent
• Every occupied cell reduces how many cards you can move at once

Foundation Rules

• One foundation per suit, built upward from Ace to King
• Aces are the only cards that can start a foundation
• Cards may come from a column or from a free cell
• In this game, foundation cards are permanent and cannot be taken back
• The game is won the moment all 52 cards are on the foundations

How Many Cards You Can Move at Once

FreeCell has no special multi-card move in its underlying rules. Moving a run is really a sequence of single-card moves that borrow the free cells and any empty columns as temporary space. Software does it for you in one gesture, but the capacity is still limited by the space you have. The formula is:

maximum cards = (1 + empty free cells) x 2 ^ (empty columns)

Every free cell adds one to the count. Every empty column doubles it. That difference is the reason experienced players guard empty columns far more carefully than cells. Here is the complete table:

The exception most guides leave out

When the column you are moving into is itself empty, that column cannot also serve as workspace, so it does not count in the formula. With four free cells and one empty column you can move ten cards onto an occupied column, but only five into the empty one. Our engine applies this rule directly, by excluding the destination from the count.

Rules That Vary Between Versions

FreeCell has no single governing body, so a few details differ from one implementation to the next. These are the ones worth knowing, and what this version does:

FreeCell Compared With Klondike

Because an empty column doubles your moving capacity while a free cell only adds one, columns are worth far more than cells. Our FreeCell Solitaire strategy guide explains how to open one without losing the position.

Frequently Asked Questions