FreeCell Solitaire: All Cards Face Up

No hidden cards, no luck – just decisions. Play FreeCell Solitaire free in your browser on any device, with no download or account needed.

About FreeCell Solitaire

FreeCell Solitaire is one of the most strategically demanding card games around. Unlike most solitaire variants, all 52 cards are dealt face up from the very first move. There are no hidden cards and no luck – every outcome depends entirely on your decisions.

The four free cells are what make the game unique: temporary holding spots in the top-left corner that let you park awkward cards and reorganise the tableau. How well you manage those four slots determines whether you win or lose.

What makes FreeCell genuinely remarkable is its near-perfect winnability. Of 32,000 standard deals, mathematicians have confirmed only 8 are unsolvable – less than 0.03%. If you are stuck, the solution almost certainly exists somewhere earlier in the game.

All Cards Face Up

full information from move one

99.97% of Deals

are winnable

How to Play FreeCell Solitaire

The Goal: Move all 52 cards to the four foundation piles, building each from Ace to King in the same suit.
The Layout: The game starts with 8 tableau columns, all cards face up, plus 4 free cells (top left) and 4 empty foundation piles (top right).
Free Cells: Each free cell holds exactly one card. Use them to temporarily park cards that are blocking your moves – but use them carefully, since filling all four leaves you almost no room to manoeuvre.
Moving Cards: Build tableau columns down in alternating colours (e.g. black 7 on red 8). Empty columns can be filled with any card or sequence.
Foundations: Start each foundation with an Ace and build up to King in the same suit. You can move cards to the foundations at any point in the game.

Before making your first move, study the full layout. In FreeCell every card is visible from the start – that information is your biggest advantage. Use it before you touch anything.

FreeCell Rules

Basic Rules

Build tableau columns down in alternating colours (red on black, black on red).
Each free cell can hold only one card at a time.
Empty tableau columns can be filled with any card or sequence.
Build foundations up by suit, from Ace to King.
The game is won when all 52 cards are on the four foundations.

How Many Cards Can You Move at Once?

You technically move one card at a time, but the game automatically handles whole sequences using free cells and empty columns as intermediate stops.
Formula: maximum cards per move = (free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns).
Examples: 3 free cells, 0 empty columns → (3+1)×1 = 4 cards. 2 free cells, 1 empty column → (2+1)×2 = 6 cards. 0 free cells, 0 empty columns → 1 card only – the sequence won't budge.
If a sorted sequence refuses to move, it is not a bug – you simply do not have enough free space. Free up a cell or column first.

How to Win at FreeCell

Plan Several Moves Ahead

Before every move, ask yourself: what will I uncover, what will I block, what do I gain in two moves? A careless move in FreeCell can lock the entire game with no way out.

Protect Your Free Cells

Free cells are a strategic reserve, not a convenient dump. Fill all four with no empty columns available, and you can only move one card at a time – a loss usually follows quickly.

Work Towards Empty Columns

An empty column doubles your sequence-moving capacity and unlocks cards buried deep in the tableau. Make freeing columns a deliberate goal, not a lucky accident.

Build Foundations Evenly

Don't race one suit to the foundations far ahead of the others. You risk trapping low cards you still need in the tableau and cutting off future options.

Stuck? Use Undo as many times as you need – in FreeCell, backtracking is not cheating, it is strategy. Go back to where you still had options and try a different line.