How to Play FreeCell: seven techniques, and how to use a proven deal
FreeCell is nearly all skill: you can see every card from the first move. Every deal here is proven winnable by an independent solver before it reaches you, which changes how you should play — a dead end is never bad luck, it is a move order you can undo.
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Free cells are parking, not storage
Every card sitting in a free cell is one less card you can move at once. Treat a cell as somewhere a card passes through, and aim to finish each sequence of moves with as many cells empty as you started.
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Learn the one formula that governs everything
You can move (free cells + 1) × 2 ^ (empty columns) cards at a time. Three free cells and no empty column moves four cards. Three free cells and one empty column moves eight. That doubling is why the next tip matters.
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An empty column is worth more than an empty cell
A cell adds one to your capacity; a column doubles it. When you can create either, create the column. Note the exception: moving into the empty column itself does not get to count that column, so the transfer is half as big.
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Count your capacity before you commit
Before starting a long transfer, count what you can actually move. Starting a six-card move with capacity four strands cards in cells and costs you the position. The number is cheap to compute — do it first.
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Dig toward the deepest ace
An ace buried under six cards is the clock on the whole deal. Aim your early moves at it rather than at whatever is easiest, because every other plan eventually waits on it.
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Send cards up late, not early
The foundation is not a scoreboard. A five sent up cannot catch a four later. Keep mid cards available to receive until the cards they would hold are already out.
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A dead end is a move-order mistake, so undo
Every deal here was cleared by a solver that shares no code with the dealer, and the proof is replayed against the game rules. So when you are stuck, the win exists. Undo to the last real decision instead of dealing again.
The formula in the second tip is the one thing worth memorising. Most FreeCell losses are a transfer attempted with capacity the player never counted.