Jeff Werner

Designer & bike rider in British Columbia, Canada

FreeCell Best Streak

freecell71.jpg
I played a lot of FreeCell during my UVic and PC days. The above is an image of my best streak: 71. After I lost that one I never played again. I also bought a Mac. And if there’s a FreeCell for OSX I don’t want to know about it. I waste enough time as it is.
However, I suppose I did learn something about strategy. Or maybe just FreeCell strategy. Let me try to recall my process:

  1. Locate the Aces. If it’s a good hand they won’t be buried too deep. If they are, just keep in the back of my head that I need to slowly but surely dig them out. Also keep in mind where the 2s are.
  2. Mentally test options, between four to eight moves, before moving cards.
  3. Clear a whole row and keep at least one holding spot open. Do that and I’m nearly guaranteed home free.
  4. Look for Queens on matching (i.e. opposite colour) Kings already on the board. Clear down to the Queen and stack there.
  5. Be very, very careful about putting Kings into the top left holding area.
  6. Never start a game when you’re already fucking sick of FreeCell and just want to go to bed. Impatience was the number one killer.
  7. Keep in mind there is only one (or is it two?) flawed FreeCell games (I think one was in the 20,000 range), i.e. every other deal is completable.

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18 Responses to “FreeCell Best Streak”

  1. Julius Davies Avatar
    Julius Davies

    Wikipedia!!!
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCell
    “The project was finished in October 1995, and only one game defied every human player’s attempt: #11,982.”
    Nice streak, Jeff!

    Reply
  2. Anne Avatar
    Anne

    I always prefered solitare myself. Triple deck, timed deal. I had a brief flirtation with minesweeper, but wasn’t quite patient enough to keep the affair going. Plus, you couldn’t dress up minesweeper – solitare let me make my deck pretty!

    Reply
  3. Julius Davies Avatar
    Julius Davies

    http://www.freecell.com/f/c/view_scores.html?;AllTime,8×4,0,100,0
    Wow! 12,856 game winning streak.
    More details here:
    http://www.solitairelaboratory.com/fcfaq.html
    “The all-time record on NetCELL is 12,856, set by Bob K., a retired chemist in the Atlanta area (under the name rgk1). This shattered the old record of 5301 by a player going by the name Michelangelo.”

    Reply
  4. Arielle Avatar
    Arielle

    im working on a record,so far i only have 20, but then again that’s also just today.

    Reply
  5. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Eat your heart out. Since I got my new computer last Feburary, my record is 178 wins in a row and still counting, with no losses, ever.

    Reply
  6. Mahmoud Avatar
    Mahmoud

    That record of 12856 is not a streak, read again.
    Meanwhile there are some games I can mathematically prove for you can never win them!
    try -1 and -2 for example.
    Good Luck.

    Reply
  7. Scot Wells Avatar
    Scot Wells

    My current wins in a row is 1141 and my greatest # of losses in a row are 1… The advise someone gave above of showing tons of patience is the absolute key I think

    Reply
  8. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    My streak ended at 49 which isn’t bad.

    Reply
  9. RRSPSRME Avatar
    RRSPSRME

    Right now I am currently at 308 wins in a row. I have play 896 games since clearing the stats and 61 losses. total 94% wins to losses. I will be looking for game 11982. I love playing the game. Took me a while to get the hang of it. enjoy

    Reply
  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’m currently at exactly 200 wins in a row! A record for me. My current overall stats are 1131 wins and 49 losses for a 96% win ratio. I do best when I only play 3 or 4 games at a time. Patience is absolutely vital in this game!

    Reply
  11. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    The latest Windows XP version allows you to undo an indefinite amount of times, you can always go back to earlier positions. Since i know that i am at 620 and counting. It makes you a bit more careless, but at least i have a shot at the difficult games.

    Reply
  12. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    Windows XP vista allows you to go back and undo an indefinite amount of times, If you mess up you can always go back to earlier positions. I now have a win streak of 185 games and not one single loss. I also play only 2 to 3 games at a time otherwise impatience sets in and that may lead to losses. It is also helpful to concentrate on digging 2 identical color cards(ex.2red jacks) out if they are near the top. They are needed for the natural progression and you may run out of options and room if you can’t get to them.

    Reply
  13. Michael Keller Avatar
    Michael Keller

    What makes Mahmoud think that 12,856 is not a
    streak? It certainly is. And it’s not the
    record anymore. As of today the record is
    a still-active streak of 16,920, by the
    same player. And that’s a streak in the
    online version which does not allow undos.
    See
    Michael Keller
    FreeCell FAQ
    Solitaire Laboratory

    Reply
  14. MM Avatar
    MM

    You cannot trust any record coming from Windows. There is a known hack to quit a game without marking it as a loss. CTRL-ALT-DEL. End Freecell process. Select “No”. Wait 4 or 5 seconds and windows will ask if you’d like to quit. Select “Yes”. You’ve now quit the game and not recorded a loss. Many people know this and so no streak given above can be trusted.

    Reply
  15. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Press Ctrl+Shift+F10 click on abort and win the game. 10,000 wins+ are now possible.

    Reply
  16. Michael Keller Avatar
    Michael Keller

    I agree that winning streaks in Microsoft
    FreeCell are meaningless, but none of these
    Windows hacks apply to the record streaks in
    NetCELL. The best is now 19793. This is a
    real, legitimate streak (with no undos) in the
    online version of FreeCell at http://www.freecell.net.
    If Guinness ever wants to publish an official
    world record for the longest streak of FreeCell
    wins, that’s the place to look.
    Michael Keller
    FreeCell FAQ
    Solitaire Laboratory

    Reply
  17. Becci Eilders Ceithamer Avatar
    Becci Eilders Ceithamer

    My streak is 21,717

    Reply
  18. julie Avatar
    julie

    Is there some where I can play just the un-winnable games? So far I have won 2718.

    Reply

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