Free Cell Players

It is like a time machine. I can start play and 2hrs. later... wow, what was that?

Your win rate is quite impressive- i generally am in the mid 60's. Since I play on multiple computers, and have played for many years, it is hard to come up with game totals, though (current machine, played for less than a year, 1075 total, 65% wins. I have three other machines on which I play as well, so this is not my total). I will sometimes abandon a game that does not promise to end the way I want it to, though. I want one of the aces to remain on the table until my final move that clears the table. The real challenge is having TWO aces remaining on the final move- something that requires a special card arrangement from the beginning...

Also, I play in Linux, where the game is called Aisle Riot Solitaire. I wonder if there is a difference in win ratios between the two versions? From what I remember of my old Windows days, I have not experienced much difference in win rates, but I don't have statistics to back that up.

I consider this, and Minesweeper, more "mind clearing" tools than "mind sharpening" tools...

I prefer spider to free cell as I find spider more challenging. My average on free cell is 98% where as my spider score is 56%

The version of Spider for Linux leaves a little to be desired. I have never been able to win 4 suits, but do pretty well with two...

I play for speed more than for average; av ~68%, best time 58 sec. Something to do while the app loads.

It has been conjectured that every FreeCell game is winnable, but I doubt it has been proven. Some are clearly tougher than others. My own best streak is 64 wins, with an average of around 85%. Sometimes it takes careful study even before making the first move.

I too like the extra challenge of leaving as many cards as possible in the layout before the "rapture" at the end. This is one of a few solitaires in which you have full information from the start. Thus no luck factor, but lots of laziness or impatience factor. Maybe that explains the British name of "patience" rather than "solitaire."

"It has been conjectured that every FreeCell game is winnable..." It may be that every game offered by the computer is winnable, but several years ago I drew a layout which was clearly unwinnable. I don't recall precise details of that specific layout, but imagine starting by having all four aces in the topmost row, then adding to the columns row-wise. First place all of the remaining cards of one color, ending with all low point-count cards. Now place all cards of the other color (except for the two aces previously stashed). Basically, you can move any four cards to the free cells, and you're done: there's nowhere to go. With deuces, treys, and fours in the lower rows of the upper color, there's no way to "build" downward from them even if you can uncover them initially. Clearly there are MANY variations in the placement which lead to the same dead end - but I've never seen such a layout in a actual FreeCell game. My understanding was that unwinnable games were not provided for play - but I've seen some that took me multiple re-starts to finally win!

Game #11982 is listed as impossible to solve here.

http://solitairelaboratory.com/fclists.html and on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCell#Game_11982

The site gives several list of difficult games as well.

11982 was found by "the internet freecell project" to defy all attempts of solving it although there is no proof that it is unsolvable.

There may be others as I think a later windows version expanded the number of "deals" to 1,000,000. The internet project was conducted before this expansion.