Deal #1: Where the Numbering Starts
Deal #1 is the first of Microsoft's numbered deals. With deal #617, it is one of the two layouts a widely used programming exercise publishes for checking a copy of Microsoft's dealing method, and it is the deal pictured in the setup guide on our FreeCell page.
No card can go home on the first move. Column 6 is the one to watch: under its exposed 3 of diamonds lie the 2 of clubs, the Ace of clubs, and the Ace of spades. Park the 3 of diamonds and the 2 of clubs in free cells, and the Ace of clubs, the Ace of spades, and then the 2 of clubs can all go home.
How FreeCell Deal Numbers Work
Jim Horne, who wrote FreeCell for Windows, turned each deal number into a fixed shuffle with the random number generator in Microsoft's C compiler, so a number always deals the same layout. The original game had deals 1 to 32,000. Windows XP raised the range to 1,000,000 in 2001 and kept the first 32,000 unchanged. Many FreeCell programs copy the method, so a deal number means the same layout in each of them, ours included.
Numbered deals do not come from our provably fair shuffle. Microsoft's method is public, so anyone can work out a numbered layout in advance, which is what lets players share and compare them. For a deal nobody could know before it was dealt, start a game on the FreeCell page.
On this page, Next Deal opens deal #2, Restart deals #1 again from the start, and Share Deal copies this page's link. A numbered deal saves separately from your game on the main FreeCell page, so moving between the two loses neither.
Play Another Numbered Deal
Deals with a story:
- Deal #11982: the unwinnable deal
- Deal #1941: the hardest deal you can win
- Deal #617: often the first hard deal for players going in order
- Deal #9998: winnable with no free cells
- Deal #11987: winnable with no free cells
For the rules, strategy, and a random deal, go back to FreeCell.
