If you spend any time around young children you know how fiercely they cling to the idea of getting a “do-over.” It’s one of the fundamentals of play – you practice, experiment, repeat until you master the game.

This one comes from Game Gal – Hit the Dirt is a variant of hide-and-seek where the person who’s “it” stays put and the rest of the group does all the running while “it” has her eyes closed and counts out loud. Follow the link for the complete set of rules, it can see a lot of fun (and grass burns) from diving to the ground when. The name 'pai gow' is loosely translated as 'make nine' or 'card nine'. This reflects the fact that, with a few high-scoring exceptions, the maximum score for a hand is nine. If a hand consists of two tiles that do not form a pair, its value is determined by adding up the total number of pips on the tiles and dropping the tens digit (if any). Since 1846, the name Hood® has been synonymous with fresh, quality dairy products that taste great.

Getting a “do-over” means that you get to start fresh. In golf it’s called a Mulligan – a chance to re-play a particularly awful shot. While some consider it cheating, the Mulligan or the do-over are excellent ways to keep a game balanced when you have players of varying skill levels. Like the handicap – strokes subtracted from a player’s score – judicious use of the do-over helps level the playing field a bit.

You can probably connect the dots here and see how this is leading to a discussion about God’s grace. While there are some important differences between the Biblical doctrine of grace and a “Mulligan” there are some similarities. Teenagers in particular need adults and their peers to give them a do-over now and then. Developmentally they are wired to experiment and try new things. Naturally they are going to fail and sometimes they might even screw-up big time.

Being part of an active youth group is a great way to help kids get a do-over. It might be the one place they can turn to after making a poor choice (friends, drugs, hair color) and know that they can re-set and start fresh. God’s grace is what gives us the power to give some kids a Mulligan time after time.

So let’s here it for the “do-over”, for bending the rules and for second chances. In the long run it makes the game a lot more fun.

FreeCell Rules

The different piles

There are three different types of piles in FreeCell Solitaire. They are:

• The Free Cells: The four piles in the upper left corner.
• The Foundations: The four piles in the upper right corner.
• The Tableau: The eight piles that make up the main table.

The setup

The Tableau piles are numbered from 1 to 8, piles 1-4 start with 7 cards each, piles 5-8 with 6 cards each. The Foundations and Free Cells are empty.

The objective

To win FreeCell, you must get all the cards onto the Foundations. The Foundations are ordered by suit and rank, each Foundation has one suit and you must put the cards onto them in the order Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack Queen King. To do that you can use the moves described below:

Allowed moves

• Move one or more cards from one Tableau pile to another. You can move the top card of a pile on the Tableau onto another Tableau pile, if that pile's top card is one higher than the moved card and in a different color. For example, you could move a red 6 onto a black 7. If the top cards on a Tableau pile are ordered, e.g. you have red 6, black 5, red 4 as the top cards, then you can click the red 6 and move all of them together onto another Tableau pile that has a black 7 as its top card. HOWEVER, there is a limitation to how many ordered cards you can move together. The number of cards you can move together is basically the number of empty free cells and empty tableaus + 1. So, if you have 2 free cells empty you can move 3 cards together. If you have all 4 free cells empty you can move 5 cards. If you have 3 free cells and 4 empty tableaus you can move 8 cards together. Moving many cards together is basically just a convenience the game provides. In the strictest sense you should always move one at a time, but if you have 4 ordered cards and 3 free cells then you could trivially move the top 3 ordered cards to the free cells, then move the fourth card and then move the 3 cards from the free cells back onto the fourth card. So, for convenience the game allows you to move n+1 cards together, where n is the number of free cells.
  If you have an empty Tableau pile then you can move any card there.
• Move a single card onto a Free Cell. You can always move the top card of any Tableau Pile, Free Cell or Foundation onto a Free Cell if it's empty. Free Cell's can only hold a single card at a time.
• Move a card from a Free Cell. You can move a card from a Free Cell onto a Foundation if it's in the same suit and one higher than the Foundation's top card. Or you can move a card from a Free Cell onto a Tableau pile if the card is one lower and in a different color than the Tableau pile's top card. E.g. you could move a red 5 from a Free Cell onto a Tableau pile where the current top card was a black 6.
• You can move a Tableau card onto the Foundations. You can either drag the cards onto the Foundation, or just double click it and then it will go there by itself. When the Free Cells are empty and all cards on the Tableau are arranged in 4 piles and each of the piles has been ordered in descending order with alternating red/black cards then the Tableau will clear itself, since at that point you are guaranteed to win the game.
• You can Undo as many times as you like. The game offers unlimited undos. Each Undo counts as a new move though, so if you're trying to win the game in as few moves as possible you should be careful about how many undos you use.

Time and Moves

The game counts the moves you make, and measures the time it takes to finish the game, so you can compete against your previous best games if you want. Currently this data is not stored anywhere, in the future I might add some kind of high scores.

About FreeCell

Hi. My name is Einar Egilsson and I made this online verson of FreeCell. FreeCell is the second solitaire game I create, before that I created Klondike (or 'classic' solitaire) and I've also made a few card games like Hearts, Spades and Whist.

If you have any questions, comments or requests for other solitaire games you can send them to admin@cardgames.io or tweet at me @cardgames_io. If you have any errors or problems when playing the game please include which browser you're using when you email me, it makes figuring out the problem a lot easier :)

Pie Gal Card Game Rules

Many thanks go to Nicu Buculei, who created the excellent playing card images that I use for the game.

If you like this game check out my various other games, and please share them on Facebook/Twitter/Google+

Pie Gal Card Game Cards

This is version 2897 of FreeCell.

Pie Gal Card Game Creator

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