# Free Cell: I did it! **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850 **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share **Created:** [January 5, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850 "2007-01-05T19:28:46Z") **Posts on this page:** 20 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/1 "2007-01-05T19:28:46Z")
I finished a Free cell game without “banking” a single card in one of the four holding spots up in the upper left hand corner. The Game # was 10772. ---
### Author: ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/2 "2007-01-05T19:41:08Z")
Awesome! ---
### Author: ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/3 "2007-01-05T19:41:59Z")
Did you move a stack of cards? ---
### Author: ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/4 "2007-01-05T20:09:25Z")
I wanna video of this, move by move. 🙂 I didn’t know it was even possible to do this! Congrats! ---
### Author: ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/5 "2007-01-05T20:10:55Z")
Cool! I’m going to have to try that game when I get home. ---
### Author: ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/6 "2007-01-05T20:12:41Z")
Cool! ---
### Author: ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/7 "2007-01-05T20:30:24Z")
Try game #11,982 next. ---
### Author: ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/8 "2007-01-05T20:59:19Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Try game #11,982 next. [/QUOTE] Very funny! 😃 ---
### Author: ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan) #### Post date: [January 5, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/9 "2007-01-05T23:22:18Z")
[QUOTE=Enola Straight] I finished a Free cell game without “banking” a single card in one of the four holding spots up in the upper left hand corner. [/QUOTE] Fun, isn’t it? I think I have done it about a dozen times. ---
### Author: ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/10 "2007-01-06T03:44:35Z")
What’s so funny about game#:11,982? ---
### Author: ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/11 "2007-01-06T03:46:35Z")
It’s unsolveable. ---
### Author: ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/12 "2007-01-06T03:48:05Z")
[QUOTE=DJ Motorbike] What’s so funny about game#:11,982? [/QUOTE] [It’s unsolvable](http://www.wambooli.com/fun/freecell/). ---
### Author: ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/13 "2007-01-06T07:13:45Z")
I started at # 1 and am now on # 10.516. I am doing them in order. Yes, I’m anal. I do about 5000 per year. The only one I will not work is # 11,982. ---
### Author: ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/14 "2007-01-06T11:33:46Z")
Shouldn’t you have started at -1 and -2? ---
### Author: ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/15 "2007-01-06T19:56:24Z")
[QUOTE=Common Tater] Shouldn’t you have started at -1 and -2? [/QUOTE] I did those just to learn how to play the game. 😉 ---
### Author: ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/16 "2007-01-06T20:13:34Z")
I did it. It took me two tries. ---
### Author: ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/17 "2007-01-06T22:01:48Z")
I really think that more than just one are unsolveable. Unless it’s just me. ---
### Author: ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/18 "2007-01-06T22:48:22Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] I really think that more than just one are unsolveable. Unless it’s just me. [/QUOTE] In the original version, there are 32,000 possible games and only one of these is unsolvable. In more recent versions, there are 1,000,000 possible games, which includes the original 32,000 games, and 8 of these are now known to be unsolvable. If you dealt with actual cards, you could have 52!/8! (about 2 x 10[sup]63[/sup], officially, a metric shitload) different games; it is not known how many of these are actually unsolvable since FreeCell has been shown to be NP Complete–you have to determine solvability by brute force. ---
### Author: ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema) #### Post date: [January 6, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/19 "2007-01-06T22:52:18Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] I really think that more than just one are unsolveable. [/QUOTE] In the original set of 32,000 games, only #11982 is unsolvable. In later versions (with far more games), these are said to be the unsolvable ones: 11982; 146692; 186216; 455889; 495505; 512118; 517776; 781948 ---
### Author: ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook) #### Post date: [January 7, 2007, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850/20 "2007-01-07T06:47:05Z")
I got it on the first try. A friend of mine’s father set out to do them all in order. He was about 84 when he started and made it up to around 10,000 or so before a heart attack ended things. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-cell-i-did-it/386850.md?page=2)