Find the beak card and preserve suit routes.
Penguin starts three foundations with cards matching the beak rank. The fourth beak card remains in the tableau. Seven cells can park individual blockers, but empty columns accept only the rank just below the beak. Find that fourth starter and plan how to uncover it.
Last updated: September 2026
Trace the missing foundation starter
The deck leaves 49 cards in seven face-up columns of seven. The beak card is among them; the other three cards of its rank already start their suit foundations. Until the beak card is free, its suit cannot advance. Look at the cards above it and find legal moves for each blocker. The other three suits can still progress while you make that route.
Foundations build up by suit, wrapping from King to Ace. The final rank in each foundation is the rank immediately below the beak. For a beak of Five, the foundation order is Five through King, then Ace through Four.
Use the rank that can enter an empty column
Tableau placement builds down in the same suit. A Seven of Hearts can land on an Eight of Hearts; a Seven of Diamonds cannot. An empty column accepts only a card one rank below the beak, or a legal same-suit run headed by that rank. This entry rule wraps: a beak of Ace makes Kings eligible.
With a Five beak, an empty column, a Four of Hearts in a cell, and a Four of Diamonds heading a movable same-suit run, either Four may enter the gap. The run move keeps the cell occupied but transfers several cards; the cell move frees a cell immediately. Choose according to which exposed card or free cell the next move needs. A Three cannot enter the empty column directly.
Separate cell space from run movement
Each flipper cell holds one card and can release it to a legal tableau or foundation destination. Before parking a blocker, identify a possible exit; seven occupied cells leave no place to park another card.
In this implementation, a legal descending same-suit tableau run moves as one group regardless of how many cells are occupied. FreeCell’s group-size formula does not apply. This makes a completed run valuable even when all seven cells are full, but a mixed-suit tail cannot move together.
For the broader space-and-access question, see the FreeCell family guide.