It is possible to gain some FICO scoring points from closing credit cards, but it is in the following rare situation:
The person has 20+ credit cards and closes several to bring his total to (say) 10.
That's because there is a penalty (though not a huge one) for simply having dozens of open cards. That penalty vanishes entirely when you bring that number from "dozens" to "a dozen."
Having a medium number of open cards (e.g. 3-5) is always superior to having exactly one. This is because all FICO models like it when you have several open cards with a zero balance and exactly one with a positive balance. Some models like it more than others, but all models like it to some extent, and there is no way to do that with exactly one card.
I notice that your friend says that "the credit bureaus are worried about spending sprees with a bunch of large CC's." The CB's are not the people who develop the computer program that generates the FICO score. The CB is just a warehouse for the data.
I also notice that he says that he "finally" went over 800. That suggests he may have been in the 790s for sometime and has finally gotten some extra points to go over 800. That kind of score fluctuation is common and is unwise to attribute to anything specific.
It would be interesting to hear how many cards he had open a month ago, and have confirm for certain that he has exactly one open card now. Also interesting where he got the score from -- it might be a Vantage score and not a FICO score.
Certainly in your case you should not take any action similar to that of your friend, though if you'd like advice on how to improve your scores we can certainly help you out.
