Simple Simon: every card dealt, nothing drawn later
Some solitaires hold cards back and release them slowly. Klondike does it with a stock, and at Turn 3 it releases them three at a time, playable only from the top; that drops our simple bot's wins from 42.3% at Turn 1 to 10.6% at Turn 3 (10.0%–11.2%, 10,000 deals). Simple Simon holds nothing back. All 52 cards go face up into ten columns, from eight cards down to one, and there is no stock. What you see at the start is all there is.
A solver that sees every card solved 86.53% of 3,000 deals on this site's rules (95% range 85.27%–87.71%), proved 5.17% impossible (4.43%–6.02%) and left 8.30% undecided (7.36%–9.34%). So between 86.5% and 94.8% of deals can be won. With no draw to go against you, the deal and your planning are everything.
At a glance: Simple Simon on this site
| Measure | Result | 95% range | Deals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solved | 86.53% | 85.27–87.71% | 3,000 |
| Proven impossible | 5.17% | 4.43–6.02% | 3,000 |
| Undecided within the budget | 8.30% | 7.36–9.34% | 3,000 |
| Same-suit links already in place in the deal | 0.76 links | 0.73–0.79 | 3,000 |
A caution. Blake and Gent (2026) report 97.450% of Simple Simon deals winnable. Our proven-impossible share alone (at least 4.4%) is above their 2.55%, even though we confirmed six of our impossible deals with a separate brute-force search. We read the site's rules from its code and they appear to match the paper's, but we have not found the source of the difference. Treat our figure with care until it is resolved.
When the whole deal is the whole game
In Klondike Turn 3, a deal can be lost because of the order the stock comes in: our solver, which sees hidden cards, proved 9.5% of 1,000 Turn 3 deals impossible against 2.1% at Turn 1. The draw rule alone moves that figure. In Simple Simon there is no such lever. Some deals are lost from the first second: in one of ours (seed 81) there is not a single legal move in the opening position. Most deals, though, are open, and they reward reading the columns before you move.
Simple Simon rules on this site
- Deal: 52 cards face up in ten columns of 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.
- Building: down in any suit.
- Moving: a run of the same suit moves as a unit, with no length limit.
- Empty columns: any card or run may fill them.
- Clearing: a complete King-to-Ace run of one suit is removed automatically.
- No stock: nothing to draw or redeal.
Playing Simple Simon
Same suit is what moves
You may build in any suit, but only same-suit runs travel together. A mixed-suit build is a dead end you will have to take apart card by card.
Free a column first
The short columns on the right are there to be cleared. An empty column is the most useful space in the game.
Look for links that exist already
Deals start with 0.76 same-suit links on average. Spot them and build around them.
Finish suits one at a time
A completed suit leaves the table, making room for the rest. Pick the suit closest to done.
Accept the rare dead deal
About one deal in twenty was proven impossible. If nothing works, a new deal is reasonable.
Count what a move uncovers
With every card visible, each move can be judged by what it exposes. Before you shift a run, look at the card underneath it: is it one you can use, or does it block a suit you are close to finishing? A short pause here saves a long untangling later, and keeps an empty column free for when you really need it. When two moves look equal, pick the one that leaves more same-suit runs intact.
Turn 1, Turn 3 or no draw at all
For reference, here is what the draw rule does in Klondike on this site. Our simple bot, which sees only face-up cards and never undoes, won 42.3% of 10,000 Turn 1 deals (41.3%–43.3%) and 10.6% of 10,000 Turn 3 deals (10.0%–11.2%). In the games it did win, it went through the stock 2.34 times at Turn 1 and 3.81 times at Turn 3. Simple Simon has no laps to make. We did not run a bot on Simple Simon, so we have no floor figure to set beside those numbers, only the solver's results.
Without a stock, the chance a deal gives you is fixed the moment the cards land. Nothing you turn later can help or hurt, so every decision you make on the table counts for more.
Playing on solitaire-turn-3.com
Simple Simon is free in any current browser on computer, tablet or phone, with no account. Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart and Auto Play are included, along with zoom, fullscreen, drag or tap moves, a counter for wins, time and moves, and sound and table-color settings. For a game where the draw is the challenge, try Solitaire Turn 3.
How the figures were made
The solitaire-turn-3.com team ran these tests in September 2026 on this site's rules, in Python 3.11 with the standard library only.
- Rules from the code: as listed above.
- Numbered deals: seeds 1 to 3,000.
- Best-first solver that sees every card, up to 200,000 positions per deal.
- Three outcomes: solved, proven impossible or undecided.
- Checks: six impossible deals confirmed by an independent brute-force search; compared with Blake and Gent (2026), which disagrees with us (see above).
- 95% ranges: Wilson score intervals for shares, normal intervals for averages.
Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic, helped write and review the code and draft this page. Every figure comes from running the code or from the linked study, and the team checked them.
Simple Simon questions
How often can I win?
On our figures, between 86.5% and 94.8% of deals. The published study says 97.45%; we have not resolved the gap.
Is there a Turn 3 option?
No. Everything is dealt at the start; there is no stock.
What is similar?
Spider uses the same suit rules with a stock. All games are on the games page; articles are on the blog.
By Admin, solitaire-turn-3.com (Forty Media). Research run September 2026.