Simple Simon Solitaire: Spider without the hidden cards
Simple Simon is what you get if you take one-deck Spider and turn every card face up. All 52 cards sit in ten columns shaped like a staircase, there's no stock to deal, and your job is to build four complete suits from King down to Ace. When a full suit comes together in a column, it's cleared away on its own.
It's a great game for a casual player, because nothing is hidden and most deals are winnable. We gave 3,000 deals to a solver that plays by this site's rules. It won 86.5% of them, proved 5.2% impossible, and didn't finish the rest. So somewhere between 86.5% and 94.8% of deals can be won. We'll also be upfront about something: our result doesn't match the published figure, and we explain that below.
What our Simple Simon test found
| What we measured | Result | Deals |
|---|---|---|
| Deals our solver won | 86.5% (95% range 85.3–87.7%) | 3,000 |
| Deals proven impossible | 5.2% (95% range 4.4–6.0%) | 3,000 |
| Deals left undecided | 8.3% | 3,000 |
| Share of deals that can be won | between 86.5% and 94.8% | 3,000 |
| Same-suit pairs already in place when the cards are dealt | about 0.76 per deal | 3,000 |
Every card is visible in Simple Simon, so a solver that sees everything is playing the same game you are. It doesn't get tired and it doesn't make slips, though, so your own win rate will depend on how carefully you plan.
How Simple Simon works on this site
- One deck, all face up, dealt into ten columns of 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 cards.
- No stock. You start with all 52 cards already laid out.
- Building: any card can go on a card one rank higher, in any suit.
- Moving groups: only a run in the same suit can move together, and there's no limit on its length.
- Empty columns accept any card or same-suit run.
- Clearing suits: a complete same-suit run from King to Ace is removed automatically. Remove all four to win.
The key idea: build loosely, move in suit
Simple Simon has one rule that trips up newcomers. You're allowed to place any card on a card one higher, whatever the suit. But you can only move a group if it's all one suit. So a mixed run like 9 of hearts, 8 of clubs, 7 of hearts is stuck: you'd have to take it apart one card at a time. A same-suit run like 9, 8, 7 of hearts moves as easily as a single card.
The practical rule: build in any suit when you must, but build in the same suit whenever you can.
Simple Simon habits that pay off
Clear the tiny columns on the right first
The four columns on the right hold just 1 to 4 cards. Emptying one of them early gives you a free space, and a free space is the most useful thing in the game.
Use the same-suit pairs you're dealt
On average a deal starts with about 0.76 same-suit pairs already sitting together in a column. They're small head starts; build on them rather than breaking them up.
Use empty columns as workbenches
Because any card can go into an empty column, you can use one to sort a mixed run into same-suit pieces, then move each piece where it belongs.
Look at the whole table first
Nothing is hidden, so spend a moment planning where each King's suit will be built. The Kings can't go anywhere except an empty column.
Accept the occasional dead deal
Our solver proved about 1 deal in 20 impossible, and some deals have no legal first move at all. If you can't find a way forward after trying a few lines with Undo, dealing again is fine.
Where casual players go wrong
- Building long mixed-suit runs that can never move again.
- Filling an empty column with a single card that doesn't lead to anything.
- Ignoring the short columns on the right.
- Breaking up a same-suit run to make a one-off move.
How a typical game unfolds
A typical Simple Simon game starts on the right-hand side of the table, where the short columns can be cleared in a few moves. With one or two empty columns in hand, you start sorting the long columns on the left into same-suit runs. The turning point is the first completed suit clearing itself away: it frees space and usually makes the next suit much easier. If you find yourself with no empty column and long mixed-suit runs everywhere, that's the sign to undo back to where a column was last empty and try a different plan.
What's on this page
Simple Simon is free, with nothing to install and no account. Big, readable cards with zoom, Hint, unlimited Undo, Restart, Auto Play and drag-and-drop or tap-to-move are all available. Wins, time and moves are tracked, and you can mute the sound, go fullscreen or pick a table color. It runs in any modern browser on computer, tablet or phone.
The research behind these numbers, step by step
The play-solitaire-free-online.us team at Solitairen OOD ran this study in September 2026.
- Rules from our game code. This site's Spider engine has a "simplesimon" setting: ten face-up columns of 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, any-suit building, same-suit runs that move with no length limit, any card into an empty column, and completed suits removed automatically.
- Rebuilding the game. We wrote Simple Simon as a program, sharing code with Scorpion.
- Numbered deals. 3,000 deals, each shuffled from a numbered seed so the test can be repeated.
- The player. A solver that sees every card and always explores the most promising position next, with up to 200,000 positions per deal.
- Running it. 2,596 deals solved, 155 proven impossible and 249 undecided.
- Published comparison: our result differs. Blake & Gent (2026) report that 97.45% of Simple Simon deals can be won, which implies at most about 2.55% are impossible. Our solver, by contrast, proved 5.2% of deals impossible (95% range 4.4–6.0%). Our result differs from the published one, and we haven't yet found why. The rules we took from our game code appear to match the ones in the paper. To make sure our "impossible" verdicts aren't a bug, we re-checked 6 of them with a completely separate brute-force program, and it agreed every time. One of our deals has no legal move at all in its opening position. Until we find the reason for the gap, please treat our Simple Simon figure with some caution.
- Margin of error. The solved share of 86.5% has a 95% range of 85.3% to 87.7%.
- Limits. 8.3% of deals were left undecided, so the winnable share is a range: 86.5% to 94.8%.
The code behind the test
Simple Simon is in spiderlike.py, written in Python 3.11 using only the standard library. The solver is a best-first search with a set of positions already seen, and it skips moves that change nothing, like shifting a whole column into an empty one. A shared runner spread the 3,000 deals across 19 worker processes on a 20-core machine. The independent check is verify_simplesimon_bruteforce.py. Percentages carry Wilson 95% intervals.
Claude, the AI assistant by Anthropic, helped us write and double-check the solver and draft this page. None of the figures came from the AI: each one comes from running the code.
By Admin, play-solitaire-free-online.us (Solitairen OOD). Research dated September 19, 2026.
Questions new players ask
Should a casual player start with Simple Simon or with Spider?
For most people, yes. Every card is face up and there's no stock, so you can plan the whole game. One-suit Spider is a good next step.
Why can't I move my run?
Only same-suit runs move as a group. If your run mixes suits, you'll need to take it apart one card at a time.
Is every Simple Simon layout winnable?
No. Our solver proved about 5% of deals impossible, and some have no legal first move.
So why doesn’t your Simple Simon number match the research paper?
We don't know yet. We've double-checked our impossible deals with a separate program and they hold up. We're still looking for the cause.
What should a Simple Simon player try after this?
Scorpion is a tougher cousin, and two-suit Spider adds hidden cards and a stock.