Simple Simon

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Words you need
3. Setup
4. Playing
5. End of the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Simple Simon is a patience (also called solitaire) – a card game for one player. All 52 cards are dealt face up into ten columns. By moving cards between the columns you sort each suit into one complete run from King down to Ace. Every finished run is taken out of play; clear all four and you have won.

It works like the famous Spider patience, but with a single deck and no hidden cards.

• Players: 1.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers and room for ten columns of cards.
• Time: about 15 minutes per game. Most deals can be won with careful play, but a few are hopeless from the start.

Words you need

• Column: cards laid downwards, each overlapping the one before it so that you can still read all of them.
• Top card: the last card of a column – the one lying fully uncovered at the end nearest to you.
• Tableau: all ten columns together.
• Rank: the value of a card. Ranks from low to high: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K. The Ace is always low.
• Building down: putting a card onto a card exactly one rank higher – for example a 7 onto an 8.
• Suit sequence: a group of cards at the end of a column that runs down by one rank each and are all of the same suit, such as 9♥ 8♥ 7♥.
• Foundation: the place beside the tableau where a finished run from K to A of one suit is put aside.

Setup

1. Shuffle the deck.
2. Deal all the cards face up into 10 columns, each card overlapping the one before it. The first three columns get 8 cards each, and each following column gets one card fewer:

That makes 52 cards. All of them stay visible, so you can plan from the start.

Playing

There are no turns and no stock – you simply make one move after another. You may:

1. Move a top card onto the top card of another column that is one rank higher. The suit does not matter: 6♦ may go on 7♠, 7♥ or 7♦. Nothing can be put on an Ace.
2. Move a suit sequence as one unit onto a card that is one rank higher than the sequence's highest card. The sequence must be all one suit – for example 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ may go onto any 10. Cards of mixed suits cannot be moved together; they have to be moved one at a time.
3. Fill an empty column with any top card or any suit sequence. This is the only place a King can go.
4. Remove a finished suit. As soon as a column ends in all 13 cards of one suit in order – K, Q, J, 10 … 2, A – take the whole run off and put it aside on a foundation.

Example: Column 4 ends in Q♣ J♦, column 7 ends in J♣ 10♣ 9♣. The 9♣ could go onto any 10, but the group J♣ 10♣ 9♣ is better: it is one suit, so it moves together onto the Q♣ – but only after the J♦ has gone somewhere else. Move J♦ onto a free Q, then J♣ 10♣ 9♣ onto the Q♣. Now column 4 holds Q♣ J♣ 10♣ 9♣, a longer suit sequence.

End of the game

• You win when all four suits have been completed and put aside.
• You lose when you can no longer make any useful move. There is no second deal.

Tips for beginners

• Build in suit whenever you can. Mixed-suit piles can only be taken apart one card at a time; suit sequences move as a block.
• Empty columns are gold. Try to clear the short columns on the right early, and use an empty column wisely – often for a King and the cards that follow it.
• Don't fill an empty column in a hurry. A free column lets you take apart mixed-suit piles; once it holds a single low card, that advantage is gone.
• Plan ahead. All cards are visible, so check which cards block the ones you need.

Variants

Optional, found in some computer versions:

• Moving mixed runs: some programs let you move a run of mixed suits in one go, as long as you have enough empty columns to do it card by card. This only saves time; it doesn't change what is possible.
• Spiderette: the classic one-deck Spider – 28 cards are dealt as seven columns of 1 to 7 cards with only the top card face up, and the rest are dealt seven at a time onto the columns whenever you are stuck.