The friendly one

Simple Simon Solitaire

Spider's rules on a single deck, dealt as a staircase from eight cards down to one. Everything is face up, there is no stock, and the deal hands you a nearly empty column before you have made a move.

One deck, four runs
A staircase deal
Nothing hidden
No stock

Runs0/4

Tableau52

Moves0

Build down by rank and keep movable packets in suit.

Ten columns, one deck

Simple Simon Solitaire rules

Short enough to learn in a minute. The catch is in how groups move, not in how they are placed.

Simple Simon Solitaire setup and rules
Setup
Deck	One standard 52-card deck.
Tableau	Ten columns holding 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 cards.
Face down	None. Every card is visible from the start.
Stock	None.
Moving cards
On a column	Down by rank. Suit does not matter when placing.
Moving a group	Only a descending run in a single suit moves together.
An empty column	Accepts any card or any movable run.
Removing a run	A king-to-ace run in one suit clears itself immediately.
Winning
Win condition	All four suits cleared as complete king-to-ace runs.
Losing	No legal move remains. There is nothing to deal and no redeal.

Everything on show

How to play Simple Simon Solitaire

Fifty-two cards go out in ten columns of unequal length — three of eight, then seven, six, five, four, three, two and one. Every card is face up and there is nothing left over.

You place cards downward by rank without regard to suit, but you can only pick up a group if it is a descending run all in one suit. Complete a king down to an ace in a single suit and it leaves the table. Four of those wins the game.

The unequal deal is the point. Three columns hold most of the difficulty and the rest are already close to empty, so the game starts with room to work in — which is exactly what Spider never gives you.

Nearly half the deck is in three columns, and the rest is almost free. The single-card column empties on your first move if you want it to, and the two-card column soon after. That early space is the whole reason Simple Simon is winnable far more often than anything else in this family — and the reason spending it carelessly is the classic way to lose.

What counts as a packet

What counts as a movable packet

Legal and illegal Simple Simon moves
The move	Verdict	Why
A column shows the J♥. You place the 10♠ on it.	Legal	Placing ignores suit entirely.
You move the 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ run on to a red jack.	Legal	One suit, descending — it moves as a packet.
You move the 10♠ 9♥ 8♠ run on to a red jack.	Illegal	Mixed suits do not travel together, however neatly they sit.
The one-card column is emptied. You move a queen into it.	Legal	Empty columns take anything.
A ♦ run is completed from king down to ace.	Legal	It clears at once. One of the four you need.
You want to deal more cards when stuck.	Illegal	There is no stock in Simple Simon.
You split a same-suit run and move only its lower half.	Legal	Any descending same-suit part of a run may be taken.

One deck changes the maths

There is no second copy to rescue you

Every other game in this family uses two decks, which means two of every card. If you bury one black jack under a column, the other one is still out there. Simple Simon has exactly one of each card and needs all thirteen of a suit in the right order.

That sounds harder and mostly is not, because four runs is half the work of eight and the staircase deal gives you space from move one. But it does change how you should treat a mistake: a cross-suit placement here has no backup copy waiting in the deck, so unpicking it is the only route.

Working suit runs

Simple Simon Solitaire strategy

Attack the three eight-card columns and nothing else. Everything that matters is buried in those twenty-four cards; the short columns are the tools you use to reach them.

Keep a column empty as long as you can bear to. The staircase gives you one almost immediately, and holding it open is what lets you take a column apart later.

Build in suit from the start. With four runs to make and one of each card, every same-suit placement is progress toward a run and every cross-suit one is a future obstacle.

Look for the aces before choosing a suit. All four are visible. A suit whose ace sits at the bottom of an eight-card column is not the one to start with.

Three ways to waste the space

How an easy deal gets thrown away

Spending the short columns immediately

The deal hands you a column of one and a column of two — the fastest empty columns in any game on this site. It is tempting to use them straight away as somewhere to dump an awkward card. That converts your best asset into your worst: a space is worth more than any single card you could put in it.

Building the three long columns taller

Three columns hold eight cards each and everything you need is underneath them. A move that adds to one of those is almost always a move in the wrong direction, however legal it looks.

Mixing suits to keep the board tidy

One deck means one of each card, so a run broken across suits cannot be repaired with a duplicate the way it can in a two-deck game. Every cross-suit placement here is permanent until you unpick it card by card.

Simple Simon's good odds

Is Simple Simon Solitaire winnable?

Yes, frequently — it is the most winnable of the run-builders on this site by a clear margin. One deck, four runs, no hidden cards, no stock, and a deal that hands you working space immediately all pull in the same direction.

That makes it the right place to learn the rule that governs the whole family: you may place across suits but you may only move within one. We do not publish a win rate, but if you are losing Spider deals and want to understand why, this is the game to practise on.

This version

Ten columns, one deck, everything visible

One deck dealt as columns of 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 — all face up.
Build down by rank, ignoring suit when placing.
Only same-suit descending runs move as a group; part of a run may be taken.
Empty columns accept any card or run.
A king-to-ace run in one suit clears automatically; four of them wins.
No stock, no redeal.

Undo is unlimited and unpenalised, with no timer or score.

Against Spider

The easiest end of the run-builders

All four ask for suited king-to-ace runs under the same packing rule. Simple Simon is the only one that does it with a single deck.

Simple Simon compared with Mrs. Mop, Beetle, and Spider
Game	Decks	Cards	Runs to clear	Board
Simple Simon	1	52	4	Staircase: 8 down to 1
Mrs. Mop	2	104	8	Thirteen even columns of 8
Beetle	2	104	8	Ten columns plus a stock
Spider	2	104	8	Ten columns, most cards hidden

Mrs. Mop is the natural next step: the same open information and no stock, but twice the cards and twice the runs.

Explore

More solitaire games

The two-deck open version, the one with a stock, and the game they all descend from.