Play Simple Simon Solitaire Online
Simple Simon puts the complete 52-card deck face up in 10 columns. There is no stock and nothing hidden underneath the exposed cards. The long columns begin on the left, while the shorter columns on the right are usually the first places where you can make room.
The open deal may look easier than Spider 4 Suits, but moving a group is restrictive. Cards of different suits can be built together in descending order. Only a same-suit packet can be picked up intact. A legal off-suit placement may solve the immediate problem and leave that column harder to separate later.
All 52 Cards Begin on the Table
The opening is deliberately uneven. The first 3 columns contain 8 cards each. The remaining columns hold 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 cards. This puts most of the weight on the left side while the short right-hand columns offer the earliest chances to create space.
With no hidden cards, you can find every Ace, King and useful same-suit join before moving. The difficulty is reaching them in the right order. A visible card may still take several transfers to release, and using an empty column too early can block the route you meant to create.
Loose Building, Strict Travel
Rank controls where a card may land. Suit controls whether the cards below it come along. That split is the heart of Simple Simon. A mixed-suit descending column can hold several useful ranks, yet moving them again may require peeling the column apart from the bottom.
Short same-suit packets are more useful than they first appear. They behave like single pieces, which reduces the number of temporary spaces needed when 2 longer suit fragments are ready to meet.
Open Columns Change the Position
An empty column accepts any available card or legal packet. It can separate a mixed tail, hold a King-led run or let a buried card cross the table. Since there is no stock, the space stays under the player's control until it is filled.
Putting the longest available packet into a vacancy is often a mistake. Before filling the space, check whether that packet can leave again and whether the move uncovers a rank needed for a same-suit join.
Why Suited Packets Matter
Empty columns are obvious assets, but suited packets provide another kind of mobility. A heart 9-8-7 can be lifted from its 9 and moved in 1 turn, exposing the card underneath without first finding separate homes for the 8 and 7. The same 3 ranks in mixed suits must be dismantled from the bottom.
When choosing between 2 legal builds, look at the position each one leaves behind. Joining cards of the same suit creates a piece you can reuse later. An off-suit build is worthwhile when it exposes a needed card or helps clear a column, but stacking mixed suits merely because they fit usually leaves extra work.
Using the First Empty Column
The first empty column often comes from the short right side. Treat it as a transfer point rather than a destination. Move a blocker there, join the newly exposed cards elsewhere, then move the blocker out again before the lane closes. A vacancy kept in circulation can help with several parts of the table.
This is where Simple Simon separates itself from Scorpion Solitaire. Scorpion reserves an empty column for a King or a King-led sequence. Simple Simon allows any legal card or suited packet into the space, which makes vacancies more flexible and makes wasting one more painful.
Simple Simon and Spider
Both games build downward by rank, move ordered same-suit groups and remove complete suited runs. Standard Spider uses 2 decks, hides part of the opening and adds rows from a stock. Simple Simon uses 1 deck, exposes every card and never interrupts the tableau with a fresh deal.
Simple Simon and Spiderette
Spiderette Solitaire also fits Spider-style movement into 52 cards, but its 7 rising columns begin mostly face down and 24 cards wait in the stock. Simple Simon is broader, fully open and decided entirely through rearrangement on the original table.
4 Complete Suits Clear the Deal
A full same-suit sequence from King through Ace leaves the tableau as soon as its final connection is made. Removing 13 cards can turn a cramped table into an open one, but the departure also removes ranks that may have served as landing cards. The timing of the first completed suit often shapes the rest of the deal.
Public Simple Simon games here come from an engine-replayed certified pool. A stored winning line proves the starting deal, while hints, undo and the proven-move control remain optional help. Clean finishes can enter the leaderboard. For the exact move rules and a position-by-position method, read how to play Simple Simon Solitaire.