Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (29 page)

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   low
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   short
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

This is a simplified version of the much tougher game Spider. Whereas wins in Spider are rare, in Simple Simon you should experience the thrill of victory every 1 in 3 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal ten tableau piles in the following pattern: three columns with eight cards each, all face up; a fourth column with seven face-up cards; a fifth column with six face-up cards; a sixth column with five face-up cards; a seventh column with four face-up cards, etc.

WINNING
Build four foundations by suit in descending rank from king to ace.

HOW TO PLAY
Move kings to the foundations as they become available. The topmost tableau cards may be played directly to the foundations, or use them to build on another tableau pile in descending rank (suits and colors do not matter). The one caveat is that you may not build kings on aces—in other words, ranking is not continuous.

Move cards one at a time or, if they are grouped in descending rank, in sets. Whenever a tableau slot is empty, fill it with any card or properly grouped set of cards. There is no redeal.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   low
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   short
   
3. DECKS
   : 2
   

Like Yukon, Spider is one of the quintessential Solitaire games. It’s a true classic, balancing luck and skill, and requiring a decent amount of stamina. The odds of winning are 1 in every 5 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total), and deal ten tableau columns in the following pattern: four columns of six cards each, with the top card in each column face up; and six columns of five cards each, also with the top card in each column face up. The remaining cards are your stock.

WINNING
The goal is to remove all cards from the tableau by building eight sequences of thirteen cards, each by suit and in descending rank from king to ace. Every time you successfully build a sequence of thirteen cards, remove it from the tableau.

HOW TO PLAY
Use the topmost tableau cards to build on another tableau column in descending rank (suits and colors do not matter). You are allowed to move cards in groups, as long as the cards being moved are properly sequenced in descending rank.
Continuous ranking
is not permitted, so you may never build kings on aces. The ultimate goal, of course, is to build descending sequences of
matching
suits, and this always should be your default choice when choosing which cards to build.

Whenever a face-down tableau card is the leading card in its column, turn it face up. Fill vacant tableau slots with any available card (or group of properly sequenced cards).

When you’ve exhausted all moves, deal one card face up from the stock to each of the ten tableau piles. The only limitation here is that you may not deal a stock card to an empty tableau slot. Instead, you must first fill the empty slot with a card (or cards) from an existing tableau pile. There is no redeal in Spider. The game ends once the stock is exhausted and you’re out of moves.

VARIATION: SPIDERETTE

If Spider is too intimidating, try its simplified cousin, Spiderette, where the odds of winning are a gentler 1 in every 3 hands. The rules are identical, except that you play Spiderette with one deck of cards instead of two. Start by dealing seven tableau piles, with the number of cards per pile increasing left
to right from one to seven cards. The top card in each pile is dealt face up. As in Spider, the goal here is to remove all cards from the tableau by building sequences (four total) of thirteen cards by suit and in descending rank from king to ace.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   long
   
3. DECKS
   : 2
   

St. Helena throws a wrench in the standard foundation-building process, which makes the game both memorable and hard to win. The odds of winning are 1 in every 12 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total), and remove all kings and aces; place these with aces in the top row, kings in the bottom row. These are your foundations. Shuffle and deal twelve tableau piles (eight cards per pile) in a box surrounding the foundations, like so (T = tableau, F = foundations):

WINNING
Build eight total foundations: four by suit in ascending rank from ace to king, four by suit in descending rank from king to ace.

HOW TO PLAY
The topmost tableau cards may be played to the foundations or another tableau pile. Within the tableau, you may build up or down by rank, regardless of suit or color. Only one card may be moved at a time. Ranking is not continuous. Fill tableau spaces with any available card.