Simple Pairs, also known as Jamestown and Pirate Gold, is the plainest of the pairing games. Nine cards are dealt face up in a three-by-three square and the rest form a talon. Any two cards on the board of the same rank may be removed together — they need not be next to each other — and every emptied place is refilled at once from the talon. The game is won when the talon is spent and the board is clear: all fifty-two cards paired off. There is nothing to build and nothing to plan beyond the order of your pairs, which is exactly why children learn it first.
There is one decision, and it is which pair to take when a rank shows three times. Three sevens on the board means one will be left behind after you pair two. Take the pair that leaves the best board — but since every refill is unknown, the honest answer is that it rarely matters.
Pair everything you can before the talon runs dry. Once the talon is spent, the board stops refilling and the game ends when no pair remains. Every pair taken while the talon still has cards brings two fresh cards into play.
Odd cards are the loss. Fifty-two cards make twenty-six pairs, but the board only shows nine at a time. A rank whose fourth card arrives after its third has gone is stranded; that is the luck of the deal, and there is no way around it.
The pairing family removes cards from a small board in pairs by some rule — equal ranks, or a sum — and refills the gaps from a talon. Monte Carlo pairs equal ranks that are neighbours on a five-by-five board; Simple Pairs drops the neighbour rule and shrinks the board to nine. Tens, Nines and Elevens replace the equal-rank rule with a sum. Simple Pairs is the root of the line and the one with no rule to remember.
Simple Pairs runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer and it works offline. You get unlimited undo, a hint button that names a legal move, statistics that track your wins and times, and seeded deals: every game has a seed you can replay, so a board you enjoyed (or lost) can be played again exactly.