Solitaire

[Gasmanjack]

What should the "win" %age be playing Solitaire, if you played every hand dealt?

[New Judge]

There are many types of "solitaire" (or patience as it is more usually known in the UK). What game are you referring to?

[Calibax]

I assume you mean Klondike Solitaire (The basis for Windows Soiltaire). There seems to be a bit of variation depending on whether you draw one card at a time or draw three, and if you allow an infinite number of draws or restrict it to 2 or 3 passes of the deck. If you draw 3 and allow infinite draws it seems there is a tiny percentage (0.025%) of hands which are unplayable (no valid first move), just under a third which are unwinnable and the remaining 2 thirds are theoretically winnable if played optimally. Of course, playing optimally is only possible if you can see all the cards and with the cards face down the number of wins would be greatly reduced. What the real win %age of a human playing rationally is I don't know and would probably need to be calculated using statistical analysis rather than probability theory