Apparently this an actually outstanding research problem Professor Yan at MIT wrote that this is in fact “one of the embarrassments of applied mathematics” in 2005. I'm also entertaining the idea of building a robot solver, improving its play, and seeing what fraction of games it can win. So this brings up the question: What percentage of games should you be able to win? Obviously I don't know, but my intuition says around ~20% or so maximum. ( Is it fun? No, I feel a vague sense of irritation the whole time I'm playing, until I actually win and can finally close the application. I have to be careful, because I get in a habit of quickly hitting 'deal' instantly after a loss (my 'hit', if you will), and after an extended time by hand starts to go numb and I start making terrible mistakes because my eyesight starts getting all wonky. However, just today I probably lost 30+ games in a row over maybe 2 hours. Most games are lost, but I can usually eke out a win in about 20-30 minutes of playing. Occasionally I go on these benders and play it quite a bit for a few days.

Of course, it's the most widely-played computer game of all time. Okay, I admit it: Sometimes I play Microsoft Solitaire (i.e., 'Klondike' Solitaire: draw 3, with 3 re-deals, Vegas scoring).