In a standard game of Klondike Solitaire ( patience), seven cards are exposed at the start of the game. I have been playing a lot of it recently, thanks to Covid 19, and try and work out, from the outset, if I am more or less likely than usual to be successful. Work by an organisation called "Jupiter Scientific" has estimated that some 43% of hands are winnable. They have used thousands of Monte Carlo simulations to arrive at this figure, and admit that the average 'recreational player' is likely to be much less successful than this ( its about 25% in my own case ).
Clearly, any aces dealt face up at the outset, give you a head start ( especially if they appear to the right hand side of the tableau). But is the inverse true - ie are Kings necessarily a bad thing?
I have an inkling, but it is no more than that, that having two cards of the same rank and color ( ie a 9 of hearts and the 9 of diamonds ) can also be bad thing. If you do not have a black 8 in the remaining deck you are blocked in two columns, until one is overturned in the tableau.
What other "clues" are there at the outset, or is it the case that the opening, exposed cards, aren't that important?
Another important factor will be if a card can immediately be moved to another column. This is particularly true for the final two columns of the tableau. In "winnable deals" these occured 20% more often than with "random deals" in a solitaire playing app.