Spider Solitaire — Rules, Choosing 1, 2 or 4 Suits, and Strategy
Spider is the big solitaire. It uses two full decks, 104 cards, laid out across ten columns, and the aim is to build eight complete runs from King down to Ace, each in a single suit. When a run is finished it leaves the table on its own. Clear all eight and you have won.
The deal puts fifty-four cards into the columns, six in each of the first four and five in the rest, with only the top card of each face up. The other fifty wait in the stock. When you run out of useful moves, deal a new row: one card face up onto every column. You cannot deal while any column is empty, so fill gaps first.
The rule that makes Spider interesting is the difference between where a card may go and what can move with it. You can place any card on one exactly one rank higher, whatever the suit: a 6 of hearts on a 7 of spades is legal. But only a run of the same suit moves as a group. Mixed-suit stacks are easy to build and hard to take apart, and that tension is the whole game.
The number of suits sets the difficulty. One suit uses eight copies of spades, so every run is the same suit and most games can be won. It is the right place to learn. Two suits, spades and hearts, is where most regular players settle: still winnable with some planning, but you have to think about which stacks to mix. Four suits is genuinely hard, and experienced players win only a modest share of games.
A few habits help in every version. Turn over face-down cards whenever you can; hidden cards are the real obstacle. Prefer moves that keep a suit together over ones that mix suits, even if the mixed move looks more useful right now. An empty column is the most valuable thing on the table, because it lets you rearrange a stack. Hold back from dealing a new row until you have done everything useful, since each deal covers every column.
Tap a card to pick up the run under it and tap the column it should go on. Tap the same card twice and the game moves it to the best place it can find: a same-suit card first, then any card one higher, then an empty column. Undo has no limit that you will reach, so use it to test ideas.
How to play Spider Solitaire
- Choose 1 suit (easy), 2 suits (medium) or 4 suits (hard).
- Tap a card to pick up the same-suit run under it, then tap the column it should go on.
- Tap a card twice to move it to the best available place automatically.
- When you are out of moves, tap the stock to deal a new row onto every column. Fill empty columns first.
- Finish a King-to-Ace run in one suit to clear it. Clear all eight to win.