Spider Solitaire

What Are Spider Solitaire Games?

Spider Solitaire is a solitaire variant played with two full decks — 104 cards instead of 52. The extra deck changes the game more than it sounds: you are managing ten tableau columns rather than seven, and the goal is to build complete descending runs from King down to Ace, which then leave the board. Win by clearing every card.

The defining feature is the suit setting. Spider can be played with one, two or four suits, and those are effectively three different games sharing one layout:

• One suit. Every card carries the same symbol. Almost every game is winnable, and the game becomes a pure sequencing exercise — the right order of moves, nothing else.
• Two suits. Two symbols alternate. You must now track which color a card belongs to, and a misplaced build can block a column for the rest of the hand.
• Four suits. All four symbols are in play. This is the version experienced players mean when they say Spider is hard, and it demands planning several moves ahead with only part of the board visible.

If you are new to Spider, one suit is the right starting point. The rules are identical across all three settings; only the information you have to track changes.

How to Play Spider Solitaire

Spider deals ten tableau columns. The first four columns receive six cards, the remaining six columns receive five, and the total came to 54 cards dealt from the 104-card shoe. Only the top card of each column is face up.

The moves

• Build down in sequence. Move a face-up card onto the card immediately below it in rank. Unlike Klondike, suit matching depends on your setting: at one suit everything matches, at two suits you match within the same symbol, and at four suits a run only moves as a unit when every card in it shares one suit.
• Move completed runs. A run of cards already in descending order of the same suit moves as one block. Mixed-suit runs can only be moved one card at a time.
• Deal from the stock. When you run out of useful moves, deal a new row of ten cards, one onto each column. You cannot deal while any column is empty.

How to win

When a column holds a complete King-to-Ace run in a single suit, that run is removed from the board automatically. Clear all eight runs and the game is won.

Spider Solitaire Suit Settings Compared

The suit setting is the only difficulty dial that matters, and it is worth understanding why.

One suit removes color entirely. Every 5 can go on every 6, so the game reduces to "which column should I open next". Most players win their first one-suit game within a few attempts.

Two suits reintroduces a constraint but keeps the board readable. You can still see at a glance which cards share a suit, and the planning horizon is roughly two or three moves.

Four suits is a different game. Runs only shuffle as units when the suits line up, so the board fragments quickly. Hands routinely reach a state where no legal move exists and the only escape is a fresh deal — which you may not be allowed to take because a column sits empty.

A practical progression: win one-suit consistently, then two-suit, then move to four. Jumping straight to four suits is the single most common reason people conclude "Spider is impossible" — it is not, but it is not the same game they learned.

Spider Solitaire Tips and Strategy

Spider rewards patience more than any solitaire variant except FreeCell. A handful of habits separate winning hands from stuck ones.

1. Never deal while a column is empty. The rule forbids it anyway, but the deeper point is that an empty column is the most valuable asset on the board — it accepts any card and any valid run. Protect it.
2. Prefer moves that turn over hidden cards. As in Klondike, information is the scarce resource. A move that flips a card is usually better than one that tidies an already-visible run.
3. Keep same-suit runs together. The moment a run of one suit is intact, treat it as a single object. Splitting it for a temporary gain usually costs more than it saves.
4. Count the stock before dealing. In four-suit games, a deal can bury the card you needed. If you can make two more useful moves first, make them.
5. Undo is unlimited here. If a sequence leaves you stuck, walk it back. The cost of a mistake is a click, not a game.
6. Aim to complete runs top-down. Clearing a King-to-Ace run usually opens space in the column it came from. Prioritise runs that are nearly complete rather than spreading effort across all ten columns.

Spider Solitaire Scoring and Daily Deals

Spider is usually played for the win, not the score, but several conventions exist and they change how a hand should be approached.

Standard play. Win or lose. Every decision serves clearing all eight runs.

Score-based Spider. Some versions tally points for completed runs and subtract for cards left on the board, so finishing quickly matters as much as finishing at all. A hand cleared with a large stock remaining scores higher than one that limped to the end.

Daily deals. A fixed shuffle shared by every player that day. Because the deal is identical, the comparison is fair — and the puzzle becomes finding the optimal line rather than surviving a random board. Daily deals are the closest Spider gets to a puzzle with a correct answer.

Master's and challenge modes. Fixed layouts with fixed rules, often deliberately difficult. These are the hands to attempt once one-suit has become routine.

If a game offers both a score and a move counter, decide which one you are chasing before the first deal. Optimising for both at once produces a mediocre result at each.

Spider Solitaire and the Hidden Information Problem

Spider is unusual among solitaire games in how much it hides. Klondike shows you seven top cards; Spider shows you the top card of ten columns from a 104-card shoe.

That changes the nature of a mistake. In FreeCell, where everything is visible, a bad move is a planning error and you can see the consequence coming. In Spider, a bad move is often a bet: you deal a new row hoping the card you need surfaces, and sometimes it does not.

The habits that follow from that:

• Treat an unused deal as capital. Each deal adds ten cards to the board. Spending one to escape a stuck position is fine; spending one for convenience usually is not.
• Aim at the nearest run. The column closest to a complete King-to-Ace sequence is where effort should go, because finishing it frees the column beneath.
• Do not split a same-suit run for a temporary tidy. The run is worth more intact than the column is worth clean.
• Accept unwinnable hands. Some four-suit deals cannot be completed. Recognising a dead position early saves the time spent fighting it.

Spider Solitaire vs Klondike and FreeCell

The three classic solitaire variants look similar from the outside and behave very differently.

Spider vs Klondike. Klondike uses one deck, seven columns and four foundations. Spider uses two decks, ten columns and no foundations — completed runs leave the board instead of stacking in suit order. Klondike is about building up; Spider is about assembling and removing.

Spider vs FreeCell. FreeCell shows every card from the start, so it is a pure planning problem. Spider hides most of the deck, so it combines planning with discovery. FreeCell games are guaranteed solvable; Spider games are not, and four-suit hands can genuinely dead-end.

Spider vs TriPeaks. TriPeaks is a clearing game with a short horizon — you play cards one rank above or below the exposed card. Spider is a long-form build. They share the solitaire label and nothing else.

See the free solitaire game page for the Klondike and FreeCell rules, or FreeCell Solitaire for the variant that hides nothing.

Spider Solitaire Games for Different Players

Spider suits players who want a hand to last. Where TriPeaks finishes in two minutes and Klondike in five, a four-suit Spider game can run twenty or more.

• Children learning card games: one suit, with an adult explaining the descending build.
• A short break: one suit, and stop when the board is clear or the stock runs out.
• A serious puzzle: four suits, taken slowly.
• Two players: solitaire is single-player, but taking turns on one board is a common way to play with someone — the visible layout makes it easy to discuss the next move.

Every game here runs in a browser on desktop, tablet and phone. Nothing to install, no account to create.