Spider Solitaire

How do you play Spider Solitaire?

Spider uses 104 cards, two decks. Ten columns are dealt: the first four have six cards and the other six have five, with only the top card face up. The 50 cards left over are the stock, dealt in five rows of ten.

Your goal is to build eight complete runs of the same suit from King down to Ace. Each time you finish one, it moves off the table by itself. Clear all eight and you win.

• Move a card or run onto a card that is exactly one higher, in any suit. A 6 of hearts can go on a 7 of spades.
• Only cards of the same suit, in order, move together as a group.
• Any card or run can go into an empty column.
• Tap the stock to deal one new face-up card onto each column. You cannot deal while any column is empty.
• Turning over the face-down cards is the main work of the game.

1 suit, 2 suits or 4 suits: which level should you play?

With 1 suit, every card is a spade, so every card in order counts toward a run. It is the easy level, ideal for beginners, kids and a relaxed break, and a careful player wins most games.

With 2 suits you play spades and hearts. Now a mixed stack cannot be moved as one, so you have to think about which suit you build on. It is a good middle step and the level many players settle on.

With 4 suits you play spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Only a small share of games are won even by experts, and it rewards careful planning, patience and good use of the undo button. Start with 1 suit and move up when you win most games.

How does dealing from the stock work?

When you run out of useful moves, tap the stock. A new row of ten face-up cards lands on the columns, one on each. There are five deals in a game. A deal is a trade: it gives you new cards to work with, but it also buries the cards you were building on.

You cannot deal while any column is empty, so you must put a card in every empty column first. The little number on the stock shows how many deals you have left. Before every deal, search the table for moves: it is usually better to make progress first.

Scoring and the completed-run animation

The score starts at 500. Each move, including a deal, costs 1 point, and each finished run of King to Ace earns 100. A good win lands well above 1,000. Undo gives back the move it takes back.

When a run is completed, all 13 cards fly to the pile at the top left of the table and the column flashes, so you can see your progress. The count of finished runs is shown above the table, from 0 to 8.

Controls: tap, drag and keyboard

Tap a card or run and it goes to the best column it can, preferring one of the same suit. If there are several choices it is selected and the possible columns light up, and you tap one. You can also drag a run, with a mouse or a finger. Tap the stock to deal.

With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move over the table, Enter or Space to pick up and drop, and Escape to cancel. On a phone held upright the ten columns are narrow, so the cards show a large rank and suit, and turning the phone sideways gives larger cards.

Spider Solitaire strategy

Beginners lose most games by dealing too early or by building on the wrong suit.

• Prefer building on a card of the same suit. A same-suit sequence can be moved later in one go.
• Uncover the face-down cards in the tallest columns first.
• Empty a column early, but only when you have a good use for it. An empty column is a free cell for a whole run.
• Do not deal until you have used up every useful move.
• Keep your lowest cards visible: an Ace buried under a King is a long way from finishing a run.
• In 2 and 4 suits, sort a single suit as far as you can before you work on the next one.
• Use Undo to test an idea, then take it back if it does not work.
• Move cards out of a column in a way that exposes a face-down card, even if the move looks small.

Common Spider Solitaire mistakes

The first mistake is dealing from the stock too soon. Each deal covers every column with a new card, so it buries what you were working on. Look for every move first. The second is building on whatever card fits instead of the same suit, which makes tall stacks that cannot be moved as one.

Another is ignoring a column with many face-down cards. The longer those cards stay hidden, the more likely it is that a card you need is trapped. Try to shorten the tallest column early. Finally, do not rush to empty a column. An empty column helps only when you have a run to put there, and it also stops you from dealing until it is filled.

Hints and undo

Hint looks at the cards you can see, and never at the face-down ones. It prefers finishing a run, joining same-suit cards, turning a hidden card over, or clearing a column. If none of those exist, it points to the stock. It will not suggest a move that goes back into a position you have already been in.

Undo is unlimited and free of penalty. Spider is a game where trying an idea and taking it back is a normal part of play, so use it.

Daily deal and statistics

Choose Play today's deal to get the shuffle that everyone shares for the day at your chosen number of suits. Your games, wins, win rate and best times are kept in this browser for 1, 2 and 4 suits and for daily deals. Your current game is saved after every move.

Spider Solitaire for seniors and kids

The 1 suit level is gentle, there is no time limit and you can pause at any time, so it suits relaxed play. The cards are drawn clearly at every size. Younger players can learn counting from 1 to 13 and the idea of building a sequence, and the hint makes it easy to learn.

Where does Spider come from?

Spider is a two-deck patience game that Microsoft brought to a very wide audience when it shipped with Windows, alongside Klondike and FreeCell. The name is usually explained by the eight finished runs, one for each leg of a spider.