What Is Spider Solitaire?
Spider Solitaire is a one-player card game played with 104 cards dealt into ten columns. You build runs from King down to Ace, and every complete run in a single suit leaves the table. Clear all eight runs and you win. You set the difficulty by choosing how many suits are in the deck: one, two, or four.
- Cards: 104, the size of two standard decks
- Tableau: 10 columns, 54 cards dealt, 44 of them face down
- Stock: 50 cards, dealt ten at a time in five deals
- Goal: eight King-to-Ace runs, each in one suit
- Score: starts at 500, minus 1 per move, plus 100 per completed run
How to Set Up Spider Solitaire
Deal 54 cards into ten columns: six cards in each of the first four and five in each of the other six. Only the last card of each column goes face up. The remaining 50 cards wait face down as the stock.
| Columns | Face down | Face up | Cards each | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 24 |
| 5 to 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 30 |
| Stock | 50 | 0 | 50 |
There are no foundation piles to build on card by card, and no waste pile. A finished run leaves the table, and the stock is never reshuffled or dealt a second time.
How to Play Spider Solitaire
Clear the table by building eight runs, each running from King down to Ace in one suit. Every turn is either a move within the ten columns or a deal from the stock.
- Deal 54 cards into 10 columns. Deal six cards to each of the first four columns and five to each of the other six, 54 in all. Only the last card of each column is face up, so 44 cards start hidden. The other 50 cards are the stock.
- Build down by rank in any suit. Place any card on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit: a 6 of hearts on a 7 of spades, a Jack on a Queen. Nothing can be placed on an Ace.
- Move groups only when they share a suit. A run such as the 9, 8, and 7 of spades moves as one unit. If a pile mixes suits, only the same-suit cards at its exposed end can move together. The exposed card can always move on its own.
- Turn up hidden cards and use empty columns. When the last face-up card leaves a column, the card beneath it turns face up. Any card, or any run in one suit, can move into an empty column, not only a King.
- Deal from the stock when you need new cards. Each deal puts one face-up card on every column, 10 cards at a time, five deals in all. Fill every empty column before you deal, unless fewer than 10 cards are left on the table.
- Complete eight King-to-Ace runs. Thirteen cards of one suit in order from King down to Ace leave the table at once. Remove eight of these runs, all 104 cards, to win.
The rule that shapes every game is the gap between what you may build and what you may move. A 7 of spades may go on an 8 of hearts, but the two cards can never move together.
1, 2, or 4 Suits: Choosing Your Difficulty
The number of suits is the only thing that changes between the three levels. The deal, the stock, and every move rule stay the same, and the deck is always 104 cards. What changes is how often two neighboring cards share a suit, and so how often a pile you build can move again later.
| Level | Suits in the deck | Copies | Runs to build | Piles that move as one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 suit | Spades only | 8 of each card | 8 Spade runs | Every descending pile |
| 2 suits | Spades and Hearts | 4 of each card | 4 Spade and 4 Heart runs | Piles that stay in one color |
| 4 suits | All four suits | 2 of each card | 2 runs in each suit | Only runs kept in one suit |
One suit is where to learn. All 104 cards are Spades, so any descending pile moves as a unit; the only cards that jam a column are Kings, which need an empty column, and Aces, which take nothing. Play Spider Solitaire with 1 suit.
Two suits is the middle level. A new card matches the suit of any given card one time in two, and because Spades are black and Hearts are red, a color change shows you exactly where a pile has split. Play Spider Solitaire with 2 suits.
Four suits is the full game with two ordinary decks. A card matches a given card's suit only one time in four, so most piles you build are mixed and empty columns decide the game. Play Spider Solitaire with 4 suits.
How Scoring Works
You start with 500 points. Every move costs 1 point, and a deal from the stock counts as a move. Every completed run adds 100. A win therefore scores 1,300 minus the number of moves you made: finish in 250 moves and you score 1,050.
Every win includes the five deals plus the column moves that build the runs, so no win can reach 1,295. There is no undo and no hint button, so every move you make is final.
Spider Solitaire Strategy
Turn face-down cards first. 44 of the 54 starting cards are hidden and you need every one of them. When the same card could move from two columns, move the copy from the column with fewer hidden cards, because that column is closer to empty.
Treat an empty column as your best card. It lets you park a card, swap two cards between piles, or carry a mixed pile across the table one piece at a time. One empty column lets you move a pile made of two separate pieces; two empty columns let you move four. The same doubling will be familiar from FreeCell.
The swap is the repair you will use most. One column ends 8 of spades, 7 of hearts; another ends 8 of hearts, 7 of spades. Put the 7 of hearts in the empty column, move the 7 of spades onto the 8 of spades, then move the 7 of hearts onto the 8 of hearts. After three moves both pairs share a suit and the space is free again.
Build in suit when you can. If you must join off-suit, do it high: a Jack on a Queen can still take ten cards below it, a 3 on a 4 only two. Keep your mixed piles to one or two columns rather than spreading them everywhere.
Think twice before a King takes your last space. A King can only ever move into an empty column, so once it fills one, that column is spoken for until you build its run from King to Ace. A King that already sits at the bottom of a column is the opposite: a permanent base to build on.
Move a dealt Ace onto a 2, in suit if you can. Nothing can be placed on an Ace, so an Ace on top of a column freezes it. A 2 of another suit costs you little, because the only card a 2 can ever take is an Ace. The one cost: the off-suit pair is two pieces and needs an empty column to move together.
Prepare the table, then deal. A deal drops a card on every column and covers what you arranged. Before you deal, make every flip and same-suit join on offer, then choose what goes in each empty column, since you must fill them. Do not stall with pointless moves: each one costs a point.
Spider vs Klondike Solitaire
Klondike is the game most people call solitaire. The biggest difference is what can move: in Klondike every face-up pile moves as a unit, while in Spider a pile moves as one only when it is all one suit. Spider also doubles the cards and builds its runs inside the columns instead of on foundations.
| Spider | Klondike | |
|---|---|---|
| Cards | 104 | 52 |
| Columns | 10, holding 54 cards | 7, holding 28 cards |
| Stock | 50 cards, 5 deals of 10 | 24 cards, turned to a waste pile |
| Building | Down by rank, any suit | Down by rank, alternating color |
| Empty column | Any card or one-suit run | Kings only |
| Goal | Eight King-to-Ace runs of one suit | Four foundations built up from Ace to King |
Where Spider Solitaire Came From
The earliest known description of Spider appeared in November 1937, in Ely Culbertson's magazine Games Digest. That early version dealt 50 cards and held 54 in the stock. By 1949, when Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith published The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games, the deal had become the 54-card layout used today, and the authors wrote that Franklin D. Roosevelt was a devotee of the game. No early source explains the name, and the popular story that its eight runs match a spider's eight legs has no early source.
Microsoft first shipped Spider in Microsoft Plus! 98, an add-on pack for Windows 98 released on 25 June 1998, with no choice of suits. Windows Me put it inside Windows itself in 2000 and added the three levels: Easy with one suit, Medium with two and Difficult with four, the earliest suit choice we can document. XP kept them; Vista and Windows 7 renamed them Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. From Windows 8 the game moved into the Microsoft Solitaire Collection. Read the full history.
Spider Solitaire Variants
Relaxed Spider is standard Spider with one rule removed: you may deal while a column is empty. Black Widow lets any descending pile move as a unit, whatever its suits, and Tarantula lets a pile move if it stays in one colour. Both still need a true one-suit run before it leaves the table.
Spiderette shrinks the game to one deck: seven columns dealt 1 to 7 cards as in Klondike, 28 in all, and a 24-card stock dealt seven at a time with a last deal of three. Mrs. Mop, credited to Charles Jewell, deals both decks face up into 13 columns of eight with no stock at all.
Scorpion is the closest relative we host. It builds King-to-Ace suit runs in the tableau like Spider, but uses one deck, builds only in suit, and borrows the Yukon move that lets any face-up card travel with everything on top of it. See all Spider variants, or try Forty Thieves, another two-deck game.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the trick to Spider Solitaire?
Turn over face-down cards before anything else, and treat every empty column as your most valuable asset. Build in one suit whenever you have the choice, because only one-suit runs move as a unit. Before each deal, make every useful move first, since ten new cards will cover whatever you have arranged.
How is Spider Solitaire different from regular Solitaire?
Spider uses 104 cards in ten columns and builds its runs inside the columns; regular Solitaire, or Klondike, uses one 52-card deck in seven columns and builds four foundations up from the Ace. Spider builds down in any suit and removes each finished King-to-Ace run. Any card can fill an empty Spider column; Klondike takes only Kings.
What is the typical card layout for Spider Solitaire?
Ten columns holding 54 cards: six in each of the first four columns and five in each of the other six, with just the top card of each face up. That hides 44 cards. The remaining 50 cards form the stock, which deals ten cards at a time, five times.
How many suits are used in Spider Solitaire?
You choose one, two, or four. The deck is always 104 cards: 104 Spades at one suit, 52 Spades and 52 Hearts at two suits, and two full decks with 26 cards of each suit at four. Fewer suits make the game easier, because more of your piles end up in one suit and can move.
Can you deal with an empty column in Spider Solitaire?
Not in standard Spider: every column must hold a card before you deal the next ten, so fill each gap with a card or a one-suit run first. Our game makes one exception. With fewer than ten cards left on the table, the gaps cannot all be filled, so you may deal anyway. Relaxed Spider drops the rule entirely.
What is the minimum number of moves to win Spider Solitaire?
No one has proved a minimum, and the figures quoted online are unproven estimates. In our game every win includes the five stock deals, each counted as a move, and a win scores 1,300 minus your moves. Even a flawless game cannot reach 1,295, because the runs also need column moves.
Is every game of Spider Solitaire winnable?
Nearly every four-suit deal has a winning line when every card is known in advance. One solver project that could see every card solved 31,998 of 32,000 deals and left two unresolved. You cannot see the 44 face-down cards, and our game has no undo, so you will lose deals that held a win.
Why is it called Spider Solitaire?
The usual explanation is that a spider has eight legs and the game has eight runs to complete. No early rule book records the reason, so treat that as tradition rather than documented fact. The game was already in print under the name Spider in 1937.
What is the old fashioned Spider Solitaire?
Older rule books deal 50 cards, ten columns of five with the top card of each face up, and keep 54 in the stock. The stock then goes out as five deals of ten plus a last deal of four cards to the first four columns. Modern versions, ours included, deal 54 and keep 50.
Play Spider Solitaire Online
Play Spider free in your browser with no download, and start a new deal whenever you like. Every shuffle is provably fair.
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