Spider is played with two decks, 104 cards, dealt into ten columns. You build descending sequences inside those columns, and every time you complete a full run from king down to ace in one suit, it leaves the board. Clear all eight runs and you have won.

Everything else follows from one rule: a sequence moves as a unit only if every card in it is the same suit.

The deal

Ten columns. The first four get six cards each, the other six get five — 54 cards on the table, with only the bottom card of each column face up. The other 50 stay in the stock.

There are no foundations to build up in spider. Completed runs are taken off the table directly, which is why the board can look emptier late in a game that is going well.

Moving cards

  • A card goes onto a card one rank higher, of any suit. A black nine on a red ten is legal.
  • A sequence moves as a unit only if it is all one suit. Mixed sequences have to be taken apart one card at a time, which usually means not at all.
  • An empty column takes any card or any movable sequence — not just a king.
  • When you move the last face-up card off a column, the card under it turns over by itself.

The second rule is the one to take in. In spider you will constantly be allowed to make a move that looks like progress and quietly welds two cards together for the rest of the deal.

Dealing from the stock

When you are out of useful moves, deal a new row: one card face up onto every column, ten at a time, five deals in all.

The catch is that every column must hold at least one card before the game will deal. An empty column is the most valuable thing you can have in spider, and the stock is the one thing that will take it from you. Holding an empty column and needing new cards is the squeeze the whole game is built around.

Completing a run

A full descending sequence from king to ace in a single suit is removed from the board automatically. Eight of those and the game is over.

A mixed king-to-ace sequence does nothing. It is not a run, it just looks like one.

Suits

Spider is played with one, two or four suits. The rules above never change — only how often your sequences happen to be single-suit, which is the difference between a gentle puzzle and a game you will mostly lose. Which one to pick is covered in 1, 2 or 4 suits.

Four habits that help straight away

Uncover face-down cards first

A column you cannot see into is a column you cannot plan around. This is true in every solitaire and most true here.

Keep one column empty when you can

It is the only place to take a mixed pile apart. Spending it should be a decision, not something that happens.

Prefer same-suit drops

Given two legal homes for a card, the one that keeps a run movable is almost always right, even when the other looks tidier.

Undo early

Spider punishes a bad drop several moves later, so when a column seizes up, the mistake is usually behind you rather than in front.

Playing Spider here

  • Drag a card or a run onto another column, or tap it: a tap sends it onto a card of its own suit if there is one, then onto any card a rank higher, then into an empty column.
  • Tap the stock, or press Space or D, to deal a row. If a column is empty, the game tells you to fill it first.
  • H shows a hint, and U or Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes a move.
  • Choose 1, 2 or 4 suits at the top. Changing it starts a new deal; your wins and best score are kept across all three.
  • Close the tab whenever you like: the deal is saved and waits for you.
  • You start on 500 points and each move or deal costs one. A finished run adds 100, and a win adds 1,000 plus a bonus for speed. Your score goes on the leaderboard.

Common beginner mistakes

  • Building long mixed sequences because they look like progress. They are not sequences, they are walls.
  • Filling an empty column with a card that had somewhere else to go.
  • Dealing from the stock to get out of trouble. A deal drops a card on every column, including the ones that were already in trouble — it rarely rescues a position and often buries it.
  • Chasing one suit to completion while the other nine columns stiffen.

Start a game in Spider Solitaire, or look at the rest of the solitaire family.