Play Spider Solitaire

How to play Spider Solitaire

Spider is played with two decks — 104 cards — dealt across ten columns. Fifty-four cards go on the table, one face up per column, and the remaining fifty wait in the stock.

There are no foundation piles. Cards leave the table only when thirteen of them, all one suit, run King down to Ace. That run vanishes and counts as one of the eight you need. Clear all eight and you have won.

The two rules that catch people out

Placing a card ignores suit

Any card may go on a card exactly one rank higher, whatever the suit. The 7♥ sits happily on the 8♣. There is no alternating-colour rule here — that is Klondike.

Moving a group demands one suit

Several cards travel together only if they run down and share a suit. 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ moves as one; 9♠ 8♥ 7♠ does not, even though it is a perfectly legal stack. That gap between “legal to build” and “able to move” is the whole game.

The rest of it

Empty columns take any card or any movable run — there is no Kings-only restriction. They are the most valuable space on the table, and the hardest to get back once spent.

Face-down cards turn up on their own the moment nothing covers them. You never flip one by hand.

The stock deals one card to every column at once, five times over. It will refuse while any column is empty — fill the gap first. A dealt row lands on whatever is there and will happily bury a tidy column, which is why it is worth exhausting your moves before reaching for it.

Choosing a difficulty

All three are the same game; only the suits on the cards change. You can switch at any time from the New game menu — it starts a fresh deal, since the deck itself is different.

1 Suit: Every card a Spade, so any descending run moves as one — the fastest way to learn the shape of the game
2 Suits: Spades and Hearts. The PlayCards default: enough to make packing matter without making it punishing
4 Suits: Two full decks. The traditional game, and a genuinely hard one

One suit is not a lesser version — it is where the packing rule is easiest to see, and plenty of people play nothing else. Four suits is not the only real Spider; it is simply the one where a careless mixed-suit build costs you the most.

If you are just starting

Uncover face-down cards first. They are the only new information you get, and every one turned over is a move you did not have before.
Build on the same suit when you can. A mixed stack looks like progress and quietly welds the column shut — the cards under it cannot leave as a group.
Guard your empty columns. Parking a card in one to get it out of the way is usually a bad trade. Empty a column, then use it deliberately.
Exhaust the table before dealing. A new row lands on everything, tidy or not. Take the moves you have first.
Stuck? Press H or the Hint button for a suggestion, and remember undo is unlimited and free.

Spider is one of three solitaire games at the PlayCards table, alongside classic Klondike Solitaire and FreeCell. Prefer something against a dealer? There is Blackjack too — all free, all in the browser, none needing an account.