Spider Solitaire is the marathon of the solitaire world. Two decks, ten columns, a hundred and four cards, and a deceptively simple goal: build eight complete suit sequences from King down to Ace and clear the board. The one-suit game is a gentle warm-up; the four-suit game is one of the hardest solitaire puzzles in common play. This guide covers the strategy that carries across all three difficulty levels, then the specifics that make four suits so demanding.

How Spider Works

Spider deals fifty-four cards into ten tableau columns (the first four hold six cards, the rest hold five), with only the top card of each column face up. The remaining fifty cards form a stock dealt in five rounds of ten. The rules that shape all strategy:

  • You build down by rank, and suit does not matter for a legal move - A red 8 will accept any 7.
  • You can only pick up and move a run of cards if they are all the same suit and in order. A mixed-suit descending run looks tidy but can only be moved one card at a time.
  • When you complete a full King-to-Ace run in a single suit, it is removed from the board.
  • Dealing from the stock drops one card onto every column - And the rule that trips up beginners: you cannot deal while any column is empty.

For the complete rules and how the difficulty levels differ, see our rules hub; below we assume you know the moves and want to win more often. You can play any level on our Spider table.

The Golden Rule: Build In-Suit Whenever You Can

This is the difference between casual and skilled Spider play. Because only same-suit runs move as a unit, a long descending sequence of mixed suits is almost worthless for mobility - You can't relocate it without dismantling it card by card. A same-suit run, by contrast, is a portable, powerful tool.

So the priority order for any given move is: prefer the play that keeps a run in suit, even when an out-of-suit play looks more immediately convenient. Placing a 7 of spades on an 8 of spades is worth far more than placing a 7 of hearts on that same 8, because the spade pairing can later travel together and, eventually, complete and vanish. When you must go out of suit to make progress, treat it as a debt you'll need to unwind later.

Empty Columns Are Your Most Valuable Asset

An empty column in Spider is worth more than almost any single card. It lets you:

  • Park a card of any rank temporarily, the way a free cell works in FreeCell.
  • Unstack a mixed-suit pile one card at a time to re-sort it into suit order.
  • Relocate a King, which otherwise has nowhere to go (nothing builds on a King).
  • Stage a partial run while you assemble the rest.

But there is a crucial tension: you can't deal from the stock while a column is empty. That means an empty column is a resource you must often spend before dealing - Either fill it deliberately with a King to start a new sequence, or use it for maneuvering and then let it fill. Never sit on an empty column when you still have useful work it could do; its value is in being used, not hoarded, especially right before a deal.

The Digging Order: Which Face-Down Cards First

Like Klondike, Spider hides information under face-down cards, and turning them over is progress. When you have a choice of which pile to excavate, prefer the moves that:

  1. Flip a face-down card - New information and new options at once.
  2. Dig into the columns with the most face-down cards first, for the same reason it matters in Klondike: tall hidden stacks are where games get stuck, and they only get harder to reach as the board fills.
  3. Open a path to an empty column, which is usually worth chasing even at the cost of a slightly awkward tableau.

When to Deal From the Stock

Dealing from the stock is the riskiest routine action in Spider, because it drops ten new face-up cards on top of everything and can bury carefully built runs. Treat each of the five deals as a commitment, and follow two guidelines:

  • Make every possible constructive move before dealing. Once you've built every in-suit pairing and flipped every reachable face-down card, and only then, deal.
  • Fill empty columns first if the board is thin. You cannot deal with an empty column, and dealing onto ten columns that already hold tidy runs is less destructive than you fear - But dealing onto a fragile half-built board can wreck it. Tidy up, then deal.

Because there are only five deals, they also serve as a rough clock: if you're deep into the stock with few completed suits and a messy board, it may be time to take more aggressive out-of-suit risks to force flips.

One Suit, Two Suits, Four Suits

One suit

Every card is effectively the same suit, so every descending run is movable and the in-suit rule never binds. One-suit Spider is a very high win-rate game - Practiced players win the large majority of deals - And it's the ideal place to learn empty-column technique and deal timing without the suit constraint fighting you. It's also a great daily warm-up; try it on the Daily Challenge to compare your line against other players on the identical deal.

Two suits

Now the in-suit rule has teeth. You have two suits that must be kept apart to move runs, and the core skill becomes sorting: using empty columns to separate a red run from a black one so each can travel and complete. Win rates drop well below the one-suit game, and planning several moves ahead starts to matter.

Four suits

Four-suit Spider is the real test, with win rates for skilled players often in the low double digits or worse. Everything above still applies, but a few specifics dominate:

  • In-suit building is no longer a preference - It's survival. With four suits mixing freely, out-of-suit stacks pile up fast, and each one is a knot you'll eventually have to untie using empty columns. Minimize them.
  • Guard your empty columns ferociously. They are the only tool you have for re-sorting mixed piles into movable suit runs, and in the four-suit game you'll need to re-sort constantly.
  • Plan completions backward. Before you commit to a suit, glance at whether its remaining cards are even accessible - Chasing a spade sequence whose King is buried under three face-down cards can waste the whole midgame.
  • Accept partial progress. You rarely complete suits in order; you build fragments and merge them. A board with four half-finished in-suit runs is healthier than one with two complete suits and a tangle of mixed piles.

Putting It Together

The Spider mindset, compressed: build in suit, treasure empty columns, flip the deepest face-down cards, tidy the board before every deal, and remember you can't deal while a column sits empty. Start on one suit to groove the mechanics, move to two suits to learn sorting, and take on four suits when a grind that you win maybe one game in ten sounds like fun rather than frustration. Deal a fresh game on the Spider table and pick the level that matches your appetite today.