Play Spider Solitaire online

Spider uses 104 cards, the size of two standard decks. Fifty-four cards are dealt into ten tableau columns: the first four columns get six cards and the other six get five, with only the top card of each column face up. The remaining 50 cards wait in the stock.

The goal is to build eight complete runs, each in a single suit from king down to ace. A finished run leaves the table on its own, and clearing all eight wins the game.

Spider's rules are simple to state. The difficulty comes from the difference between what you may place and what you may move.

• Placing: any card can go on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit. A 6 of hearts may go on a 7 of spades.
• Moving: only a run in one suit moves together. A mixed-suit sequence has to be taken apart one card at a time.
• Empty columns: any card or same-suit run can fill an empty column.
• Face-down cards turn face up as soon as they are uncovered.
• Dealing: the stock adds one face-up card to every column, five times in all. You cannot deal while a column is empty.
• Completed runs: a full king-to-ace run in one suit moves off the table automatically.

The number of suits changes Spider more than anything else. With one suit every card is a spade, so any descending sequence is also a run you can move. With two suits, spades and hearts, some sequences can no longer move as one piece. Four suits is classic Spider, where keeping runs in suit takes real planning.

Every deal comes from a pool of shuffles a solver has already won with the same number of suits. Difficulty chooses from that pool by how demanding the winning route is.

• Easy: the friendliest routes from the verified pool.
• Standard: balanced routes with more planning required.
• Hard: the most demanding routes in the verified pool.

Drag a card or same-suit run onto another column, or select it and then select the destination. Select the stock to deal a new row of ten cards.

Undo and Redo move through your history, and Hint finds a move on a winning path from your current position. Restart replays the same deal, and New game lets you change the number of suits or the difficulty.

Spider rewards patience. Most games are won by creating space first and building long same-suit runs second.

• Uncover face-down cards and empty columns early. Both give you room to work.
• Build in suit whenever you have a choice. A same-suit run can move as one piece; a mixed run cannot.
• Use an empty column as a workspace to reorder runs, rather than parking one card there for good.
• Make every useful move before dealing from the stock, since a deal covers every column.
• Kings can only move into an empty column, so think twice before burying a column under one.
• Learn with 1 suit, then move to 2 and 4 suits once runs and empty columns feel natural.