Spider Solitaire

What Is Spider Solitaire?

Spider Solitaire is one of the most challenging and rewarding solitaire games. You play with two full decks (104 cards) and try to build complete 13-card sequences from King down to Ace — all in the same suit — in the tableau. Complete sequences are automatically removed. The game can be played at three difficulty levels: 1 suit (easy), 2 suits (medium), or 4 suits (hard).

What You Need

• Two standard 52-card decks merged together (104 cards total)
• 1 player

Setup

1. Deal 54 cards into 10 tableau columns: the first 4 columns get 6 cards each; the next 6 columns get 5 cards each.
2. Only the top card of each column is face-up. All others are face-down.
3. The remaining 50 cards form the stock pile (5 groups of 10 cards).

How to Play — Step by Step

1. On each turn, you can move any face-up card (or a sequence of face-up cards that are in consecutive descending order) to another column.
2. To move a card onto another, the target card must be ONE rank higher than the card you’re moving. (Move 8 onto 9.)
3. Unlike Klondike, there is NO color restriction in Spider — you can move a Red 8 onto either a Red or Black 9. HOWEVER, complete sequences must be the same suit to be removed.
4. When you uncover a face-down card (because you moved all face-up cards off it), flip it face-up immediately.
5. When you run out of moves or want to deal more cards, click the stock to deal one card onto each of the 10 columns.

Completing a Sequence

When you’ve built a complete 13-card sequence (K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A) all in the same suit in one column, it’s automatically removed from the tableau. You need to complete 8 such sequences to win.

Winning

Remove all 8 complete sequences from the tableau. Win!

Strategy Tips

• In 1-suit Spider, color doesn’t matter — just build down. Very winnable.
• In 4-suit Spider, always prioritize same-suit moves — cross-suit sequences will eventually have to be broken up.
• Empty columns are incredibly valuable — work toward clearing columns completely.
• Deal from the stock as a last resort — every deal buries potential moves under new cards.

▶ Watch: How to Play Spider Solitaire (YouTube)