Spider Solitaire Strategy Guide
Spider uses two decks and ten columns, and it rewards patience more than any other common solitaire. The goal is eight complete runs of one suit, King down to Ace. The game is easy to learn and hard to master, mostly because of how you treat suits. This guide covers the opening, the mistakes that bury your game, and the habits that make 2-suit deals winnable.
Opening principles
The first four columns start with six cards and the other six with five, and only the top card of each is face up. The 50-card stock is dealt ten at a time, one card on every column. The more you do before each deal, the better off you are.
- Make every useful move before dealing. A deal buries the cards you were about to use. Treat each deal as a last resort.
- Flip hidden cards first. Moves that turn over a face-down card are worth more than almost any other, because hidden cards are what block you.
- Work on the shortest columns. A column with only one or two face-down cards can be emptied quickly, and an empty column is the strongest resource in the game.
- Look for exact fits. A card goes on any card exactly one rank higher, but if the suit also matches, the pair becomes a movable unit. Choose the matching suit whenever it costs nothing.
Same-suit runs
You may move several cards together only if they are the same suit and in descending order. Mixed-suit stacks can be built on, but they must be taken apart one card at a time, so they quickly become a wall.
- Join cards of one suit whenever you can. A same-suit run moves as a single object; a mixed run is a heap of single cards.
- Avoid the wrong suit when a better fit exists. If a 6 could go on a 7 of its own suit or a 7 of another suit, the first is almost always right, even if the second reveals a card.
- Complete a run when it helps. A finished King-to-Ace run leaves the table, which can open a column. That is often the point.
1 suit or 2 suits?
In 1-suit mode every descending run is movable, so the game is relaxed and a good way to learn the structure. The skill is almost entirely about empty columns and timing the stock.
In 2-suit mode you must keep suits together or pay for it later. Plan each suit separately and avoid placing one on the other when you can help it. A column that starts with a bad stack can stay a problem for most of the game, so every placement counts. Expect to lose more often, and treat that as normal: this is a harder game, not just a longer one.
Common mistakes
- Dealing too early. Many players deal as soon as the obvious moves run out. Check again for a run you could move, a column you could empty, a hidden card you could flip.
- Filling an empty column with the first card you see. An empty column should receive a long run or a card that unlocks something. A single stray card wastes it.
- Ignoring the cards you cannot see. Keep track of which ranks have appeared. If only one of the eight Aces has shown up, the rest are buried somewhere you have not yet dug.
- Building tall stacks on top of face-down cards. Anything on top of a hidden card must be moved to flip it. Build in a way you can undo.
- Being afraid to Undo. Try a line, see what it reveals, and back out if it does not help.
Advanced habits
- Empty a column deliberately. Count the cards in the shortest column and see whether each has a home. If so, that is your plan for the next several moves.
- Move runs to uncover, not to tidy. A move that neither flips a card nor opens a column often does not help.
- Put a King on an empty column when you can. A King there becomes the base of a run you can build on for the rest of the game.
- Look at what the next deal will cover. Before dealing, look at the ten top cards you are about to bury and decide whether you can use any of them first.
How winnable are the deals?
Not every random deal can be won, and the gap grows with the number of suits. In our own solver runs, the solver proved 98.2% of 1-suit deals and 71.2% of 2-suit deals winnable within its search budget. These are lower bounds, because a deal the solver could not prove may still be winnable, and the figures assume every card is known.
Solitaire Play deals 1-suit and 2-suit games only from deals the solver has already won. 4-suit deals are different: they are dealt at random, and our solver could prove only a very small share of them winnable, so a 4-suit deal may have no winning line at all.
Practice and play
Start with 1 suit, learn to make and use empty columns, and only then move to 2 suits. After each game, ask whether you dealt the stock before you had to. A good drill is to play a 1-suit deal and write down the moment you first made an empty column; the earlier it happens, the easier the rest of the game tends to be. Once that feels natural, 2 suits will be a much fairer fight.