Spider Solitaire with two decks in one, two or four suits. Drag or tap to move runs, undo any move, and play on a phone or a desktop.
What is Spider Solitaire?
Spider Solitaire is a two-deck solitaire card game in which you build eight complete runs from King down to Ace, each in a single suit, until the table is empty. It uses 104 cards, ten columns and a stock that deals a fresh card onto every column when you run out of moves.
Spider rewards patience more than speed. Any card can be placed on a card one rank higher, so moves are easy to find, but only same-suit runs can be moved as a group. Most of the skill lies in deciding which loose builds to make and which to avoid.
How to play Spider Solitaire
Setup: 54 cards are dealt into ten columns. The first four columns get six cards and the other six columns get five. Only the last card of each column is face up, so 44 cards start face down. The remaining 50 cards wait in the stock, enough for five more deals of ten cards. A small number on the stock tells you how many deals are left.
Moving cards: a card can go on any card exactly one rank higher, whatever the suit, so a 7 of hearts can sit on an 8 of spades. A group of cards moves together only when it is a descending run in one suit. An empty column accepts any card or any movable run. When a face-down card is uncovered, it turns face up by itself.
Completing runs: when a column ends in a full King-to-Ace run of one suit, that run leaves the table and goes to one of the eight foundation spaces at the top. You win when all eight runs are complete.
Dealing from the stock: tap the stock to deal one face-up card onto each of the ten columns. You cannot deal while any column is empty, so fill every gap first. The only exception is near the end of a game, when fewer than ten cards are left on the table. A deal covers a card on every column, which can bury cards you were about to use.
Spider Solitaire strategy
Empty columns come first. An empty column lets you take apart a mixed run and rebuild it in suit. With one empty column you can move a run made of two same-suit pieces; with two empty columns, up to four pieces. Look for the column with the fewest cards and work on clearing it.
Build in suit whenever you have a choice. If a 6 of clubs could go on a 7 of clubs or a 7 of diamonds, take the club. Off-suit builds are still useful when they uncover a face-down card, but each one splits a column into pieces that can no longer travel together.
Turn over face-down cards before making cosmetic moves. A move that tidies a run without revealing anything rarely helps. A move that turns over a card always gives you new information and often a new move.
Think about Kings. A King can only move into an empty column, because no card is one rank higher. Placing a King in an empty column is worth it when it frees cards or starts a run you can complete. Moving a lone King just to empty another column usually trades one problem for another.
Prepare before each deal. Since ten new cards land on every column at once, make all the same-suit connections you can beforehand and move the cards you care about to columns where they will be easiest to dig out. If you must fill an empty column only to allow the deal, use a card that does the least harm there.
In two and four suits, count. Each suit has a fixed number of copies of every rank, so if every Jack of a suit is buried, a long run of that suit may stall at Queen for a while. Undo is unlimited, and in four suits it is fair to explore a line and back out.
One suit, two suits or four suits
Our Spider offers three settings in the menu. One suit is the default: all 104 cards share one suit, so every build is a same-suit build and most deals can be won. Two suits uses four copies each of two suits, and you start to choose between builds. Four suits is two full decks and the hardest setting, where careless off-suit builds quickly lock the table. The score is multiplied by 1.5 for two suits and by 2 for four suits.
Other variants exist, such as one-deck Spiderette and the related Scorpion, which deals most cards face up. The rules on this page cover the two-deck game played here.
Where Spider Solitaire comes from
Spider is an old two-deck patience. Its name is usually explained by the eight foundations, one for each leg of a spider. It became one of the most played solitaires once it shipped with personal computers in the late 1990s, and the one-suit setting is how many people learned it.
Playing Spider Solitaire on Hevagames
Spider Solitaire on Hevagames runs in the browser on phones and computers, with no download. All ten columns fit on a 320-pixel-wide phone, and long columns tighten their overlap so they stay on screen. Drag a card or a run, or tap it and then tap where it should go. A double tap sends it to the best spot, trying same-suit columns first. On a keyboard, use the arrows and Enter to move, Z to undo, D to deal and N for a new game.
Undo is unlimited and your game is saved, so you can close the page and continue later. The top bar shows moves, time and score. Each completed run is worth 100 points and each face-down card you turn over is worth 5, multiplied by the suit factor. Winning adds a bonus that starts at 2000 (times the suit factor) and drops by 2 points per move and half a point per second. Undo counts as a move. Your best score stays on your device.
How to play
- 1Put a card on any card one rank higher. Only a run of one suit moves together.
- 2A complete run from King down to Ace in one suit leaves the table by itself.
- 3Tap the stock to deal one card onto every column. Every column needs at least one card first.
- 4Choose one, two or four suits in the Menu; one suit is the default.
Controls
Tips
- Empty a column early. A free column is worth more than most single moves.
- Build in the same suit whenever you have the choice.
- Before dealing from the stock, check whether a move turns up a face-down card.
