Spider Solitaire

Overview

Two full decks, ten columns, and a single-minded goal: assemble a complete king-down-to-ace run of one suit and watch it leave the table. Spider Solitaire operates on a grander scale than its single-deck cousins. Ten columns spread across the felt, most cards dealt face down with only the top of each revealed, and 104 cards in play means more room to maneuver but also more clutter to manage. The core action is building downward — any suit can stack on any other as long as the rank descends — but a run can only be cleared from the board when every card in it shares one suit. When no useful move remains, deal a fresh row of ten cards from the stock onto the columns, one each, accepting that every deal tightens the space you have to work with. Difficulty is a choice: fewer suits make for a gentler game, while four suits demand real planning. Clear all eight possible runs and the table is won.

How to Play

Click or drag a card or an in-sequence run to move it onto a card one rank higher, regardless of suit. Tap a card and then tap its destination on touch devices. A run of same-suit cards in descending order can be moved together as a unit, and once a full king-to-ace sequence of one suit is assembled it is automatically removed. When you are stuck, click the stock to deal one card onto each column. Choose your suit count at the start to set the difficulty.

Tips & Strategy

Prioritize revealing face-down cards over tidying the visible ones — hidden cards are the real constraint on what you can plan. Build same-suit runs wherever you can, because a mixed-suit stack cannot be moved as a unit and cannot be cleared, only dismantled later at a cost. Do not deal a new row until you have exhausted the current moves; every deal lands a card on every column and shrinks your working space, so an early deal can bury a column you were close to clearing. Try to leave at least one column empty, since an empty column accepts any card and acts as flexible staging for reordering long runs. When a same-suit king-to-ace sequence is close, focus the whole board on finishing it — clearing one run frees enormous space. Lower suit counts are a legitimate way to learn the flow before taking on four suits.