Spider Solitaire

👥 1 players 📍 Anywhere ⚡ Calm 🧩 Moderate ⏱ 20-60 minutes 🎂 Ages 6+

Quick Pitch

Spider Solitaire is a demanding solitaire game played with two decks across ten columns — you build sequences down by rank and try to complete full King-to-Ace runs in the same suit to clear them off the board.

Hook

Ten columns of cards, most face-down, gradually revealed as you move cards around. You can stack cards of any suit to clear space, but only same-suit sequences can be moved as groups or removed to the foundations. The tension is constant: you want to consolidate suits, but the board keeps forcing you to mix them. Clear all eight suit sequences and you win — which happens only about a quarter of the time even with good play.

Equipment Needed

  • Two or three standard 52-card decks (typically two; one deck = easy, two decks = medium, three decks = hard)
  • Clear playing surface
  • Paper and pencil for score tracking

Setup

  1. Shuffle 2-3 decks together
  2. Deal 54 cards in 10 columns:
    • First 4 columns: 6 cards each
    • Last 6 columns: 5 cards each
    • Top card of each column face-up; others face-down
  3. Remaining cards form stock

Rules

Objective

Build sequences from King down to Ace within the same suit. Complete sequences move to foundations. Move all cards to win.

Tableau Building

Building rules:

  • Build in descending rank (K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-A) regardless of suit
  • Any card can be placed on a card one rank higher (even different suits during building)
  • Key difference from Klondike: Suit-matching required only for completing sequences

Sequences: When a complete same-suit sequence (K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-A) forms, it moves to foundations

Cascades: Cards of same suit form visible cascades; cascade can move as group

Moving groups: Groups of same-suit cards can move together; mixed-suit groups cannot move

Empty columns: Any King can fill an empty column

Stock Pile

Drawing:

  • When no moves available, deal one card to each column from stock
  • Continue until stock exhausted

Winning

  • All cards in foundations in suit sequences = Win
  • Low win rate (varies by difficulty); expert players win ~20-30% of games

Expert Player

Tips

  1. Suit building priority: Prioritize same-suit sequences
  2. King opening: Look for Kings to clear columns
  3. Cascade efficiency: Build long cascades of same suit
  4. Stock management: Defer stock deals as long as possible
  5. Planning depth: Think 5+ moves ahead
  6. Empty columns: Use strategically; create temporarily if beneficial
  7. Suit separation: Identify which suits go where early

Variations

  • One-deck Spider: Single deck (easier, ~90% win rate)
  • Four-suit Spider: Two full decks (hardest)
  • Tarantula: Three decks, harder rules
  • Timed Spider: Speed-based competition
Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Spider Solitaire's origins are murky — the game was circulating among serious solitaire players by the mid-20th century, likely developed as a more demanding alternative to Klondike. The name comes from the spider's eight legs, corresponding to the eight suit sequences you must complete to win. The game was played with physical cards long before it became digital, but most people today know it primarily through its inclusion with Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft included Spider Solitaire in Windows 98 as part of a suite of card games intended both as entertainment and as indirect mouse-usage training (the same rationale behind Klondike's inclusion in Windows 3.0). Unlike Klondike, which has a relatively simple visual presentation, Spider's ten-column layout and multi-deck play gave it a reputation as the more demanding game — something to work toward after mastering Klondike.

Cultural Context

Spider Solitaire has a devoted following among solitaire enthusiasts precisely because of its difficulty. The game's win rate — roughly 20–30% even with skilled play — means that most games end in defeat, which creates a different emotional texture than Klondike. Losing at Spider feels more educational than losing at Klondike, because the board state usually shows you clearly what went wrong: suits mixed when they should have been kept together, a column filled at the wrong moment, a deal from the stock that buried a needed card.

The four-suit version (using two decks with all four suits mixed together) is considered by many experienced players to be one of the most demanding common solitaire games in existence, with win rates well below 10% even for expert players. The one-suit version (all cards the same suit) is considerably easier and works well as an introduction to the game's mechanics.

See Also