Rules
Spider Solitaire rules at a glance
- This page uses one-suit Spider Solitaire.
- The game uses 104 cards: eight copies of each rank from ace through king.
- The tableau has ten columns. The first four start with six cards, and the last six start with five.
- Only the top card of each column starts face up.
- Move a single face-up card or a descending face-up sequence onto a card one rank higher.
- Any movable card or descending sequence may fill an empty column.
- The stock deals one face-up card to every column.
- You cannot deal from the stock while any tableau column is empty.
- A complete face-up king-to-ace sequence clears automatically.
- Win by clearing all eight complete sequences.
How to play
How to play Spider Solitaire
Spider Solitaire is a tableau game about turning messy columns into clean descending runs. Instead of building foundations card by card, you work directly in the ten tableau columns. Move face-up cards into descending order, reveal the hidden cards underneath, and clear a full run when it reaches from king down to ace.
This page starts with the friendliest common Spider rules: one suit. All cards behave as spades, so any descending face-up run is also a suited run. That lets you learn the rhythm of Spider without the extra suit restrictions that make two-suit and four-suit Spider much more demanding.
Background
Why is it called Spider Solitaire?
The name Spider is usually explained by the eight complete sequences you need to clear, loosely echoing a spider's eight legs. Whether or not that was the original intention, the name fits the game well: the tableau spreads wide, the columns interlock, and one trapped card can affect several parts of the layout at once.
Spider became especially familiar through computer solitaire collections, where the long tableau and automatic clearing rules worked naturally on screen. Digital versions also made suit modes more visible. Many players now learn one-suit Spider first, then move to two-suit or four-suit Spider when they want a longer and less forgiving puzzle.
Setup
The layout on this page
- Ten tableau columns sit across the board.
- Columns 1-4 each receive six cards.
- Columns 5-10 each receive five cards.
- Only each column's top card is face up at the start.
- The stock contains 50 cards, which means five deals of ten cards.
- There is no waste pile and no foundation area.
- Cleared runs are counted rather than displayed as foundations.
Moves
Legal Spider Solitaire moves
A card moves onto a card exactly one rank higher. A 7 can move onto an 8, a queen can move onto a king, and a 2 can move onto a 3. Because this is one-suit Spider, color and suit do not create extra restrictions. Rank order is the rule that matters.
You may also move a group of cards when the whole group is already in descending order and face up. For example, 10-9-8 can move together onto a jack. A broken group cannot move as a stack. If a face-down card is part of the would-be stack, it must be uncovered before it can move.
Legal7 on 8
LegalQ-J-10 onto K
LegalAny face-up run to an empty column
Illegal9 on J
IllegalFace-down cards cannot move
BlockedStock waits until every column has a card
Runs
What clears from the tableau?
Spider clears complete descending runs. In this one-suit version, a run clears when the end of a column contains thirteen face-up cards in exact order from king to ace. The game removes that run automatically and reveals the next face-down card if the column still has one.
KQJ1098765432A
Clearing a run is more than a score event. It permanently removes thirteen cards from the table, often opens a column, and can expose a card that changes the next several moves. A strong Spider position usually comes from preparing one or two long runs before dealing the next stock row.
Stock
How the stock works
The stock contains five deals. Each deal places one face-up card on every tableau column. There is no choice of column and no waste pile. A stock deal can rescue a quiet board, but it can also bury half-built runs under awkward cards.
This page uses the common Spider restriction that the stock cannot deal while any tableau column is empty. Fill the space first, then deal. That rule matters because empty columns are powerful, and Spider asks you to spend that power before adding another row.
Spaces
Why empty columns are valuable
An empty column can accept any movable face-up card or descending run. That makes it the best place to temporarily park a sequence while you reveal hidden cards or rebuild a longer run somewhere else.
The catch is timing. If you leave a column empty, the stock is blocked. If you fill it too quickly, you may lose the only flexible space you had. Good Spider play is often a quiet argument with that one empty column.
Examples
Legal and illegal move examples
Suppose the top of one column is an 8 and another column has a face-up 7-6-5 sequence. You may move the whole 7-6-5 sequence onto the 8. If the sequence were 7-5, it could not move together because the 6 is missing. If the 6 were face down, it also could not move as part of the stack.
A king cannot move onto another card because there is no rank above king. It can move only to an empty column. An ace can move onto a 2, but a completed run ends with ace, so a loose ace is usually a card you want to place carefully rather than bury under a stock deal.
Strategy
Spider Solitaire strategy for one-suit deals
Your first priority is revealing hidden cards. A move that turns over a face-down card is often stronger than a move that merely makes a prettier run. Every hidden card is unknown material; every revealed card gives you more options before the next stock deal.
Try to create an empty column before dealing from the stock. Use that space to gather broken material into a cleaner run, or to move a long sequence away from a buried card. In one-suit Spider, long sequences are easy to merge, so an empty column can quickly become the engine that turns several short runs into a complete king-to-ace clear.
Delay the stock when the tableau still has useful work. Dealing too early spreads ten new cards across every column and can break clean shapes you were close to finishing. A good test is simple: before you deal, ask whether any move can reveal a card, create a space, or extend a run that is already close to clearing.
Be especially careful with kings and empty columns. A king can only move into an empty column, so placing one there can be either a breakthrough or a long-term commitment. Use an empty column for a king when it anchors a real run or frees hidden cards; otherwise, keep the space flexible for moving shorter sequences through the board.
Mistakes
Common Spider Solitaire mistakes
- Dealing from the stock while obvious tableau moves are still available.
- Filling an empty column with a low card that cannot help reveal anything.
- Breaking a long descending run without a clear reason.
- Moving cards only to make short neat stacks while leaving face-down cards buried.
- Forgetting that every empty column must be filled before the next stock deal.
- Chasing one nearly complete run while the rest of the board becomes frozen.
Winnability
Is Spider Solitaire winnable?
Spider is not always winnable from a random shuffle. One-suit Spider gives the player far more control than two-suit or four-suit Spider, but the stock can still land badly and the early tableau can still hide the ranks you need.
This page does not publish a fixed win-rate claim because a fair number should come from this exact implementation and real play data. Undo, move shortcuts, deal rules, and suit count all change the practical difficulty.
Difficulty
One-suit, two-suit, and four-suit Spider
Spider's difficulty changes sharply with suit count. One-suit Spider is the learning version: if the ranks descend, the sequence can move and eventually clear. Two-suit Spider adds a second suit, so mixed descending runs can be useful but cannot always move as a unit or clear cleanly. Four-suit Spider is the hard version, because every complete run must be built in one suit while the tableau constantly tempts you with mixed-suit shortcuts.
Starting with one suit is not a lesser game. It teaches the core Spider skills: uncovering cards, protecting empty columns, timing stock deals, and preparing complete runs. Once those habits feel natural, additional suits make the same decisions sharper and less forgiving.
Scoring
How Spider Solitaire is tracked here
The game tracks moves, stock deals remaining, and completed runs. A win means all eight king-to-ace runs have cleared from the tableau. There is no timer, point penalty, daily leaderboard, or bonus score in this version.
Undo restores the previous position, including revealed cards and cleared runs. Restart returns the same shuffle to the opening deal. New game creates a fresh random shuffle.
This version
What this Spider page includes and leaves out
- Included: one-suit Spider with two decks and ten tableau columns.
- Included: five stock deals, with one card dealt to every non-empty column.
- Included: undo, restart, hints, automatic run clearing, and progress-aware stuck detection.
- Not included yet: two-suit or four-suit Spider modes.
- Not included yet: daily deals, numbered deals, winnable-only deals, leaderboard scoring, or player accounts.
- Not included yet: auto-solve or AI best-move explanations beyond the current hint system.
Nearby games
How Spider compares with FreeCell, Klondike, Scorpion, Spiderette, and Easthaven
Spider and FreeCell both reward planning with tableau columns, but they feel very different. FreeCell shows every card and gives you four free cells. Spider hides many cards and uses stock deals to change all ten columns at once.
Klondike builds foundations upward by suit; Spider clears complete descending sequences from the tableau itself. Scorpion is a tougher Spider-like cousin where larger stacks can move even when they are not fully ordered, which creates dramatic turns but also deeper traps. If you like watching a messy board slowly become ordered, Spider is the natural center of that family.
Spiderette is the compact one-deck cousin: it keeps the Spider idea of building descending runs, but the smaller layout makes each deal shorter. Easthaven sits closer to Klondike, with seven tableau columns and foundations, yet it shares Spider's satisfying rhythm of uncovering hidden cards and using tableau order to unlock the next move. Those games are useful next steps if you like Spider's sequence-building but want a smaller or more foundation-driven variation.