Spiderette Solitaire

How to play

How to play Spiderette Solitaire

Spiderette takes the central idea of Spider Solitaire and compresses it into one deck. Your job is not to build foundations one card at a time. Instead, you organize the tableau until a full same-suit sequence runs from king down to ace, then that sequence leaves the board. Clear all four suits and the deal is won.

The game feels familiar if you know Klondike because the opening layout uses seven columns with one card in the first column, two in the second, and so on through seven. It feels like Spider once play begins because stock deals land directly on the tableau and complete runs clear from the columns themselves.

Moves

Legal Spiderette moves

Tableau building is by rank. A 6 may be placed on a 7, a jack on a queen, and a queen on a king. Suit does not matter for placing a single card. That freedom is useful because it lets you uncover hidden cards even when the suits are not cooperating.

Multi-card movement is stricter. A group can move only when the whole visible group descends by rank in the same suit. For example, 10-9-8 of hearts can move together onto any jack. A 10 of hearts, 9 of clubs, and 8 of hearts may sit in a column, but they cannot travel as one packet because the suits are broken.

Runs

What clears from the tableau?

A Spiderette run clears when the bottom of a column contains thirteen face-up cards of the same suit in exact descending order from king to ace. The game removes that run automatically and turns over the next hidden card in the column if one is present.

Clearing a run is the biggest swing in the game. It removes a quarter of the deck, often creates an empty column, and may uncover a buried card. A promising Spiderette deal usually has one suit beginning to organize while another column is being opened for workspace.

Examples

Legal and illegal move examples

If one column ends with the 8 of diamonds and another has the 7 of clubs, you may move the 7 onto the 8 because single-card placement ignores suit. If the 7 of clubs has the 6 of clubs and 5 of clubs above it, that whole 7-6-5 club run can move together onto any 8.

If the cards are 7 of clubs, 6 of hearts, and 5 of clubs, only the top card or a same-suit part of the visible stack can move. The mixed sequence can be built in place, but it is not a movable run. That is the tension at the heart of Spiderette: mixed builds help reveal cards, but same-suit builds are what travel and clear.

Strategy

Spiderette Solitaire strategy

Reveal hidden cards before polishing the visible tableau. A move that turns over a buried card usually improves the deal more than a move that only makes a short mixed stack look tidy. Hidden cards are where your missing suit links and kings are likely to be.

Preserve same-suit order whenever you can. A mixed 9-8-7 may be legal on the board, but it is heavy. A same-suit 9-8-7 is mobile, can uncover cards, and can become part of a clearing run. When you have a choice between two equal rank moves, favor the one that extends or protects a same-suit packet.

Use empty columns as working space, not storage. The best empty-column moves usually reveal a face-down card, release a king, or allow a suited packet to join its parent rank. Filling an empty column with a low card that cannot move again is often worse than waiting.

Be patient with the stock. A stock row can rescue a stalled board, but it also drops new cards onto every active column. Before dealing, look for a reveal, a same-suit merge, or a chance to create a space. Once the new row lands, earlier clean shapes may be buried.

Variants

Spiderette variants and house rules

The name Spiderette is most often used for one-pack Spider with a Klondike-style seven-column layout. Rule details can still vary between software versions and rule books. Some versions use different final-stock handling, some relax the empty-column stock restriction, and some digital games offer one-suit or two-suit training modes under nearby names.

This site uses a four-suit 52-card deck because that keeps Spiderette distinct from the one-suit Spider page. Single cards build down regardless of suit, movable sequences must be same-suit, and only same-suit king-to-ace runs clear.

Comparison

How Spiderette compares with Spider, Scorpion, Yukon, and Easthaven

Spiderette is shorter than Spider but less forgiving than one-suit Spider. Spider uses two decks, ten columns, and eight runs. Spiderette uses one deck, seven columns, and four runs, so each card appears only once and a misplaced suit card can matter immediately.

Scorpion also clears same-suit king-to-ace sequences, but its packet movement is looser and its small tail deal creates a different kind of danger. Yukon shares the seven-column shape and bold packet moves, yet it builds foundations instead of clearing complete tableau runs. Easthaven has stock rows and seven columns too, but it belongs closer to Klondike because its goal is still ace-to-king foundations.