Why can I place a card on any suit but only move same-suit runs?

The placement rule keeps the game playable — without it you would stall almost immediately. The movement rule is what creates the difficulty, because a mixed sequence has to be dismantled one card at a time before it can go anywhere useful.

When should I deal from the stock?

Only when you have genuinely no other move. Dealing adds a card to every column and buries whatever was exposed, so it almost always makes the board worse. Experienced players treat it as a last resort rather than a turn.

Why won’t the game let me deal?

Because at least one column is empty. Every column must hold a card before a new row can be dealt. If fewer than ten cards are left in play you will not be able to deal at all, so be careful about clearing columns late on.

What is the difference between one, two and four suits?

All three use 104 cards. One suit uses only spades, two uses spades and hearts, four uses the whole deck. Since runs must be same-suit to move or complete, more suits means far more dismantling and reassembling.

How does Spider scoring work?

You start on 500. Every move subtracts one point and every completed king-to-ace run adds 100. A win with all eight runs in 120 moves scores 500 − 120 + 800 = 1180.

Do completed runs have to be alone in their column?

No. If a column holds three face-down cards and then a full king-to-ace sequence in one suit, the sequence is removed and the face-down cards stay where they are.

Spider Solitaire

Spider gives you two full decks, ten columns and a stock that forces itself on you. Its central tension is that the one action always available — dealing a new row — is almost always the wrong one.

Drag a card or a same-suit run, or tap a card to auto-move it. Choose one, two or four suits in the toolbar; each starts a new game.

Players	1
Deck	Two decks, 104 cards
Play time	10–25 minutes
Difficulty	One suit is gentle; four suits is genuinely hard

How to play Spider Solitaire

Spider uses two decks — 104 cards. Fifty-four are dealt into ten columns: the first four columns get six cards, the remaining six get five. Only the top card of each column is face up. The other fifty cards stay in the stock, which deals in rows of ten.

There are no foundation piles. Everything happens in the tableau, and a completed sequence simply leaves the table.

Legal moves

A card can be placed on any card one rank higher, of any suit — a seven of clubs onto an eight of hearts is perfectly legal.
But only a same-suit descending run can be moved as a group. Eight, seven, six of clubs travels together; eight of clubs, seven of hearts, six of spades does not.
Any card or partial run may be moved onto an empty column.
When a column contains a complete king-down-to-ace run in one suit, it is removed from the game. It does not need to be the only thing in the column.

Dealing from the stock

Clicking the stock deals one card face up onto every column — all ten at once, whether you want them or not. Critically, every column must contain at least one card before you may deal. If you have an empty column you must fill it first, and if fewer than ten cards remain in play you can never deal again.

Scoring and winning

Build all eight complete runs and the table clears. Scoring starts at 500 points: each move costs one point and each completed run earns 100. Three runs completed in seventy moves gives 500 − 70 + 300 = 730.

Difficulty

All three modes use 104 cards. One suit uses only spades — a good introduction. Two suits adds hearts. Four suits uses the full deck and is the real game.

Strategy

Spider punishes impatience more directly than any other patience game, because the stock is always there offering to make things worse.

Never deal while a legal move remains

This is the whole game in one sentence. Dealing buries every card currently exposed and adds ten more face-up cards you must now work around. Exhaust every other possibility first — including moves that seem to accomplish nothing — before you touch the stock.

Prioritise turning face-down cards over building tidy runs

A neat descending sequence of mixed suits looks like progress and mostly is not, since you cannot move it as a unit. Exposing a face-down card is real progress. When choosing between the two, flip the card.

Protect one empty column at all costs

An empty column is the only place you can park an out-of-order card, and it is what lets you rearrange mixed sequences into same-suit ones. But remember the deal rule: you cannot deal with an empty column, so late in the game you may have to sacrifice it. Plan which column you will fill before you need to.

Build in suit from the top down

Because only same-suit runs move together, a king with a same-suit queen beneath it is worth far more than a king with a mixed queen. Where you have a choice of parent card, always take the one that continues a suit.

Do not chase a run you cannot finish

New players commit a whole column to assembling one suit and end up with a beautiful nine-card run and no space to work anywhere else. Eight runs must come out, not one, so spread your effort and keep the board flexible rather than perfecting a single sequence.

Variants

One, two and four suits — the standard difficulty ladder, and effectively three different games. One suit is a warm-up; four suits is where the strategy above actually matters.
Spiderette — a single-deck version on seven columns, much shorter and rather easier.
Will o’ the Wisp — single deck, seven columns of three cards, all face up bar the top row.
Black Widow — like Spider but all cards are dealt face up from the start, removing the hidden information.
Relaxed dealing — some implementations let you deal with empty columns present, which changes the endgame considerably.

Where Spider came from

Spider is a twentieth-century game and appears in patience collections from the 1940s onwards. Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith, whose Culbertson's Card Games Complete and later compilations were the standard American reference of the period, described it and reported it as a favourite of Franklin D. Roosevelt — an attribution repeated in most later sources. The name is usually explained by the eight foundation runs suggesting a spider's legs.

It was a moderately obscure two-deck patience until Microsoft shipped Spider Solitaire with Windows 98 as part of the Plus! pack and then bundled it with Windows ME and XP. The suit-count difficulty selector was a Microsoft addition, and it is largely responsible for the game's reputation: millions of people met Spider at one suit, found it pleasant, tried four suits, and discovered a substantially harder game underneath.

Questions people ask about Spider

Why can I place a card on any suit but only move same-suit runs?: The placement rule keeps the game playable — without it you would stall almost immediately. The movement rule is what creates the difficulty, because a mixed sequence has to be dismantled one card at a time before it can go anywhere useful.
When should I deal from the stock?: Only when you have genuinely no other move. Dealing adds a card to every column and buries whatever was exposed, so it almost always makes the board worse. Experienced players treat it as a last resort rather than a turn.
Why won’t the game let me deal?: Because at least one column is empty. Every column must hold a card before a new row can be dealt. If fewer than ten cards are left in play you will not be able to deal at all, so be careful about clearing columns late on.
What is the difference between one, two and four suits?: All three use 104 cards. One suit uses only spades, two uses spades and hearts, four uses the whole deck. Since runs must be same-suit to move or complete, more suits means far more dismantling and reassembling.
How does Spider scoring work?: You start on 500. Every move subtracts one point and every completed king-to-ace run adds 100. A win with all eight runs in 120 moves scores 500 − 120 + 800 = 1180.
Do completed runs have to be alone in their column?: No. If a column holds three face-down cards and then a full king-to-ace sequence in one suit, the sequence is removed and the face-down cards stay where they are.