Play Spiderette Solitaire Online
Spiderette fits Spider's packing game into 1 ordinary deck. The opening looks familiar to a Klondike player: 7 columns rise from 1 card on the left to 7 on the right. Play soon takes a different direction. Cards build downward without regard to suit, but a group can travel only when every card in it already descends in the same suit.
With only 7 columns, an opening is faster to scan than Spider 4 Suits. Solving it is another matter. There are fewer spare columns, every suit must be completed and only 24 cards remain in the stock. A careless landing can close the table within a few moves. A well-timed empty column can put it back in order.
A 7-Column Spider Table
The deal uses all 52 cards once. Column 1 starts with 1 exposed card, column 2 has 1 hidden card beneath its exposed card and the pattern continues through column 7. This produces 28 tableau cards and leaves 24 in the stock. Compared with the broad 10-column Spider table, the eye has fewer endpoints to compare and less room to park an awkward rank.
That rising 1-to-7 shape resembles Klondike Solitaire, but Spiderette has no waste pile and no foundations built card by card. The whole table works toward 4 complete same-suit runs from King through Ace. Finished runs leave automatically.
Mixed Suits Build, Suited Runs Move
Any card may land on the next higher rank. A 7 of hearts can sit on an 8 of clubs, which makes an immediate move easy to find. That mixed pair cannot travel together later. A movable group must descend by 1 rank and stay in 1 suit from top to bottom.
This split between building and moving creates most of the tension. Mixed-suit landings uncover cards, yet too many of them divide the table into pieces that cannot be lifted as a group.
Every Empty Column Is Working Space
A blank column accepts any exposed card or any legal same-suit sequence. It can hold a blocker, reverse the order of 2 packets or give a King-led suit a permanent lane. With only 7 columns, clearing 1 is a meaningful change to the position rather than a minor convenience.
The value comes from what happens next. Filling the space with a long but unhelpful packet can remove the flexibility that made the opening useful.
Compact Does Not Mean Forgiving
All 4 suits are in play from the opening. A tidy hearts sequence can be interrupted by a single club, and the missing heart may sit under that same column. With 24 stock cards and 7 columns, a bad placement has nowhere to hide. The rank buried now is often the rank needed 2 moves later.
The best positions usually contain several short suited packets rather than 1 impressive column and 6 blocked ones. A 3-card run that can move is useful storage. A 7-card mixed tail may be visually longer but must be separated 1 card at a time.
The Stock Changes Shape at the End
The opening 3 stock deals place 1 card on every column. The final deal contains only 3 cards and lands on the 3 leftmost columns. That last partial row is a defining Spiderette detail. The right side keeps its current endpoints while the left side receives fresh cards, so preparation for the final deal is not the same as preparation for a full row.
Stock cannot be dealt while a column is empty. This prevents a blank space from skipping its card and preserves the deal pattern. Before covering the table, it is worth using any exposed sequence that reveals a hidden card or joins 2 same-suit fragments.
Spiderette Versus Spider
Standard Spider uses 2 decks, 10 columns, 50 stock cards and 8 completed runs. Spiderette halves the deck, narrows the tableau to 7 columns and asks for 4 runs. The build and group-movement rules remain recognizably Spider, but the 7 + 7 + 7 + 3 stock rhythm changes how the late game develops.
Spiderette Versus Scorpion
Scorpion Solitaire also uses 1 deck and removes 4 suited King-to-Ace runs. Scorpion lets an unordered face-up tail travel behind its lead card and restricts empty columns to Kings. Spiderette moves only ordered same-suit groups and allows any card in a vacancy.
4 Runs Clear the Deal
A complete run must contain 13 exposed cards of 1 suit in strict order from King to Ace. It disappears as soon as the Ace completes the column, often revealing a hidden card or opening a new space. The board is won when all 4 suits have left the tableau.
Each public deal is tied to a stored deck and an engine-replayed winning line. Hints can still show an ordinary legal move, while the proven-move option follows the audited path for that exact deal. For the complete setup and move rules, read how to play Spiderette Solitaire.