How to Win Spider Solitaire
A Spider deal is usually lost several moves before the board looks stuck. A useful card gets parked under the wrong suit, an empty column is filled without a plan or a stock row arrives while the table is still tangled. Winning more often comes from noticing those moments early. This guide is about the decisions behind the moves, with separate advice for 1, 2 and 4 suits. If the movement rules are not familiar yet, start with how to play Spider Solitaire.
Read the hidden-card burden before moving
Begin by looking at the 10 columns, not at the first legal pair you can make. 4 columns hold 5 face-down cards and 6 hold 4, but their useful face-up cards are rarely distributed evenly. Find the columns that can be opened in 1 or 2 moves. Those are your early targets. Turning over a card there gives you new information and may release a rank that connects 2 other columns.
Also note the awkward columns. A low exposed card with no nearby parent may take several moves to shift. A high card can be difficult for the opposite reason: there may be nowhere useful to put it. You do not need a complete solution at the opening, but you should know which column you want to uncover first and where its exposed card could go.
Give face-down cards priority, with 1 exception
In the first half of a game, uncovering a face-down card is normally the best measure of progress. Completed sequences matter later; access matters now. If 2 moves are both legal, prefer the one that shortens a covered column or prepares its last exposed card to move.
The exception is a reveal that consumes your only workable space. Suppose clearing a column requires you to break a long suited run and fill the one empty column you already have. You may gain 1 unknown card while losing the room needed to sort everything around it. In that position, build a temporary landing place first. A reveal is valuable only if the new card can join a board that still moves.
Use an empty column as working space
An empty column is the most flexible place on a Spider board. It accepts any card or any movable same-suit run, so it can hold 1 section while you repair another. That makes it more useful than a neat mixed stack and often more useful than a move to a nearly finished run.
Try not to fill the gap simply because a card fits. Decide what the space is for. You might use it to separate 2 suits, release the card under a long run or reverse the order of 2 partial sequences. Once that job is done, aim to empty it again. Strong Spider play often consists of borrowing the same column several times rather than clearing several columns and immediately occupying all of them.
There is a practical limit. A new stock row cannot be dealt while a column is empty. If the current cards have been exhausted and you need the stock, place the most mobile card or run in the gap. Avoid choosing a lone low card that will have nowhere to go after the deal.
Build same-suit runs from stable anchors
Spider lets you place any suit on the next higher rank, but only a same-suit sequence travels as a group. A mixed run can solve an immediate placement problem while making the next 3 moves harder. Before adding an off-suit card, ask how you expect to remove it again.
Long suited runs are safest when they rest on a high card with a clear future. A suited 9 through 5 is useful, but it becomes far more useful when the matching 10 or Jack is accessible. Short fragments near the Ace end are less urgent because they cannot absorb many cards yet. Build around the sections that can grow in both directions, and keep an eye on duplicate ranks. With 2 decks, the first 8 you see is not necessarily the 8 that belongs in the run you are making.
Deal from the stock only after a board check
A stock deal adds 10 cards and covers every column. It does not merely offer new cards; it changes which old cards are available. Before dealing, make 3 checks.
- Have you made every reveal that does not damage a useful suited run?
- Can 2 mixed fragments be joined or separated with the current exposed cards?
- Are your longest suited runs resting where a new card will not trap them?
You do not have to play every legal move. Some moves merely exchange 1 blockage for another. Stop when the remaining choices make the board worse, then deal. The important distinction is between a table with no legal move and a table with no worthwhile move.
Winning at Spider 1 Suit
In Spider 1 Suit, every descending stack is movable. Your main risks are burying low cards, wasting empty columns and dealing before you have exposed enough of the tableau. Work on the columns with the fewest covered cards first, and combine short runs whenever the move leaves another useful card exposed.
Because suit breaks do not exist, it is tempting to build 1 very long column early. That can be counterproductive. A long run may pin the card beneath it if you have no empty column large enough to hold the run. Keep 2 or 3 medium runs mobile until more of the hidden cards are known. 1 suit is forgiving, but it still rewards room over tidiness.
Winning at Spider 2 Suits
Spider 2 Suits is where suit management becomes the game. Treat an off-suit placement as a loan. It should expose a card, clear a column or connect a better run. If it does none of those things, it is probably a delay rather than progress.
Keep at least 1 column hospitable to each suit when the board allows it. You do not need a strict hearts side and spades side, but you do need somewhere for a new fragment to go without breaking a long sequence. When duplicate ranks offer a choice, use the copy that preserves those landing places. The wrong 7 can turn a flexible table into 2 isolated halves.
Winning at Spider 4 Suits
Spider 4 Suits punishes casual parking. With 4 suits competing for the same ranks, a legal descending column can contain several breaks and still look orderly. Count those breaks. A 6-card stack with 4 suits in it is not a movable run; it is 4 separate jobs.
Work toward 1 achievable suit rather than improving every column a little. The first completed run removes 13 cards and creates room, which is often the point where a tight deal becomes manageable. Preserve a clean fragment even if that means making a less attractive move elsewhere. In 4 suits, dismantling good work is expensive because the matching ranks may not return for several stock rows.
What to do when the table starts closing
When your options shrink, trace the blockage back to the first move that changed access. Undoing only the last move often leads to the same dead end. The move worth changing may be an earlier off-suit placement that used a needed parent card, or the stock deal that covered a flexible column before it had been cleared.
If you prefer to play without undo, pause and inventory the exposed ranks. Check for a parent card hidden under a movable single card, then check whether a full column can be emptied by moving its top pieces in a different order. Do not repeatedly move the same pair between columns. A move should reveal, join a suit, create space or prepare one of those results.
Some random Spider deals cannot be completed. The deals on Solitaire.cx are certified, so a route to the finish exists even if your current position has left it. The distinction between a solvable deal and a solvable position is covered in our guide to winnable solitaire.
Play the endgame without rushing it
Once 5 or 6 runs have cleared, the board looks safe, but the last duplicated ranks can still cross each other. Keep 1 empty column until the remaining suits are separated. If the stock is gone, map each exposed fragment to the run it must join before moving anything. The smaller table makes that calculation easier, so there is no reason to guess.
Complete the run that releases the most useful column, not automatically the one with the fewest cards missing. When a finished King-to-Ace sequence leaves the table, use the new space to separate the remaining duplicate ranks before closing another run. The board is smaller now, but the last suit breaks still need a destination.
Questions players ask after a difficult deal
Should I always make a same-suit move?
No. An off-suit move is worthwhile when it reveals a card, opens a column or prevents a worse block. Same-suit building is the default preference, not a rule that overrides the position in front of you.
Is an empty column more important than a completed run?
A completed run permanently removes 13 cards, so take it when it is available. During the work that leads there, however, an empty column is often the tool that makes completion possible. Do not spend that space on a card with no onward move.
When should I move from 1 suit to 2 suits?
Move up when you regularly clear 1 suit without relying on repeated undo. You should be comfortable exposing the tableau, keeping a column open and delaying the stock. Those habits matter more than a particular win count.
Why do I keep losing after the final stock deal?
The usual cause is too many suit breaks left in the tableau. The last row adds cards but no later row will change the exposed ranks again. Before that deal, preserve an emptyable column and reduce mixed stacks so the new cards have somewhere useful to land.