Spider Solitaire: the two-deck patience game that rewards patience

Spider Solitaire is the big, thoughtful cousin of the Solitaire most of us grew up with. Instead of one pack, it uses two — 104 cards — spread across ten columns. There is no neat little foundation corner to fill early on. Instead you build long runs from King down to Ace, right there on the table, and each finished run of thirteen cards is lifted away.

It is a game of untangling. Every move you make either opens the board up a little or closes it down a little, and the good news is that you can see almost everything you need to see. That is why so many players say Spider feels less like luck and more like sorting out a knotty problem with a cuppa beside you.

You can play it here for nothing. It is completely free, with no ads of any kind, no pop-ups and no paywalls. There is nothing to download or install, no sign-up, no account and no email address to hand over. It runs in any modern browser on your desktop, tablet or phone, and it exists for one reason only: because the game is a pleasure to play.

The rules, explained simply

The layout

• Two full packs are shuffled together: 104 cards.
• Ten columns are dealt across the table. The first four columns get six cards each, the other six columns get five cards each — 54 cards in all. Only the bottom card of each column starts face up.
• The remaining 50 cards form the stock, which you deal out later, ten at a time.
• There are eight completed-run slots. Each holds one finished King-to-Ace sequence.

How cards move

• You may place a card on any face-up card that is one rank higher. A 9 goes on a 10, a Jack goes on a Queen. Suit does not matter for this move.
• You may move a group of cards together only if they are in order and all the same suit — for example the 8, 7 and 6 of hearts. A run of mixed suits has to be shifted one card at a time.
• Aces are low. Nothing goes on an Ace, so an Ace sitting on top of a column is a blocked card until the run underneath it is finished.
• Kings can only be moved to an empty column, because no card outranks them.
• Turning a face-down card face up happens automatically once the card above it is moved away. Uncovering those cards is the whole job.

Dealing from the stock

When you run out of useful moves, you deal a fresh row: one card face up onto every one of the ten columns. There are five deals in total. One rule catches everyone out at first: you cannot deal while any column is empty. Empty columns are your most valuable asset, so fill one with a King (or a King with a tidy same-suit run behind it) before you deal.

How you win

Build eight complete same-suit runs, King down to Ace. Each one is removed from the table as soon as it is finished, which frees space and makes the rest of the board easier. Clear all eight and the game is won.

Many versions of Spider are played with one suit, two suits or all four suits. The fewer suits in play, the easier it is to make same-suit runs, and the more relaxed the game feels.

How to play Spider Solitaire on this site

Everything here is built for comfortable, unhurried play, and every feature is available to everyone — nothing is locked, nothing costs anything.

• Large, clear cards and readable text. Pips and numbers are easy on tired eyes, and there is a zoom control to make the board bigger.
• Drag and drop, or simply tap a card and tap where you want it to go. Whichever suits your hand or your touchscreen.
• Hint when the board goes blurry and you are sure you have missed something.
• Unlimited Undo. Try a line of play, see where it leads, and step back as far as you like. This is the single best way to learn Spider.
• Restart to begin the same deal again with everything you have learnt from it.
• Auto Play to finish off a game that is already won, instead of clicking through the tidy-up.
• Wins, time and moves are tracked for the game in front of you — handy if you like beating your own numbers, easy to ignore if you don't. No timer is pushing you.
• Sound can be switched off, there is a fullscreen mode, and you can change the table colour to whatever is kindest to your eyes.

There is no gambling here and nothing to buy. If you would like something gentler between Spider games, have a look at the other games in the collection at /games, including classic Klondike with both Turn 3 and Turn 1 draw modes.

Strategy that actually works

Your first few moves

1. Look before you touch. Read all ten face-up cards first. Find the pairs that already match by suit.
2. Prefer same-suit moves every single time. A 7 of clubs on an 8 of clubs is worth far more later than a 7 of clubs on an 8 of spades, because it can travel as one block.
3. Work on the shortest columns. Five-card columns empty out faster than six-card ones, and an empty column is the closest thing Spider has to a free hand.
4. Don't deal early. Squeeze every move out of the table first. Each deal buries ten cards and can easily undo good work.

In the middle of the game

• Keep at least one column empty when you can. Use it as a workbench to shift mixed runs card by card, then clear it again before you deal.
• Break mixed piles up rather than stacking neatly across suits. A long rainbow run looks lovely and does almost nothing.
• Chase the face-down cards. Information is the currency of Spider. A move that flips a new card is usually better than a move that merely tidies.
• Park Kings sensibly. A King in an empty column is the start of a run; a King buried mid-column is a wall.
• Use Undo as a planning tool. Play three or four moves ahead, see how the board looks, then undo and choose properly. That is practice, not cheating.

Common mistakes

• Dealing from the stock out of habit, because the board looks stuck when it isn't quite.
• Filling an empty column with a random low card, then finding you cannot deal.
• Mixing suits for a quick tidy-up and cementing the pile in place.
• Completing a run for the satisfaction of it, when the same cards were holding a bigger tangle open.
• Playing when you are tired. Spider is a thinking game; ten minutes fresh beats an hour foggy.

Odds and numbers worth knowing

Spider's difficulty depends almost entirely on how many suits are in play. Published win-rate summaries broadly agree on the shape of it, even if the exact figures differ between sites and player groups.

The one-suit and two-suit ranges above are from the win-rate round-up published by solitaire.com, and the four-suit figure of about 1 in 12 is the rate given by Solitaire Bliss. Treat them as honest guides rather than precise constants: they move with the rules used and the skill of the players measured.

Spider, Klondike and Turn 3

For comparison, classic Klondike has been studied more closely than almost any other patience game. Research by Ronald Bjarnason, Alan Fern and Prasad Tadepalli at Oregon State University (2007) showed that at least about 82% of Klondike deals can be solved when the player can see every card — yet the same round-up from solitaire.com reports that ordinary players win only around 11–33% in practice, with Turn 3 at the bottom of that range because two cards in every three stay hidden on each pass.

We do not publish invented figures about New Zealand players, because no official statistics exist on how Kiwis play patience. What we can tell you from the mail we get is entirely unsurprising: Turn 3 Klondike and Spider are the two games that keep people coming back, they get played most on wet weekends and long winter evenings from Invercargill to Whangārei, and the requests we receive most often are for bigger cards and quieter sound — both of which you now have. If Turn 3 is your game, it lives at /solitaire-draw-3.

A bit of history

Spider has been in patience books since the middle of the twentieth century, and it takes its name from the eight completed runs it asks for — eight legs, like a spider. It reached a far wider audience when Microsoft included Spider Solitaire with Windows, which is where most people over 50 first met it: a quiet ten minutes at the end of the working day. The game has outlived the computers it came on, largely because the puzzle underneath it is genuinely good.

Frequently asked questions

Is Spider Solitaire harder than normal Solitaire?

Generally yes, especially with two or four suits. But more of the outcome is in your hands: far more cards are visible, so good decisions matter more than the shuffle.

Do I need to download anything or sign up?

No. No download, no install, no account, no email address. Open the page and play.

Does it cost anything, or show ads?

No. It is completely free, with no ads of any kind, no pop-ups, no paywalls and nothing to buy. There is no gambling involved.

Can I play on my iPad or phone?

Yes. It runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet and phone. On a touchscreen, tapping a card and then tapping its destination is usually easier than dragging.

The cards are too small for me. Can I make them bigger?

Yes. Use the zoom control to enlarge the board, and try fullscreen mode. The cards and text are deliberately large and high-contrast, and you can change the table colour if that helps.

Is using Hint or Undo cheating?

Not here. Hint and unlimited Undo are free for everyone and are the fastest way to learn which moves actually pay off. Nobody is marking you.

Why can't I deal from the stock?

Because one of your columns is empty. Spider requires every column to hold at least one card before a new row is dealt. Fill the gap — ideally with a King — then deal.

Are all Spider games winnable?

Not every deal is, and in four-suit Spider even strong players lose most games. That is part of the appeal: a win is worth something. Use Restart to take the same deal on again with what you have learnt.

Can I turn the sound off?

Yes, sound can be switched off completely.

Where do I find your other games?

They are all listed at /games, with tips and articles at /blog/. Our privacy policy is at /privacy.