Spider Solitaire online, with the real run-building rules.
Spider looks like a simple card stacker until suit structure starts to matter. You can place cards downward by rank even when suits differ, but a multi-card sequence moves together only when every card in that sequence belongs to the same suit and descends one rank at a time. That difference turns empty columns, hidden-card exposure and stock timing into the real strategy of the game.
How Spider Solitaire works
A standard Spider deal uses two decks, or 104 cards, spread across ten tableau columns. The first four columns begin with six cards and the remaining six begin with five, for 54 cards in the tableau. Only the exposed card at the bottom of each column starts face up. The other 50 cards form five stock rows. Each stock action places one face-up card on every tableau column.
The goal is to form eight complete same-suit sequences from King down through Ace. When a face-up K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-A run of one suit appears at the bottom of a column, the engine removes those thirteen cards automatically. The game is won after all eight complete runs have been removed.
Why a legal stack is not always a movable run
Cards may be placed on the next higher rank even if the suits differ. For example, a 7 can be placed on an 8 regardless of suit. That makes temporary mixed-suit stacks useful, especially when they uncover a hidden card. But a mixed-suit sequence cannot travel as one block. To move several cards together, the moving sequence itself must descend by one and stay in the same suit from top to bottom.
This is one of the most important Spider habits to learn. A move can be immediately legal but strategically expensive if it joins incompatible suits and turns a long flexible run into several single-card moves. The Strategy Coach therefore prefers moves that expose hidden cards, extend a same-suit run or use an empty column deliberately rather than treating every legal placement as equally good.
Stock timing matters
Spider’s stock is not a harmless refill button. A stock row places a card on all ten columns at once, which can break carefully prepared runs. Standard play also requires every tableau column to contain at least one card before a stock row can be dealt. If you create an empty column, you must decide how to use that workspace before you can deal again.
That creates a useful rhythm: uncover hidden cards, consolidate compatible suits, exploit an empty column, then prepare the tableau before dealing the next stock row. The game shows how many stock rows remain and disables the stock control when an empty column makes a deal illegal.
Three suit levels are genuinely different games
One-suit Spider is the most forgiving because every descending sequence is automatically same-suit. It is a good place to learn hidden-card exposure, empty-column timing and stock management. Two-suit Spider introduces the key distinction between a rank-compatible placement and a truly movable same-suit run. Four-suit Spider keeps all four suits and makes long-term organization much harder.
The specialist does not pretend those modes are equivalent. Local Clean bests are stored by suit level, and switching difficulty starts a fresh seeded deal. Daily Spider uses a fixed two-suit deal for the date so everyone opening the same local build on that day receives the same starting arrangement.
Seeded deals instead of a hidden content bank
Spider does not need a server-side puzzle database. The browser generates the full 104-card deck from a deterministic seed and shuffles it locally. Reusing the same seed and suit mode recreates the same opening deal. Fresh Practice generates a new seed; Daily Spider derives its seed from the date.
That deterministic design is useful for testing and reproducibility, but it is not presented as a guarantee that every deal is solvable. Some commercial Spider products advertise curated winning deals. This specialist does not make that claim without a complete solver proof. It instead gives you transparent standard rules, repeatable seeds and honest local records.
Tap, drag and keyboard shortcuts
On touch screens, tap a face-up card or a valid same-suit descending run, then tap the destination column. You can also drag the selected card or run to another column. Face-down cards cannot be selected. On a wider screen, the same ten-column board expands while preserving the card hierarchy instead of replacing the game with a canvas.
Keyboard shortcuts are intentionally small and memorable: U or Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes, H asks for a hint, D deals the next stock row when legal, and N starts a fresh Practice seed. The status area announces illegal placements, successful moves, stock restrictions and assist use.
Clean versus Assisted
Hint and Undo are useful learning tools, so they remain available without a paywall. Restart also lets you replay the same seeded opening. Those tools, however, mark the current run Assisted. An Assisted win still counts as a win, but it cannot replace the Clean personal best for that suit mode.
Clean is only a local fairness boundary. It does not claim a rating, intelligence score, percentile or global rank. Statistics and unfinished games remain in browser-local storage. If you clear a difficult four-suit deal with help, that is still useful practice; the record simply stays separate from an unaided clear.
A practical opening plan
Begin by scanning which moves uncover a face-down card immediately. Hidden-card exposure is usually more valuable than making a visually neat stack that changes nothing underneath. When two legal moves expose cards, prefer the one that also joins matching suits or preserves an empty-column opportunity.
Next, look at the bottom of each column for same-suit fragments such as 9-8-7 or Q-J-10. Extending those fragments reduces future movement cost because the entire same-suit sequence can travel together. Mixed-suit descending stacks can still be useful as temporary scaffolding, but they should not be mistaken for finished organization.
Finally, think before dealing stock. A new row lands on every column and can bury useful exposed cards. If you are one move away from revealing a hidden card or joining two same-suit fragments, make that move first. If a column is empty, use the empty space intentionally because the stock cannot be dealt until all ten columns contain cards again.
Separate from Today’s 6
Spider Solitaire is an unlimited Practice specialist, not a new member of the six-game Daily Score rotation. You can play one-suit training, difficult four-suit seeds or many fresh deals without altering Today’s 6. Daily Spider has its own date-stable opening, local history and specialist streak while the established Daily six remain unchanged.
Build one suit at a time.
Start with two suits for the standard learning curve, switch to one suit for a more forgiving board, or move to four suits when you want the full organizational challenge.
Play Spider Solitaire →