Spider FRVR

What is Spider Solitaire?

Spider Solitaire, one of the most popular two-deck solitaire variants, is a single-player card game dating back to the early 1900s. It involves the player removing all the cards from the tableau by building descending runs in a single suit from King to Ace. It's actually the opposite of its more popular sibling, Klondike Solitaire, which sees you move cards into foundation piles in ascending order.

Spider Solitaire rose significantly in popularity when it was bundled with Microsoft Windows software, becoming a staple of office productivity... or rather, procrastination.

Spider Solitaire Variants - 1 Suit vs 2 Suits vs 4 Suits

In this FRVR version of Spider Solitaire, we give you three difficulty options: 1 Suit, 2 Suits, and 4 Suits.

1 Suit (Easy)

Uses only one suit (Spades), making it the easiest to complete runs.

2 Suits (Medium)

Uses two suits (Spades and Hearts).

4 Suits (Hard)

Uses all four suits.

The objective remains the same – clear the tableau by creating full, single-suit runs from King to Ace. If you're new to Spider Solitaire, we'd recommend starting off with 1 Suit. If you're a seasoned expert, go for 2 Suits, or even head straight into 4 Suits.

How to Play Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire 1 Suit Tutorial

The aim of Spider Solitaire is simple – you need to arrange all of the cards into eight completed sets, or 'families', of a single suit, running from King down to Ace. When a full run is completed (K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A), it is automatically removed from the tableau.

You build sequences directly on the tableau, and if you try to drag an incompatible card, it'll automatically ping back to its origin position. Should you want to restart your game at any time, click the icon and navigate to 'Restart Game'.

Spider Solitaire 2 and 4 Suit Tutorial

The rules of the game remain the same; however, you'll be dealing with either two or all four suits, which greatly increases the complexity. Once you have exhausted your moves on the tableau, clicking the stock pile will deal a new row of ten cards to the tableau.

Spider Solitaire Setup

As we've discussed, there are four basic elements in the game. Let's go through each one:

Tableau: Means "table," in French, and simply refers to the playing area. This is where most of the action happens. The tableau starts with ten columns of cards.
Completed Sets: These are the equivalent of the foundation piles in Klondike. To win, you'll need to create eight full descending runs (K-A) of a single suit, which are automatically removed from the tableau.
Stock pile: Once the initial cards have been dealt, this is the stack of remaining cards. You will deal an entire row from this pile when you have no more moves.
Waste piles: Unlike Klondike, there is no separate waste pile; cards are simply removed from play once a full run is built.

Spider Solitaire Rules

Tableau Rules:

Cards in the tableau need to be arranged in descending order, but initially, you can place any card of a lower rank on a higher rank (e.g., a Queen of Clubs on a King of Diamonds).
However, you can only move sequences of cards if they are all of the same suit and in descending order.
Any free card or sequence can be moved into an empty tableau column.
The goal is to build full, descending, single-suit runs (from King to Ace) to remove them.

Stock Pile:

You'll deal one card to the bottom of every tableau column when you click the stock pile.

Completed Sets:

A completed run, from King down to Ace, in the same suit, is automatically removed from the tableau. The game is won when all 104 cards are removed and the full tableau is cleared.

Learn More About Spider Solitaire on FRVR

We have more guides to help you get better at Spider Solitaire. Click the links below to learn more about Spider Solitaire: