How do you lay out the cards for Spider Solitaire?
54 cards are dealt into ten columns: six in each of the first four, five in the others. Only the top cards are face up. The remaining 50 cards form the stock, from which you deal ten cards five times, one onto each column.
How do you move cards in Spider?
You may place a card on a card one rank higher, in any suit, for example a nine on a ten. You can move together only an ordered run in one suit. Any card or run may go into an empty column. When you build a run from King to Ace in one suit, it leaves the table.
One, two or four suits?
In the one suit game all cards are spades, so every run can be moved. In the two suit game you have to separate spades and hearts, and in the four suit game all four suits, which makes it one of the hardest solitaire games. Start with one suit.
How do you win Spider more often?
- Build runs in one suit, even when a mixed move is possible.
- Empty columns are the most valuable: use them to rearrange runs, not to park random cards.
- Tidy up the table before dealing a new row, because the new cards cover the top of every column.
- Uncover the columns with the most face down cards first.
