Spider Solitaire with 1 suit

Why this is the easiest version

In Spider you can only move several cards together when they share a suit. Here every card is a spade, so that obstacle disappears: any ordered run moves as a whole, and every full king-to-ace sequence leaves the table on its own. What remains is the pleasure of building, and the only challenge is uncovering hidden cards and keeping space. That is why this version is the best place to learn.

Your first games, step by step

You start with 54 cards in ten columns, with only the last card of each one face up. Look first for moves that uncover a new card, and tidy up what you can already see afterwards. Empty short columns first, because a free column gives you room to move long runs. When you run out of moves, tap the stock and every column gets one card. There are five deals, and none can happen while a column stands empty.

A calm game with no pressure

Nothing rushes you: you can undo moves, and by default the game only deals layouts that can be won, so a loss is never just bad luck. Every move, deal and undo takes one point from your starting 500, and a finished run adds a hundred. If you start winning nearly every game, try two suits: the score counts one and a half times there, but moving cards takes real planning.

Common beginner mistakes

You can still lose with one suit. It usually happens when someone deals from the stock before making every available move, because each new card covers a column and cuts off the cards below. Another mistake is filling an empty column with a king just to tidy up. The king stays there until the run is done, so pick it when you have the next cards ready to go on top. The third is haste: an undo costs one point, and a bad choice can cost the game.