Spider Solitaire Strategy: 1, 2 and 4 Suits
September 28, 2026
Spider Solitaire has a reputation for being either trivially easy or impossibly hard, and both are true — it depends on how many suits you play. One suit is a gentle puzzle you can win almost every time; four suits is one of the toughest patience games there is. The same handful of habits wins at every level, though, and this guide walks through them using the exact rules of our Spider Solitaire.
The rules that shape every decision
- Two decks, ten columns. All 104 cards are in play. Fifty-four are dealt into ten columns — four of six cards and six of five — with only the top card of each face up, and the other fifty wait in the stock as five deals of ten.
- Any card on one higher, but runs must match. A single card may go on any card one rank higher, whatever its suit. Several cards only move together when they form a descending run in one suit, and you can pick that run up from any card inside it.
- Finished sequences leave on their own. When the top thirteen cards of a column run from King down to Ace in one suit, they are removed at once and the card underneath turns face up. Clear eight and you have won.
- No dealing onto a gap. The stock deals one card onto every column, and it refuses while any column is empty.
- Undo is for thinking. It steps back one move at a time through your last 200 moves, so you can test a line and retreat.
How the three suit counts change the game
- 1 suit. All 104 cards are spades — eight of every rank — so every downward run is already a movable run. Nearly every deal can be won; the real enemies are impatience and a badly timed deal.
- 2 suits. Spades and hearts, four of each rank per suit. Now “one rank lower” and “one rank lower in the same suit” are different things, and choosing the matching card whenever you can is most of the skill.
- 4 suits. A true double deck with only two copies of each card. Off-suit building becomes unavoidable, runs break constantly, and even careful play loses some deals. Wins here are the ones worth bragging about.
A move priority list
- First, turn over a face-down card. Hidden cards are the real puzzle, and every one you expose adds options.
- Second, build in suit. Put the 7♠ on the 8♠ rather than the 8♥, even when the 8♥ looks more convenient right now.
- Third, empty a column. A move that clears a column is usually worth more than one that merely looks tidy.
- Last, off-suit parking. Building across suits is legal and sometimes necessary, but every mixed joint is a knot you will have to untie later.
Empty columns are your real currency
An empty column accepts any card or any same-suit run, which makes it the only tool that can untangle a mixed pile. To move a stack such as 9♥ 8♠ 7♠ onto a 10, shift the 8♠ 7♠ run into the gap, move the 9♥ across, then put the spades back on top of it; every extra empty column roughly doubles the size of the tangle you can relocate this way. So attack the shortest columns first — the six five-card columns hide one card fewer — and think twice before filling your last gap. Be careful with Kings in particular: a King can only ever move into an empty column, so parking one there uses the column up for good unless that King is heading a run you intend to finish.
Building in-suit runs
Every sequence that leaves the table is thirteen cards of one suit, so the habit to build is picking the matching suit whenever two targets are open. When you have to build off-suit, do it on the column you care least about, and repair the joint as soon as a matching card appears: if the 6♥ sits on the 7♠ and a 7♥ comes free, move the 6♥ — with any hearts stacked on it — across. Never break a clean same-suit run just to make one off-suit move elsewhere, and remember that you can split a run: the 7♠ 6♠ end of a 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ can go onto another 8 while the rest stays put.
When to deal from the stock
A deal drops ten fresh cards across every column and can bury runs you were building, so deal only when you have genuinely run out of useful moves. Use the pause to prepare: every empty column has to be filled first, so drop in the least useful card you have, and finish any off-suit repair or near-complete run that a new card would cover. The counter under the stock shows how many of the five deals remain. Straight after a deal you have the most new options, so look at every column again from scratch rather than carrying on with your old plan.
Four-suit discipline
- Slow down. With only two copies of each card, a careless off-suit build can smother the one card you needed. Look at the whole table before each move.
- Count the copies. If both 8♣ are buried deep in other columns, a 7♣ has no home in suit for now; plan around it rather than hoping.
- Guard your gaps. Empty columns are rarer with four suits and worth even more. Spend one only on a move that turns a card over or completes a sequence.
- Scout with Undo. Try a promising line, see where it dead-ends, step back and take the better branch — especially just before a deal.
Scoring and the leaderboard
Only a finished game scores. When the eighth sequence leaves the table you get 800 points per sequence plus an efficiency bonus of 5,000 minus one point for every second and every move, and the result is posted to the leaderboard for the suit count you played — 1, 2 and 4 suits are ranked separately. The clock starts on your first move, so study the opening layout for as long as you like before touching a card. Winning comes first; a quick, tidy win is what climbs the rankings.
In short: uncover hidden cards first, build in suit, treat empty columns like money, deal only when you are out of moves, and on four suits slow right down. Stay on one suit until you win almost every deal, then move up — the habits carry over, and the harder boards are where they really pay off.