Spider Solitaire Strategy: How to Win More Often
Practical tips for Spider solitaire with one, two or four suits: build in suit, use empty columns to sort runs, and tidy up before you deal.
Sunroom Games · Updated
Spider is the solitaire that rewards patience most. With two decks and ten columns, it's easy to make moves that feel productive but quietly tie your cards in knots. A handful of habits will untie them — and win you far more games.
If you're new to Spider, start with how to play Spider. This guide is about winning.
Start with one suit
Spider comes in three versions: one suit, two suits and four suits. With one suit, every card is a spade, so any run you build can move as a group. That makes it the best way to learn how the game flows — when to deal, how to use empty columns, which cards to dig out first. Most one-suit games can be won with careful play.
Once one suit feels comfortable, try two. You'll find the same habits still work; you just have to apply them with more care. Four suits is one of the hardest solitaire games there is, and winning one is a genuine achievement.
1. Build in suit whenever you can
This is the heart of Spider. Any card can go on a card one rank higher, but only a run of one suit can be picked up and moved as a group.
So when you have a choice between putting an 8 of hearts or an 8 of spades on a 9 of spades, choose the spade. And when a card is already sitting on a card of its own suit, think twice before moving it somewhere else — you'd be breaking up a run you'll want later.
2. Don't be afraid of a mixed run — just know it's temporary
You can't always build in suit, and you shouldn't wait for perfect moves. Putting a red 6 on a black 7 is often the only way to reach a face-down card. Just treat that mixed run as a stopgap: it will need to be taken apart later, card by card, and that takes space.
A useful habit is to ask, before an out-of-suit move, "will I be able to undo this mess later?" If the answer is yes — you have an empty column, or the cards involved are near the bottom of a column — go ahead.
3. Turn over face-down cards
Hidden cards are what make Spider hard. Every face-down card you turn over gives you more choices, so moves that uncover cards are almost always worth making. When two moves look equally good, choose the one that digs into the column with the most face-down cards.
4. Treat empty columns as your most valuable tool
An empty column can hold any card or any run of one suit. That makes it the best tool in the game for sorting out a mess.
Here's the classic way to use one. Say a column ends with a 9 of spades, then an 8 and 7 of hearts. Move the 8 and 7 of hearts into the empty column. Now the 9 of spades is free to move — perhaps onto a 10 of spades. Then bring the hearts back onto a 9 of hearts, if there is one, and your empty column is empty again.
The lesson: don't fill an empty column with the first card that comes along. Use it to rearrange, then free it again if you can.
5. Be careful with Kings
A King can only ever move into an empty column, because no card is higher than a King. Putting a King into an empty column uses that column up for good, so only do it when it helps — for example, when it uncovers a face-down card, or when the King already has a long run of its own suit built on it. A King with a good run beneath it is exactly where a finished King-to-Ace run gets built.
6. Tidy up before you deal
A new row puts one card on every column, which covers the bottom of every run you've built. Before you deal, make every useful move you can — especially ones that join cards of the same suit, so that your runs are as long as possible when the new cards land on them.
Don't put off dealing for too long, though. When you've truly run out of good moves, a new row brings ten new cards into play. There are five deals in all.
7. Choose between equal moves wisely
Often two cards could make the same move — two 7s that could go on an 8, say. Prefer the one that:
- joins a card of its own suit,
- uncovers a face-down card, or
- empties a column.
If none of those apply, choose the one from the longer column; it's the one that needs more digging.
8. Use Undo to look ahead
Undo goes back hundreds of moves, and it even works after a deal. If you're torn between two plans, try one. If it goes nowhere, undo back and try the other. The Hint button can help too: it suggests a move that joins suits, uncovers a card or frees a column, and it tells you when it's time to deal.
With two or four suits
Everything above still applies, but it matters more. Build in suit at almost any cost, keep an empty column free whenever you can, and don't panic when a game goes badly — with four suits, many deals are very hard. Undo a few moves, try a different line, and enjoy the games you do win.