Spider Solitaire is one of the most popular two-deck solitaire games, and it plays quite differently from Klondike. There are no separate foundation piles to build onto and suits matter less than you might expect. This page is a complete reference to the rules — the setup, the legal moves, the goal, and the suit variants — so you can sit down and play with confidence. If you would rather learn by doing, you can play Spider Solitaire right now with hints turned on.
What is Spider Solitaire?
Spider is played with two full decks shuffled together — 104 cards. The cards are spread across ten tableau columns, and your job is to sort them into ordered sequences that can be cleared from the board. Spider comes in three difficulty settings, all using the same 104 cards: a 1-suit game (every card is a spade), a 2-suit game (spades and hearts), and a 4-suit game (all four suits). The more suits in play, the harder it is to build the runs you need.
Setting up the board
At the start of a game, 54 of the 104 cards are dealt to the ten columns. The deal is uneven: the first four columns receive six cards each and the remaining six columns receive five cards each (4 × 6 + 6 × 5 = 54). In every column only the bottom card — the one nearest you — is turned face-up; all the cards above it are face-down.
The other 50 cards form the stock, held face-down to one side. Because each stock deal places one card on every one of the ten columns, those 50 cards give you exactly five deals over the course of the game.
The objective
The goal is to build eight complete sequences, each running from King down to Ace in a single suit. The moment a column ends in a full, in-suit King-to-Ace run, that run is automatically removed from the board and set aside. Clear all eight runs — one for each King in the two decks — and you win. There is nothing extra to do once the last run lifts off: an empty board is a finished game.
Legal moves
Within the tableau, you build downward by rank, ignoring suit. You may place a card onto any card that is exactly one rank higher — a Nine of any suit onto any Ten, a Two of any suit onto any Three, and so on. This means you can always make progress even when the colours and suits do not line up.
Suit matters when you want to move several cards at once. A group of cards only travels together if it is a same-suit run in descending order — for example the 8-7-6 of hearts. A sequence of mixed suits is still a legal stack to look at, but only its single top card can be picked up and moved on its own. Keeping runs in one suit is therefore what lets you shift large blocks around.
An empty column accepts any card or run, regardless of rank, which makes empty columns a valuable workspace for reorganising tangled stacks. Whenever you move cards off a column and expose a face-down card beneath, that card is turned face-up automatically.
When you run out of useful moves, you can deal a new row from the stock: tapping the stock lays one card face-up onto each of the ten columns. The one restriction is that every column must already hold at least one card — you cannot deal while any column is empty, so plan ahead before reaching for the stock.
Completing and clearing runs
A run is completed when a column ends in thirteen cards of the same suit in order, from King at the top down to Ace at the bottom. As soon as that happens — whether you formed it by hand or a stock deal completed it — the whole run is lifted off the board and parked in one of the eight finished slots. Any face-down card it leaves behind is flipped face-up, ready to use. You have won the game once all eight runs have been removed and the tableau is empty.
The suit variants and difficulty
The number of suits is Spider's difficulty dial, and CardHearth offers all three on their own tables:
- 1 suit (easy) — every card is a spade, so any descending sequence is also a same-suit run and moves as a unit. This is the best way to learn the game; start at 1-suit Spider.
- 2 suits (medium) — spades and hearts are mixed in, so you have to keep suits apart to move blocks. Try 2-suit Spider once the basics feel natural.
- 4 suits (hard) — all four suits are in play, making same-suit runs scarce and the game a genuine challenge. 4-suit Spider is for confident players.
For a side-by-side breakdown of how the difficulty changes, see our guide to choosing between 1, 2 and 4 suits.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards and decks does Spider Solitaire use?
Spider uses two standard 52-card decks combined — 104 cards in total. Fifty-four of them are dealt to the ten tableau columns at the start, and the remaining fifty sit in the stock to be dealt later, ten at a time, across five deals.
Can you move more than one card at a time in Spider?
Yes, but only if the cards form a same-suit run in descending order. A run such as the 10-9-8 of spades moves together as a unit. If the cards are in sequence but of mixed suits, only the single top card can be moved on its own.
Why can I not deal new cards from the stock?
Spider forbids a stock deal while any column is empty. Because every deal places one card on each of the ten columns, an empty column is not allowed to receive one. Fill all empty columns first, then the stock will deal.
Keep going
Now that you know the rules, the next step is learning to win them. Read our Spider Solitaire strategy guide for the habits that lift your win rate, decide where to start with our 1, 2 or 4 suits guide, and look up any unfamiliar term in the solitaire glossary. When you are ready, play Spider Solitaire — or browse every guide in our guides hub.