Spider Solitaire
Added 02/2026
Spider Solitaire: The Ultimate Test of Patience and Planning
By Martin Petroff
If Klondike is the undisputed king of casual card games, Spider Solitaire is the towering, intimidating boss battle waiting at the end of the dungeon. Playing with a massive 104 cards (two full standard decks), this variation is notorious for eating up hours of your time—and rewarding you with an unmatched sense of accomplishment when you finally win. While digital versions often let you ease into the game with 1-Suit or 2-Suit variations, tackling the traditional 4-Suit version is a deep, highly strategic puzzle that demands incredible foresight, careful column management, and a whole lot of patience.
How to Play
Because you are dealing with two full decks, the board looks significantly different from Klondike. You need plenty of space on your green felt (or your screen) for this one.
The Objective: Your goal is to assemble eight complete sequences of cards in descending order, from King down to Ace, within the same suit. Once a full sequence is built within a column, it is automatically removed from the board (or moved to a foundation pile). Clear all 104 cards to win.
The Setup (The Tableau):
Shuffle two standard 52-card decks together (104 cards total).
Deal the cards into 10 columns.
The first four columns receive 6 cards each (5 face down, 1 face up).
The remaining six columns receive 5 cards each (4 face down, 1 face up).
The remaining 50 cards form your Stockpile off to the side.
How to Play:
Building the Columns: You can move any face-up card onto another card that is exactly one rank higher, regardless of its suit or color. (For example, you can place a 7 of Hearts onto an 8 of Clubs).
Moving Sequences: Here is the catch: while you can build mixed-suit piles, you can only move a sequence of cards together if they are all of the exact same suit and in perfect descending order.
Revealing Cards: Just like Klondike, when you expose a face-down card in a column, flip it over to put it in play.
Empty Columns: If a column becomes completely empty, you can move any single card or valid same-suit sequence into that empty space. This is crucial for untangling messy piles!
The Draw: When you are completely stuck, click the Stockpile. Instead of dealing one card to a waste pile, you will deal one face-up card to the bottom of every single column (10 cards total).
The Golden Rule of the Draw: You cannot draw from the Stockpile if you have any empty columns on the board. You must place at least one card in every empty space before a new row can be dealt.