Practice Spider Solitaire with a coach

New to Spider? Read the full rules · All practice games

The Spider table

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Coach

Goal: build eight full runs, each one suit from the king down to the ace, in the columns. A full run leaves the table at once, and when all eight have left, you have won. Undo has no limit, so you can try things without fear.

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About this practice game

One player, two decks: 104 cards. Ten columns of cards are dealt, and your job is to build runs of one suit from the king down to the ace. Each full run leaves the table, and eight of them win the deal. The practice game starts with one suit, the beginner's version; two suits and four suits (the original game) are a button away. Press Hint for a suggestion and Undo as often as you like. Not every deal can be won. New to the game? Press Watch a narrated deal above the table to see the computer play the start of a deal, with every move explained and the hidden cards left hidden, as in a real game.

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How Spider works

One player, two decks. You play against the cards. Spider uses 104 cards, so every card appears more than once. Cards go in this order, lowest to highest: A (ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J (jack), Q (queen), K (king). A card's place in this order is its rank, so a 7 is one rank higher than a 6.
One suit, two suits or four. With one suit, all 104 cards are spades (eight of each card): the beginner's version. With two suits they are spades and hearts (four of each). With four suits they are two ordinary decks: the original game, and the hardest. Choose with the buttons under the table; changing it starts a new deal.
The ten columns. 54 cards are dealt into ten columns: 6 cards in each of the first four and 5 in each of the other six. Only the last card of each column (the one lowest on the screen) is face up. The cards above it are face down, which means hidden.
Building down. A card can go onto any card one rank higher, of any suit: a 6 onto any 7. A king goes onto nothing, because nothing is higher.
Moving several cards at once. Cards can move together only when they are all one suit and in order, such as the 9♥, 8♥ and 7♥. Pick up the first of them, and the cards below it come with it. A 7♥ sitting on an 8♠ is allowed, but the two cannot move together.
Hidden cards turn over by themselves. When you move all the face-up cards out of a column, the hidden card above them turns face up.
Empty columns take anything. Any card, or any run of one suit, can go into an empty column.
Full runs leave the table. When a column ends with a whole suit in order, from the king down to the ace, those 13 cards leave the table at once. In this practice game that happens by itself.
New rows. The other 50 cards are the draw pile: five new rows of ten. Click the draw pile (or press Deal a row) to put one card face up onto every column. You may only deal when no column is empty.
Winning, and not winning. You win when all eight runs have left the table. Not every deal can be won, and with four suits most cannot. When no move helps and no row can be dealt, the game says so.

How to use this page

Click a card to pick it up (it gets a red outline, and so do the cards below it). Then click where it goes: the last card of another column, or an empty column. Click the card again to put it down. The line at the top of the board lists where the picked-up cards can go, and those places are outlined. A faded card cannot be picked up, because the cards below it are not one suit in order.
Click the draw pile, or press Deal a row, to deal a new row.
Hint points at one good move with a gold outline and says why it is good. Undo takes back your last move, and you can press it again and again. New deal shuffles and starts over.
Under the table, 1 suit, 2 suits and 4 suits set how many suits the cards are made of. One suit is the easiest. Changing it starts a new deal.
With the keyboard: press Tab to move between the draw pile and the columns. In a column, the up and down arrow keys move between its cards and the left and right arrow keys move to the next column. Enter or Space picks a card up and puts it down. Escape puts it down.
The counters show how many moves you have made, how many runs are finished and how many rows are left. There is no timer, and nothing is scored.
To watch instead of play, press Watch a narrated deal above the table. The computer plays the start of a two-suit deal, up to its first full run, and every move is explained: what could be moved, which move it chose and why. Hidden cards stay hidden, as in a real game. Press Next and Back (or the arrow keys) to step, Play to let it run on its own, and Jump to to skip ahead. Back to playing returns to your game exactly as you left it.

Four things beginners miss

Build in the same suit when you can. A 7♥ may go on any 8, but only on the 8♥ can it ever move on with it, and only a run of one suit leaves the table. When two 8s are free, choose the one of the same suit.
Uncover hidden cards. Every card has to be face up before the deal can be won. When you can choose, take the move that turns over a hidden card, and work on the column with the fewest hidden cards: it is the closest to becoming empty.
Keep an empty column for later. Any card or run can go into an empty column, so it is the most useful place on the table: you can park cards there while you take another column apart. Fill it only when it turns over a hidden card, or when you need a card in every column to deal a new row.
Deal only when nothing else helps. A new row lands on top of every column and covers what you have built. Make every useful move first.

Common beginner mistakes

Putting a card on another suit when the same suit was free. The two cards then cannot move on together. If you did it by mistake, press Undo.
Filling an empty column for no reason. Once it is filled, it is gone until you empty a column again.
Dealing a row too early. Ten new cards land on your columns. Look for every move first, or press Hint.
Starting with four suits. Four suits is the original game and far harder. Learn with one suit, then try two.
Giving up too soon. Press Hint, or press Undo and try a different way.

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