How to play Spider solitaire

Rules in short: two decks are dealt into ten columns. Build down from king to ace; when a whole run from king to ace is in one suit, it leaves the table. Deal a new row from the stock when you need fresh cards, and win by clearing all eight runs.

Setup Moves Dealing a row 1, 2 or 4 suits Strategy Can every game be won? FAQ

Setup

Shuffle two decks together and deal 54 cards into ten columns: six cards in each of the first four columns and five in the other six. Only the top card of each column is face up. The other 50 cards are the stock, which you deal ten at a time.

Legal moves

• Build down, any suit. A card can go on any card one rank higher: a 7 on an 8, a queen on a king. Suits do not matter for a single card.
• Move runs only when they share a suit. A run like 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ moves as one piece. A mixed run like 9♠ 8♥ 7♠ cannot move together; you have to take it apart one suit-run at a time.
• Turn up face-down cards. When the last face-up card leaves a column, the card below turns over.
• Use empty columns. Any card or any same-suit run can go into an empty column. Empty columns are the most powerful tool in the game.
• Complete a run. When a column holds king, queen, jack and so on down to ace, all in one suit, those 13 cards leave the table on their own.

On Snug Table, tap a card to send it, and the cards on it, to the best spot automatically, or drag them where you want.

Dealing a new row

Tap the stock to deal one face-up card onto every column. You can do this five times. Every column must have at least one card before you deal, so fill any empty column first, even if the card has nowhere better to go. A new row often covers your neat runs, so make every useful move before you deal.

1 suit, 2 suits or 4 suits

Snug Table has no points and no money of any kind. We count your moves, completed suits and, if you like, your time.

Spider solitaire strategy

• Turn up hidden cards. Moves that reveal a face-down card come first. The four left columns hide the most.
• Build in suit when you can. A 7♥ on an 8♥ is worth far more than a 7♥ on an 8♠, because a same-suit run can move again later.
• Empty a column, then keep it working. An empty column lets you take mixed runs apart and rebuild them in suit. Don't fill it with a king unless you have to.
• Kings are hard to move. A king can only go to an empty column, so a column with a king at the bottom is a good home for long runs.
• Tidy up before you deal. Make every useful move first, because the new row lands on top of every column.
• Use undo freely. Trying a line and taking it back is how most players get better.

Can every Spider solitaire game be won?

Not every one. With one suit nearly every deal can be won with patient play. With two suits most deals can be won by a strong player who sees every card, and with four suits even good players lose many games, because hidden cards force choices before you know enough. That is why Snug Table offers winnable deals for one and two suits: before a shuffle goes on the list, our solver, which can see every card, has found a complete way to win it.

When we built the winnable lists, our solver found a win for over 99% of the one-suit deals it checked (1,000 of 1,005) and 31% of the two-suit deals (200 of 652). It searches with a time limit and is not perfect, so the true share of winnable deals is higher. Four-suit deals are always random on Snug Table, because our solver cannot yet prove a four-suit deal winnable.

Deal numbers and the daily deal

Every shuffle has a number. The order of the cards comes from a fixed formula: the seed is the SHA-256 hash of snugtable-spider| followed by the deal number, and the 104 cards are shuffled with the same provably fair method as our Spades and Okey deals. Send a friend the deal number and they get exactly your game. The daily deal is a winnable two-suit deal, the same for everyone that day.