Spider Solitaire

How to play

Spider uses two decks, 104 cards in all. The deal places 54 cards in ten columns, six cards in each of the first four and five in the other six, with only the top card face up. The remaining 50 cards stay in the stock, enough for five new rows of ten. The Suits option chooses what the two decks contain: one suit means 104 spades, two suits means spades and hearts, and four suits means two ordinary decks.

Any card can be placed on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit, so a 7 of hearts may go on an 8 of clubs. A group of cards can only be moved together when it runs down in rank in one single suit. Any card or movable group can go into an empty column. When a face-down card is uncovered it turns face up by itself.

Clicking the stock deals one face-up card onto every column, but only when no column is empty. When a column ends with a complete run from King down to Ace in one suit, that run leaves the table for one of the eight foundation spaces at the top. The game is won when all eight runs have been completed, which clears the table. One suit is the gentlest setting and four suits is the hardest, because mixed suits break up the runs that can be moved.

Controls

Drag a card or a one-suit run with the mouse or a finger and drop it on the column where it should go. A single tap or click on a card moves it to a legal column, and a column ending in the same suit is chosen first. Click the stock in the top left corner to deal a new row. Undo takes back moves one at a time with no limit, deals from the stock included, and Hint outlines one possible move in yellow. Every deal has a number shown as Game #N, and Restart deal plays the same cards again. Adding ?deal=N to the page address opens that exact deal, and adding &suits=2 as well fixes the number of suits.

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