Objective of the Game
Spider is a solitaire card game where the goal is to arrange all the cards into descending sequences of the same suit from King to Ace, and then remove them from the board.
Components
For Spider, you need two standard decks of cards, totaling 104 cards.
Setup
- Shuffle all the cards together.
- Deal ten tableaus with the first 54 cards: The first four tableaus contain six face-down cards, the remaining six have five face-down cards.
- Turn the top card of each pile face-up.
- The remaining 50 cards form a stock divided into five piles of ten cards each.
Rules
- Moves: You can move any face-up card to another if it has a rank one lower. The suit does not matter for moving. For example, a five can be placed on a six.
- Moving Sequences: If you have a continuous descending sequence of the same suit (e.g., King of hearts to Ten of hearts), you can move these together.
- Empty Columns: When a column of cards is completely moved, you can fill the empty space with any card or an allowed sequence.
- Dealing: If no moves are possible or desired, deal a new row of ten cards, one on each tableau, as long as all columns have at least one card.
Playing with Suits
Spider can be played with one, two, or four suits. - One Suit: Easiest; all cards are of the same suit. - Two Suits: Medium difficulty; typically, spades and hearts are used. - Four Suits: Most difficult; all four suits are used.
Strategy Tips
- Aim to create long sequences of the same suit to remove them.
- Try to free up columns early for more flexibility.
- Avoid using the stock cards prematurely if there are still possible moves to reduce clutter.
Game Ending
The game is won when all cards are arranged into complete sequences by suit and removed from the board.
