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Spider Solitaire: one, two and four suits

By Gleb Tkatchouk · last updated 2026-09-18

Spider is the two-deck solitaire: 104 cards, ten columns, and the goal of building eight complete runs from king down to ace. It is the second most played solitaire in the world after Klondike, and the one where the choice of suits changes the game the most — one-suit Spider is a pleasant puzzle, four-suit Spider is one of the hardest solitaires there is.

Spider with one, two or four suits — and the one- and two-suit deals are proven winnable. Free on the App Store.

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Rules of Spider Solitaire

The deal. Ten columns. The first four get six cards each, the other six get five — fifty-four cards on the table, the top card of each column face up. The remaining fifty cards form the stock.

Moving cards. A card, or a descending run of cards of the same suit, moves onto a card one rank higher — of any suit. A run can also move to an empty column. Only same-suit runs move as a unit: a 7♠ on an 8♥ is a legal placement, but that pair will not move together afterwards.

Dealing from the stock. Tapping the stock deals one card onto every column at once — ten cards per deal, five deals in total. Dealing is not allowed while any column is empty: fill every column first.

Completing a run. When a column contains a full run from king down to ace in one suit, it leaves the table. Eight completed runs — all 104 cards — win the game.

One suit, two suits, four suits

The number of suits is the difficulty setting, and it is the only thing that changes.

One suit — spades only, eight sets of them. Any card can be placed on any card one rank higher, and every run you build moves as a unit. Runs almost assemble themselves; the game is about keeping columns tidy and freeing space before each deal. A good introduction, and a calm game in its own right.

Two suits — spades and hearts, four sets of each. Now a red card on a black run breaks the run's mobility. The game becomes about deciding when a mixed-suit placement is worth it to open a card, and when it will cost you later.

Four suits — a full deck, twice. The classic Spider, and a genuinely hard game: most deals cannot be won without planning several deals of the stock ahead, and some cannot be won at all.

Each level has its own page with rules, strategy and the numbers: one suit, two suits, four suits. In Decks you pick the suit count on the game card before dealing.

Are Spider deals winnable?

For one- and two-suit Spider, every deal Decks gives you has been proven winnable before you see it. The app ships a pool of deals for which a solver found a winning line, and the line was replayed move by move by the game engine to confirm it. A deal that the solver could not crack does not enter the pool.

In our last measurement the solver proved 59 of 60 one-suit deals and 66 of 100 two-suit deals — and only the proven ones are dealt.

Four-suit Spider is dealt from the full space of shuffles, unchecked: the solver cannot prove four-suit deals within a reasonable budget, and we would rather say so than pretend. When you lose a four-suit game, the app says "solvability unknown" — never "unwinnable", because a failed search proves nothing.

Strategy that actually helps

1. Empty a column early. An empty column is the most valuable thing on the table: it lets you move runs that are stuck behind a wrong-suit card. Short columns — the six on the right — are the natural candidates.
2. Build in suit, not just in sequence. Placing a 9♥ on a 10♠ is legal and sometimes necessary, but it creates a run that will not move together. Prefer same-suit placements when there is a choice.
3. Expose face-down cards. Every face-down card is unknown information. Moves that turn a card over are usually worth more than moves that tidy a run.
4. Do not deal until you must. Each deal covers every column with a new card and buries your runs. Exhaust the useful moves first, then deal.
5. Move kings to empty columns only with a plan. A king cannot go anywhere else, and it blocks the column for the rest of the game unless you complete its run.
6. Use undo to look, not to cheat. Undo in Decks carries no score penalty. Turning a card over, seeing what it is, and undoing is a legitimate way to plan — the same information a patient player would gather anyway. Free play has a daily allowance of undos; a subscription removes it.

Spider in Decks

Decks plays Spider with the three suit levels above, undo without penalty, a rules page one tap away, and a history of every round with its deal code, so a game can be replayed or handed to someone else. There are no ads and no account; the app works offline.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards are in Spider Solitaire? 104 — two standard 52-card decks without jokers.

How many times can you deal from the stock? Five. Fifty cards in the stock, ten columns, one card per column per deal.

Can I move a run of mixed suits? No. Only a run of the same suit moves as a unit. A mixed run has to be taken apart card by card.

Is one-suit Spider "real" Spider? It uses the same layout and rules; only the deck composition differs. It is the standard way to learn the game, and many people play it for its own sake.

What percentage of Spider games are winnable? Nobody knows exactly for four suits. For one and two suits our solver proves most deals, and Decks only deals the proven ones — so in the app the answer for those two levels is all of them.

Spider with one, two or four suits — and the one- and two-suit deals are proven winnable. Free on the App Store.

Scan with your phone to install