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Spider Solitaire with two suits

By Gleb Tkatchouk · last updated 2026-09-18

Two-suit Spider is Spider with spades and hearts — four sets of each, 104 cards. It is the middle level, and the one most people settle on: hard enough that a game can be lost, easy enough that a careful player wins most of them. The whole difference from one suit is one rule: a run moves as a unit only if every card in it is the same suit.

Two-suit Spider, every deal proven winnable before you see it. Free on the App Store.

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What changes with two suits

A 7♥ placed on an 8♠ is a legal move, and sometimes the right one — but that 7♥ and 8♠ will not move together afterwards. Every mixed placement is a debt: you will have to move the 7♥ off again, one card at a time, before the 8♠ can go anywhere. The game becomes a series of decisions about when to take on that debt to expose a card, and when to hold out for the matching suit.

Rules in brief

• Move a card, or a same-suit descending run, onto a card one rank higher of any suit, or into an empty column.
• Tap the stock to deal one card onto every column; not allowed while a column is empty.
• A complete same-suit run from king to ace leaves the table. Eight runs win.

Are two-suit deals winnable?

Every two-suit deal in Decks comes from a pool of deals for which the solver found a winning line, replayed by the engine to confirm it. In the last measurement the solver proved 66 of 100 deals; only the proven ones are dealt. The unproven third is not dealt — so a loss is always yours to review, and the deal code lets you.

Strategy for two suits

1. Empty a column as early as you can. It is the only way to reorder a mixed run, and mixed runs are inevitable.
2. Prefer same-suit placements; accept mixed ones to turn a card over. Exposing a face-down card is worth a small debt; tidying is not.
3. Keep mixed runs short. One wrong card on a run costs one move to fix; three cost a whole column.
4. Watch which suit is short in a column. If the column below is all hearts, a spade run on top will never join it.
5. Deal only when stuck. The ten new cards will land on every column, including the ones you kept clean.
6. Use undo to test a mixed placement. Decks does not penalise undo; trying a line and taking it back is how the game is played well.

Moving on

One suit to practise space and order; four suits for the classic game, where most deals are lost to planning rather than luck.

Frequently asked questions

Which two suits are used? Spades and hearts — one black, one red, so a wrong placement is visible at a glance.

Can a red card go on a black run? Yes. It just will not move with the run afterwards.

Is every two-suit Spider game winnable? Not every shuffle — about two thirds are provable — but every deal in Decks is verified before it is dealt.

Two-suit Spider, every deal proven winnable before you see it. Free on the App Store.

Scan with your phone to install