Spider Solitaire
Spider is played with two decks across ten columns, and the goal is to build runs from King down to Ace. Complete a full run and it lifts off the table. One suit is a friendly game; four suits is one of the hardest patience games there is.
How to play Spider Solitaire
Two decks are dealt into ten columns. The goal is to build complete runs from King down to Ace in one suit; each finished run is removed from the table.
A card may be placed on any card one higher in rank, whatever the suit. But only cards of the same suit in order can be moved together as a group, so keep suits together whenever you can.
When you run out of moves, tap the face-down pile in the corner to deal a new card onto every column. Every column must have at least one card before you can deal.
One-suit Spider is a gentle place to start. Two suits is a real game; four suits is for experts.
You can play entirely with the keyboard: Tab puts a cursor on the table, the arrow keys move it, Enter picks a card up and puts it down, and S reads out everything on the table.
Questions people ask
Should I start with one suit, two or four?
One suit. It is a genuine game rather than a beginner's version — you still have to plan several moves ahead — and it is the version most people play. Two suits roughly doubles the difficulty and four is for when you want a fight.
Why will it not deal more cards?
Spider only deals a new row when every column has at least one card in it. If a column has emptied, fill it before you deal. It is worth doing anyway: an empty column is the most valuable thing on the table.
What happens when I finish a run?
A run from King down to Ace in a single suit is taken off the table and set aside. Clear all eight and you have won.