Spider Solitaire (1 Suit)

Spider Solitaire (1 Suit) uses two standard 52-card decks, 104 cards in total, with no jokers. In this version every card is a spade, so the deck is eight complete runs of A to K in the same suit. Ranks count as A=1, 2 to 10 at face value, J=11, Q=12 and K=13.

The deal puts 54 cards into ten columns: the first four columns get 6 cards each and the remaining six columns get 5 cards each. Only the last card of each column is dealt face up; everything above it is a face-down card you cannot read yet. So a new game starts with exactly 10 cards visible and 44 face-down cards on the table.

The other 50 cards stay in the deck at the side of the table, and they leave it ten at a time, one card per column, over five deals. The status area shows how many deals are left, how many sets you have cleared out of 8, how many face-down cards are still on the table, your move count and your time. Nothing here is a timer counting against you — it is simply a record of the deal.

There are only two kinds of move in the whole game: move cards between columns, or deal a row.

Inside a column you build down by rank, and the suit does not matter for stacking: any card may be placed on a card that is exactly one rank higher, so a 7 goes on an 8, an A goes on a 2, and a Q goes on a K. The top card of any column can always be picked up on its own. Several cards move together only when they form a same-suit run in unbroken descending order — in the one-suit game that means any block of cards that runs down without a gap, because all 104 cards share a suit. This is exactly what makes Spider 1 Suit the friendliest way into the game: a block of eight cards that reads 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 travels as one unit onto any 10.

An empty column is the most valuable thing on the table. Any card, or any run you are allowed to move, can be placed into an empty column — there is no restriction on which rank may start it. That freedom is also a trap, because of the deal rule below.

When you move cards away and leave a face-down card on top of a column, that card turns over at once and joins the game. Revealing face-down cards is how the deal opens up, and the counter in the status area drops by one each time.

When you run out of useful moves, you can deal a row: the deck puts one card face up on every one of the ten columns at once. Five deals are available, and the number remaining is shown next to the deck.

Two conditions apply. You cannot deal a row while any column is empty — every empty column must be filled first, which is why spending an empty column carelessly can cost you the rest of the game. And once all five deals are gone, the deck is empty, the button is greyed out, and it says plainly that there are no cards left to deal. A deal lands on top of whatever you have built, so a row often breaks up neat sequences; choosing the moment for it is the central decision of the game.

The goal of every column is a run of thirteen cards of the same suit from K down to A. The moment such a run appears in a column, those 13 cards leave the table on their own and travel to one of the eight foundation places, and the counter moves to "Sets N/8". You never have to collect a set yourself, and a set that has gone to a foundation never comes back into play.

Eight sets of thirteen cards make 104, so clearing all 8 sets empties the table and wins the game. Because the eight sets use every card, all five deals must be dealt before the last set can be completed.

Three ways to move cards exist, and one press can only ever be one of them.

• Tap a face-up card and the run starting at that card is moved immediately to the best available target. The choice is fixed and predictable: a target that completes a King-to-Ace set at once, then a card of the same suit one rank higher, then any other legal non-empty column, and only then an empty column, with the lowest-numbered column breaking a tie. Nothing is selected and nothing waits for a second tap.
• Drag a card and its run follows your finger or pointer; drop it on the column you want. If the drop is not legal, the cards spring back and the position is unchanged.
• Press and hold a column (or right-click it, or move focus to it with the keyboard and press Enter) to open the segment picker. This overlay enlarges the column so you can read every face-up card in it one by one, lets you choose with ▲ and ▼ how many cards to take from the bottom of the column, and lists every legal target, marking the ones that would complete a set and any empty column. Long lists of targets are paged rather than trimmed, so nothing is hidden from you. Confirm to move; cancel, Esc or a tap outside changes nothing.

The segment picker is also the answer to long columns. A column in this game can grow past twenty cards, and on a phone the cards in such a column have to overlap tightly. When that happens the column is marked as dense and its cards may no longer be readable at a glance, but the bottom card stays fully readable and the picker always shows the rest at full size.

Illegal actions never change the position and never pass silently: moving a broken run, dropping a card on a rank that does not fit, or tapping the deck while a column is empty each bounce back with a short line saying why.

Undo is unlimited and covers everything: an ordinary move, a dealt row (the ten cards go back on the deck in order), and even a completed set, which returns to its column. If a move had turned a card face up, undoing it covers that card again, because that is the true state of the table. One thing never rolls back: what you have seen. A card that has once been face up is treated as known for the rest of the game, so hints never become more cautious than your own memory.

The hint button suggests a move worth making, in a fixed order of usefulness: first a move that turns over face-down cards, then one that empties a column, then one that completes a set, then one that joins loose cards into a longer run without breaking a good one. If only pointless shuffling is left, it says so — there is no progress to be made on the table — and points you at the next real step: deal a row, or fill the empty column first and then deal, or undo a few moves and try another line.

There is one deliberate restraint. While any face-down card or any card still in the deck has not been seen, the game will never tell you the deal is lost, because it will not look at cards you have not seen. Only when everything is known — no face-down cards left and the deck empty — can a hint state that this deal cannot be finished from here, and even then it only appears as a bar with a way out (replay the same deal or take a new one, with undo and hint still on the table). It never ends your game for you. While the search is running the bar shows a checking state and the table stays fully responsive; if the search runs out of budget you get an ordinary suggestion instead of a false verdict.

If the deck is empty and no legal move exists at all, the deal really is over and the result panel says so, offering to undo the last move, replay the same deal or start a new one. That ending is rare: as long as the deck still holds cards and no column is empty, dealing a row is always a legal move.

When you clear the eighth set, the result panel reports your time, moves, sets cleared and the deal identifier, which you can copy with a tap and use to replay the very same cards. The keyboard covers the whole game too: U undoes, H asks for a hint, N starts a new deal and D deals a row; the left and right arrow keys move focus between columns, Enter or Space opens the segment picker on the focused column, the arrow keys choose the run and the target inside it, and Esc closes it.

Spider is one of the great two-deck patience games, named after the eight legs of a spider — the eight sets you have to build. It reached a huge audience when it was bundled with desktop operating systems in the 1990s, and it has been at or near the top of every list of played solitaire games ever since.

Its reputation is built on the full game, where the deck keeps every suit and only cards that match travel as a group. That version is famously hard. The one-suit deal you are playing here is the same game with the suit problem removed, and it is the version most people should start with.

Because all 104 cards are spades, every unbroken descending block on the table is a legal run and can be carried to a new home as one unit. You can reorganise the table freely, and a good position can be tidied in a few moves rather than unpicked card by card.

What remains is the part of Spider that is genuinely interesting: 44 face-down cards you have to dig out, five dealt rows that keep burying your work, and the rule that no row can be dealt while a single column stands empty. One Suit Spider is not a game you win by luck; it is a game you win by keeping at least one column empty at the right moment, and by not letting the deck bury a half-finished King-to-Ace run.

Klondike and FreeCell both ask you to build alternating red-and-black sequences and to move cards onto foundations one rank at a time. Spider Solitaire has no such foundation to feed: a set leaves the table only when all thirteen cards are already stacked in one column in order. Everything happens in the ten columns.

The second difference is the deck. In Klondike you turn the stock card by card and can usually try again; here the deck arrives in five sudden batches of ten that land on every column at once, including the ones you were carefully building. Planning around those five moments is the skill of the game.

The third difference is how much you cannot see. A Spider deal starts with 44 face-down cards plus 50 cards still in the deck, so you begin knowing just ten of 104 cards. Every card you turn over changes the plan, which is why a deal rewards patience and why undo exists.

• Turn over face-down cards first. A move that reveals a new card is almost always worth more than a tidy-looking move that reveals nothing. Empty columns and long runs come from information.
• Work on the short columns. The six columns that start with five cards reach the bottom sooner, and the first empty column usually comes from one of them.
• Keep an empty column empty for as long as you can. It is your only workspace, and it is what lets you take a run apart. Remember that you must fill it again before you can deal a row.
• Build inside one column rather than across many. Cards that already sit in descending order move as one piece; the same cards spread over three columns have to be handled one at a time.
• Do not bury a King. A K can only ever start a run, never sit on another card, so a K with cards piled on top of it is dead weight until you clear it.
• Before you deal a row, tidy up. The ten new cards land on your column tops and will break any sequence that is not already complete, so square the table away first.
• Undo instead of grinding. Undo is unlimited and covers dealt rows as well, so stepping back to the point where the position went wrong costs you nothing but time.

No. Even with a single suit, a deal can be dealt in a shape that cannot be finished, and there is no way to know at the start. That is normal and not a reflection of your play. The exits are always available: undo as far back as you like, replay the same cards with a clearer plan, or start a new deal. A deal usually takes somewhere between eight and twenty minutes, the clock pauses when you switch tabs, and rotating your phone, resizing the window or going full screen all keep the current game exactly as it stands.