Spider Solitaire rules

The goal

Build eight runs from king down to ace, each in one suit. Each finished run leaves the table.

Setup

One player, two 52-card decks shuffled together (104 cards), no jokers.

The deal

Ten columns: six cards in each of the first four, five in the other six, top card face up. The other 50 cards are the stock.

A turn

• Move the face-up card at the end of a column onto the end card of another column if that card is one rank higher, any suit.
• Move several cards together only when they run down in one suit.
• Turn up a hidden card as soon as it is uncovered.
• Any card or suited run may go into an empty column.

Special cards

• Deal ten from the stock, one on each column, whenever no column is empty.
• A suited run from king to ace is removed at once.

Scoring

• No official score with cards: count completed runs.
• Computer versions: start at 500, −1 per move, +100 per completed run.

Winning

You win when all eight runs have been removed.

House rules

• One suit. All 104 cards are spades, so every downward stack is a suited run. The usual beginner’s game on a computer.
• Two suits. Spades and hearts only. Harder than one suit, far easier than four.
• Spiderette. A one-deck version with seven columns laid out as in Klondike, the classic one-deck solitaire.