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How to play Spider Solitaire 

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Spider Solitaire is a card game played by a single player, usually played with two decks of cards at the same time. There exist several variations for how the Spider Solitaire is played, and in some cases from one to four decks are used to play the game. 

No matter what, some basic Spider Solitaire rules apply regardless of which version of the game is played. Either way, Spider is another version of solitaire that is very common for someone to play alone. 

The level of difficulty varies depending on the number of suits a player is required to use.

How do you play spider solitaire? Two deck are shuffled together, then ten rows of five cards are laid out face down, and the first four rows get an extra card on each. Flip over the first card on each of the ten rows to get started.

The objective should be removing all the cards from the Tableau column by creating descending orders of rank from King down to Ace. 

Anytime a player moves the top card, the card underneath is flipped over. If it reaches a point where a player runs out of moves, use the stockpile to deal one card to the bottom of each column.

The elemental objectivity is building piles of cards in descending order until all the cards from the stockpile are utilized. When playing with a single deck, there will be four foundation piles, and two decks will have eight foundation piles and so forth based on the number of decks used.

How do you play and set up spider solitaire?

Spider solitaire is set up by using two decks with 52 cards in each. The game starts with ten columns dealt face down at the top of the board, each column has 5 rows, and the first four columns get six rows.

The only card shown face up is the bottom card in each row. The goal is to rearrange the face up cards into descending rank from King to Ace at the bottom.

A completed pile will start with a King, and go in sequential order down to the Ace. A completed pile is removed from the Tableau, set aside and scored.

How does spider solitaire work?

  • The more times a moves, the less score earned at the end of the game. Therefore, try as much as possible to reduce the number of moves to boost the odds score.
  • The number of moves are not limited, and can’t significantly affect score because the goal is to eliminate cards from the Tableau and move count is a secondary focus.
  • It is common to use two decks, though some versions play Spider Solitaire with one deck
  • Form descending order piles from the King to Ace card, move cards into position to the adjacent cards in numerical order.
  • A single card can be moved to any column if the card is one number lower than the lowest card in the column.
  • Any empty column can be filled with any card or partial sequence.
  • When a player runs out of playable options, use the stockpile to deal a new face card for each column, forcing you to rearrange those cards to reach any grouped column previously created.

How do you start Spider Solitaire?

When playing with two decks, the cards are shuffled and distributed into 10 columns. Each column gets 5 cards, and the first 4 columns get a sixth.

Deal from left to right 1 card for each of the 10 columns, then proceed to the second row. Upon reaching the sixth row, only add one card for the first four columns.

In total, 54 cards will be used to form the Tableau in Spider Solitaire when playing with two decks.

What are the rules for playing solitaire?

There are three versions of rules (spider solitaire 4, 2 and 1 suit) that are slightly different from one another. However, all three versions use the same basic rules as outlined below.

  • The player objective when playing spider solitaire should be to remove all the cards from the stockpile and form a tableau pile of descending suit of cards from the King to Ace.
  • Games can be played with suit being an organizational factor, but the game doesn’t always have to be played by suit. Simply organizing by rank order without suit being involved is challenging enough.
  • Only move a column of cards from one column to another if they have the same suit. Therefore, for this reason, a player should try as much as possible to create a descending sequence of the same suit to any of the columns.
  • A single card is moved into the column if the card is one number lower than the card covering the column. 
  • Any card or sequential order can be moved to fill an empty column if available.
  • When you run out of moves, use the stockpile to add a new face card to the bottom of each column. The new card must be rearranged to access the previous groups that you were working on underneath.
  • Once you have arranged a pile from King to Ace, it is removed from the board to access a new card or have an empty space to move over another partial pile.
How to play spider solitaire

Playing Spider Solitaire: Conclusion 

Spider solitaire is a version of solitaire game that requires a player to build up piles of descending order from the King to Ace from the Tableau of ten piles. 

A player can move an individual card in their face up position to any adjacent card covering any of the columns, provided the moved card is one number lower numerically than the covering card.

The player is allowed to deal a new row of cards along the bottom of each column when they are out of moves. However, keep in mind that a you must rearrange the new cards to access the grouping that were previously being worked on above.

Spider solitaire does not limit the number of moves taken to complete the game. However, the number of moves does affect a score when playing on a computer. 

Once a wrong move is made, it may impact the player to get stuck with a Tableau that is no longer playable. Therefore, it’s wise for any spider solitaire player to think carefully before making multiple moves, filling an empty column and always plan ahead before executing a sequence in spider solitaire.

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