Strategy for Spider Solitaire: 6 Tips
A good Spider Solitaire move changes what you can do next. These six tips for Spider Solitaire help you judge a move by what it uncovers and whether the new run can still move, not just by whether the card fits.
Play Spider Solitaire →1. Name the consequence before moving
Look at the source column and the destination. Will moving the exposed card turn over a hidden card? Will it join a movable same-suit sequence? Or will it only shift the same obstruction elsewhere? A move can be legal without helping either objective.
For example, at the start of a one-suit deal, a 9 of spades can go on a 10 of spades. That move both builds a same-suit run and turns over a hidden card — the best kind of move. Your deal will look different, but the question is the same.
2. Separate rank order from suit order
A single 7 can land on any 8. That permission does not mean a mixed-suit 8–7 pair can be moved together afterwards. Groups travel together only when they descend within one suit. In two- and four-suit games, check the symbols within the group, not just whether the numbers count down.
A mixed placement is not automatically a mistake. It may reveal an important hidden card. Before choosing it, identify a future place for the top section if you later need to split the group. If no such destination exists, recognise the cost instead of assuming you will sort it out for free.
3. Treat an empty column as working space
An empty column can take any legal single card or same-suit group, including a King that has no higher rank to land on. This makes the space useful for moving sections out of the way. Filling it with the first available card can waste that flexibility.
The stock imposes the opposite requirement: you cannot deal while any column is empty. Plan which card or group will fill the space before you press Deal. Each deal adds ten cards at once, one to every column; it is not a single replacement card that you can choose to place.
4. Use Undo to compare branches, and read the score correctly
Undo is useful when a move reveals a card and you want to try a different line. You can undo as often as you like, but each use costs one point and counts as a move.
For example, a fresh deal at 500 points and 0 moves becomes 499/1 after one move and 498/2 after Undo: the cards return, the counters do not. Compare the position first and the score second.
5. Ask what a hint establishes
You get three free hints per deal. A hint points to a useful legal move, but it does not promise that the deal can be won.
When a hint suggests a move, check it the same way as your own: what does it uncover, and can the new run still move? If nothing useful is left, deal from the stock or go back to an earlier choice with Undo. The game does not promise that every deal can be won.
6. Change suit count to practise a specific skill
One suit lets you practise uncovering cards and managing stock without mixed-suit groups. Two suits makes those group boundaries visible. Four suits adds more symbol combinations, so it is a useful test of whether you are reading the entire run.
Pick the mode for the skill you want to practise rather than assuming the hardest setting is always best. The links below start each mode, and a daily deal is available in the game menu.
These tips follow the rules of the Spider Solitaire game on ManyPlay. They make good decisions easier, but no strategy wins every deal.