Spider Solitaire: A Strategy Guide For Beginners

Spider solitaire is a well-known solitaire game, which has gained a lot of popularity since Microsoft started shipping it for free with Windows. However, it is very difficult and many people want to know how they can increase their chances of winning.

The object of spider solitaire is to build a sequence of ascending suits at the base.

area. But this is easier said than done! Particularly when playing 4-suited spider, you can

Sometimes it seems almost impossible to finish the game.

But there are strategies you can use to drastically increase your chances of

victorious. But before I get into that, a quick note. In this article, I assume you have a

solitaire game that allows multiple undos, and you don’t mind using it. Some

people don’t have a solitaire program that supports multilevel undo, or they feel that

using undo is somehow “cheating”. These people can still get something out of this

article, but not everything you read may apply.

So what is the golden secret to winning Spider Solitaire?

It is easy! Empty columns are the key!

The first objective of spider solitaire is to get an empty column. the goal after

that’s trying to get another vacant column. Once you have 2 vacant columns, the

the game starts to become winnable but if you can try to form another void

column. Once you get to 3 or 4 empty columns, you have a good chance of

win, unless you get an extremely unsuccessful card streak.

Getting the first empty column…

The first move you must make in the game is whatever the highest ranking card you

can play is If you have the option, play from the right-hand stacks, as the 6

the right hand piles start with one less card.

From there, play the cards in this order or priority:

1. If one stack is closer to completion than other stacks, play that card (if you can).
2. If you can’t play from the stack that is closest to emptying, then play the card with the highest rank.
3. If 2 or more cards have the same high rank, and one of them can be played in a sequence of the same suit, then play that one.

Keep playing like this, until a column is empty or you run out of moves

Once a column has been emptied, the focus of the game changes a bit. exist

now 3 main goals, “clean up”, “rearrange” and “expose”.

An overriding principle at this point is to try to keep the columns empty. Vacant

columns give you a lot more options in the game, and whenever possible, just

you want to fill your empty columns temporarily.

CLEAN UP

The first objective of the second phase of the game is to “clean up”. this is my term

to rearrange the files so that they become suited sequences.

For example, suppose you have 2 columns. The first has:

1. 7 diamonds
2. 6 hearts

and the second has:

1. 7 clubs
2. 6 diamonds

We can temporarily use the empty column, to rearrange the columns so that these

the columns become:

1. 7 diamonds
2. 6 diamonds

Y:

1. 7 clubs
2. 6 hearts

We do this by moving:

1. 6 of Diamonds in the empty column
2. 6 of Hearts over the 7 of Clubs
3. 6 of Diamonds over the 7 of Diamonds

The main thing to note here is that after we’ve finished cleaning this

sequence, the empty column remains vacant. This is critical, because we always need

to keep our columns empty when possible.

REORDERING

After we’ve cleaned up all the sequences we can find, the next objective is to re-

arrange any column. This is simply moving whatever sequence we can, to form

sequences. If moving the sequence will expose a new card (or a card that is not part of

of the sequence), then we always move it. The rest of the time is a trial

depending on whether the new sequence will be of the same suit, as well as what other

the cards are delaying the game right now.

EXHIBITION

Lastly, we try to expose new cards, while trying to keep our column empty.

We do this using multilevel undo:

• Move a card/sequence to the empty column, which exposes a new card.
• If the new card allows us to move the original sequence backwards, do so.

If the new exposed card doesn’t allow us to move it back, try moving a different one

card/sequence instead. If you cannot expose any new cards while you hold the vacancy

column, then try to deal some cards from the talon.

The most important thing is to create empty columns and try to keep them

empty! Now, will these strategies help you win every game? No they will not. Are

Are there better strategies? Yeah, and you’ll probably come up with some of your own like

you play the game some more. But the above strategies should prove to be a good

foundation to help you start winning more games.