How to Play Spider Patience

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Spider Patience is a single-player card game played with two standard 52-card decks, giving 104 cards in total. The aim is to build eight complete suit sequences, each running from King down to Ace, within ten tableau columns. When each sequence is completed it is removed from the table, and the game is won when all eight sequences have been cleared.

Players love Spider because it sits at a satisfying mid-point between pure luck and genuine skill: only around 50 per cent of games dealt at the hardest level are winnable, yet careful play dramatically improves your chances. It needs nothing more than a flat surface and two card decks, making it a reliable solo game at home, on a train, or anywhere a quiet 20 minutes presents itself.

A little history

Spider Patience belongs to the broad family of patience games that became fashionable in Europe during the nineteenth century. The game's exact origins are unclear, though it is widely documented as having been popular in the United States by the early twentieth century. Franklin D. Roosevelt is frequently cited as an enthusiastic player, and the name is traditionally said to refer to the eight legs of a spider corresponding to the eight sequences that must be completed to win. Beyond those points the early record is thin.

Setting up

1. Shuffle both decks together thoroughly to produce a single 104-card pack.
2. Deal four rows of ten cards face down across ten columns to form the tableau, giving 40 face-down cards.
3. Deal one further row across all ten columns, but turn these ten cards face up. Each column now contains four face-down cards and one face-up card.
4. Set the remaining 50 cards aside face down as the stock.
5. Ensure all face-up cards are clearly visible. The ten tableau columns are now ready for play.

How to play

1. On your turn you may move any face-up card, or any valid sequence of face-up cards, from the top of one tableau column to the top of another.
2. A valid sequence for movement is a set of cards in consecutive descending order regardless of suit, for example 9 of hearts on top of 10 of clubs. Mixed-suit sequences can be moved as a unit but cannot be added to the stock's dealt rows and do not count as completed sequences.
3. A complete, removable sequence must run King down to Ace entirely in the same suit. When such a sequence appears at the top of any column it is immediately removed from the tableau and set aside as a completed set. Eight such completed sets are required to win.
4. You may move a single card onto any other single face-up card that is exactly one rank higher, regardless of suit or colour.
5. When a face-down card is exposed at the top of a column because all face-up cards above it have been moved away, turn it face up immediately.
6. An empty column (one from which all cards have been moved) may be filled by any face-up card or valid moveable sequence.
7. When you cannot or choose not to make further moves, deal one card face up from the stock onto each of the ten tableau columns. You must deal a full row of ten; you may not deal from the stock if any column is empty. Fill empty columns before dealing from stock.
8. Continue making moves and dealing from the stock as needed. The stock yields five deals of ten cards each, totalling 50 cards.
9. The game ends either when all eight sequences have been completed and removed (a win) or when no further moves are possible and the stock is exhausted (a loss).

Winning and scoring

The game is won when all eight King-to-Ace same-suit sequences have been completed and removed from the tableau. There is no points scoring in the standard game: it is simply won or lost. In informal tracked play some players record how many sequences they cleared before the game blocked, treating eight as a perfect score and using lower numbers to compare sessions.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns moving mixed-suit sequences. The standard ruling is that a group of cards in consecutive descending order but of mixed suits may be moved as a unit for convenience, but it does not constitute a completable sequence and must eventually be sorted into single-suit runs to be removed. Some house rules prohibit moving mixed-suit groups at all, requiring players to move one card at a time unless the group is in a single suit; this considerably increases difficulty and is worth agreeing before play.

A second regular question is whether dealing from the stock is compulsory. The standard answer is no: you may continue making tableau moves for as long as you wish before choosing to deal. However, you cannot deal if even one column is empty, and you cannot deal a partial row. If the stock contains fewer than ten cards in a corrupted or short deck, the deal is void and the remaining stock cards are set aside unplayed. Finally, completed sequences are removed immediately and automatically when they appear; a player may not choose to leave a completed sequence on the tableau.

How to win more often

• Prioritise building same-suit sequences from the outset. Mixed-suit builds give you mobility but create tangled columns that are very hard to unravel later.
• Keep at least one column empty whenever possible. Empty columns are the most powerful resource in the game: they let you temporarily park cards while you reorganise other columns.
• Before dealing from the stock, scan every column and make every useful move available. Dealing prematurely buries face-up cards you could have used.
• Focus on uncovering face-down cards in the shorter columns first. Getting those cards face up increases your options significantly.
• If you are playing the one-suit or two-suit version to learn, note which strategies carry across: the empty-column discipline and same-suit priority apply equally at all difficulty levels.

Variations

One-Suit Spider

All 104 cards are treated as belonging to the same suit, usually spades. Because every sequence automatically qualifies as a same-suit run, this version is far more forgiving and is the recommended starting point for new players. The layout and dealing rules are otherwise identical to the standard game.

Two-Suit Spider

The 104 cards are distributed across two suits only, typically hearts and spades, with each suit appearing 26 times. This sits between the one-suit and four-suit games in difficulty and gives players a genuine test of same-suit sequence management without the full complexity of all four suits.

Relaxed Spider (Group Move Rule)

In this common house variation, a mixed-suit descending sequence may be moved onto any card of the next rank up, exactly as if it were a same-suit sequence. This removes the strict single-card movement penalty for mixed builds and makes the game somewhat easier. It is a widely used informal rule and worth naming explicitly before any session so all parties are clear.

Spiderette

Spiderette is a compact single-deck variant played across seven columns. The first column receives one card, the second two, and so on to the seventh which receives seven cards, only the top card of each column being face up. The remaining 45 cards form the stock and are dealt in groups of seven. Only one suit sequence, King to Ace, is needed to complete the game. The smaller layout makes it playable on a very limited surface and suits shorter sessions.

Spider Patience: frequently asked questions