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 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 sticks 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 dramatically increase your chances of
victorious. But before we get into that, a quick note. In this article, I assume that 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 they read can be applied.

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 is.
can play is. If you have the option, play from the right side stacks, since the 6
the right hand piles start with one card less.

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

1. If a stack is closer to full than other stacks, play that card (if you can)
2. If you can’t play from the stack that is closest to empty, 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 suited sequence, 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. There is
now 3 main objectives, “clean”, “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

The first objective of the second phase of the game is to “clean up”. this is my term
to rearrange the columns so that they become sequences of the same suit.

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 they are
columns become:

1. 7 diamonds
2. 6 diamonds

Y:

1. 7 clubs
2. 6 hearts

We do this by moving:

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

The main thing to note here is that after we are done 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 cleared all the sequences we can find, the next goal is to re-
arrange any column. This is simply moving any sequence we can, to form
sequences. If moving the sequence will expose a new card (or a card that is not part
of the sequence), then we always move it. The rest of the time it’s a trial,
depending on whether the new sequence will be of the same suit, as well as what other
the cards are holding up 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 newly 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 holding the vacancy
column, then try to deal some cards from the claw.

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? Yes, and you’ll probably come up with a few 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.