Spider Solitaire is a well-known solitaire card game, which has gained a lot in popularity passing Klondike Solitaire in 2005 as the world’s most popular solitaire card game. It is very challenging, and many people want to know how they can increase their chances of winning.
The aim of spider solitaire is to build an ascending suit sequence in thi foundation zone. But this is easier said than done! Spider Solitaire is a lot of fun and must be learned like any other game. At first glance, this challenging game seems to be quite complicated, but Spider Solitaire is a fun and easy game once you get the hang of it.
Below you will find 10 simple rules that can improve your chances of winning Spider Solitaire:
Moving Fully Packed Builds
When you are building cards down you must remember that you can only move the last card in the column placed on that column, or a fully packed build. A fully packed build is the entire sequence of cards that appear in order. It is very important to keep this in mind as you are building down your columns.
Expose Hidden Cards Whenever Possible
Uncovering hidden cards leads to a new set of possible moves. It is also a good way to make an empty pile (see below).
Make Empty Piles as Early as Possible
Move cards from columns that have fewer cards. Use empty piles as a temporary place to store cards while rearranging sequences into a fully packed build as far as possible. Move cards to empty spaces to turn over more cards.
Build on Higher Cards First
Begin building with the cards of the highest rank. If we start with a low card, the build will be finished with an Ace very quickly, and no card can be placed on top of an Ace. Starting from higher cards allows us to get more cards into the stack below it.
Move Kings to Open Columns
Kings can not be placed on any other card. However, early in a game you may wish to move another card to an empty column, with the hope of moving it somewhere else after a deal. That way you can keep column more open for use in re-stacking.
Empty Columns are like Freecells
If you’ve ever played the game Freecell, you know how useful it is to move a card to a freecell and then quickly move it out. You may have a sequence of cards where you have one card blocking the entire run from being put together. Use empty columns as temporary storage when rearranging cards.
Focus on Eliminating a Column Early
As we have already discussed, empty columns are incredibly strategically important. When you have a fully packed column of cards going from King to Ace in a column, those cards are removed from play. This gives you an empty column in it’s place. This makes creating a King-Ace run in a column an extremely powerful move that not only removes a lot of cards from play, but creates en empty column as well.
Expose Face-Down Cards as Quickly as Possible
Uncovering face-down cards lead to a new set of possible moves. Clearing out these cards is also a necessary step in your goal of creating empty tableau columns.
Wait as long as possible to deal more cards
Dealing more cards is a necessary step in winning the game. However, you want to wait as long as you can to click the deck and deal additional cards. Each time you deal more cards, it will at least initially block a significant number of moves if any were available. If you have any empty columns, do you best to use them before dealing more cards as it will fill that column with a random card from the deck.
Make the best use of Undo
This last tip may be considered by some die hard players as cheating. If that is the way you feel please ignore this specific tip, but the Undo Button is your best friend when trying to win a game of Spider Solitaire. When you are uncovering a card that is flipped, you have no idea what is under it. If it’s not a card that is to your liking, backtrack using the Undo button, then start over again. This trick isn’t for everyone, but If you want to win every time you play, Undo is a powerful tool.
Time Challenge Tips – Once in a while you may wish to challenge yourself by beating your best time. If you are looking to beat your best time, using some strategies like the undo button may not be as effective since taking the time to move through all possibilities will cost you. If you are looking to beat your best time you will want to use the “New Game” button significantly more than you would in a typical game you wish to play. Start the game over repeatedly looking for a good starting deal. Giving up on a slow game early is also a good strategy for improving your time. Once the game slows down, if you don’t feel you have a chance of beating your best time, reset and start over. I would only recommend this strategy for advanced players. If you’re still mastering the game, stick with playing until you win. If you are coming to the game with a specific time goal, this frequently requires a change of strategy.
