What is Four-suit Spider?
Four-suit Spider is the game as it was first described, played with two ordinary packs. The deal and the rules are the same as in the one-suit game: ten columns, four of 6 cards and six of 5, the last card of each face up, and 50 cards in the stock for five deals of ten.
You build down by one rank in any suit, but only cards in order and of one suit move together, and only a King-to-Ace run of one suit leaves the table. With four suits, a card that fits is usually of the wrong suit, so most builds are mixed and break the runs you are making.
Every decision counts: which of two fitting cards to use, when to build off suit at all, and how to keep an empty column free to sort a mixed run back into suits. Many deals are lost even with careful play, because the face-down cards and the stock hide what is coming; finishing even a few runs is an achievement.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Spider Solitaire | Four-suit Spider |
|---|---|---|
| The 104 cards | Standard Spider SolitaireAll spades: eight of each rank. | Four-suit SpiderTwo full packs: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, two of each card. |
| Building in the columns | Standard Spider SolitaireDown one rank, and every build is in suit. | Four-suit SpiderDown one rank in any suit, so most builds mix suits. |
| Moving runs | Standard Spider SolitaireAny cards in order move together. | Four-suit SpiderOnly cards in order and of one suit move together. |
| Empty columns | Standard Spider SolitaireHandy for parking cards. | Four-suit SpiderThe only way to take mixed runs apart and rebuild them in suit. |
| Difficulty | Standard Spider SolitaireThe easiest version: most deals can be won. | Four-suit SpiderThe hardest: even skilled players lose most deals. |
History
The earliest printed description of Spider that patience researchers have found is a magazine article of November 1937. Albert Ostrow described the game in The Complete Card Player (1945) with a slightly different start, 50 cards and a short last deal of four, and by 1949 Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith were describing the layout used today: 54 cards in ten columns and five deals of ten.
All of these early descriptions use two ordinary packs, the four-suit game. Morehead and Mott-Smith reckoned that a skilled player wins about one deal in three. The easier one- and two-suit versions came later.