Solitaire Set Up

Freecell Solitaire uses 52 cards. All cards are dealt into 8 tableau piles. Four cells (to the left) and four foundation piles (to the right) are placed above the tableau piles. Aces are moved to the foundations as they become available. The object of the game To build the foundations up in suit to kings. In the latest update of Microsoft Solitaire Collection, when you play any game, you will gain experience points (XP)! Gain enough XP and you will level up and unlock new titles and card backs.

Spider Solitaire is easily one of the most popular solitaire games on the internet. Continuing our how to play solitaire guides, we aim to show you not only how to play but also how to win this particularly challenging card game.

How To Play Solitaire Step By Step


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Setting Up Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire is played with two decks of 52 cards with all jokers removed. As you can see from the picture below, you must deal 10 columns of cards. The first 4 columns of cards have 5 cards that are face down with the sixth card at the bottom dealt face up. The last 6 columns of cards have 4 cards dealt face down, with the fifth and final card on these columns dealt face up. The rest of the cards remain in the deck to be used later.

Rules of Spider Solitaire

There are three possible variants spider solitaire. All three use the same basic rules, but the way the cards can be moved is slightly different for the easier version. It's probably best to explain the rules for the 4 suit version of the game first and then explain the changes for the easier two suit version and one suit version.

Rules for the 4 Suit Version

  • A single card can only be moved to another pile if the card being moved is one less than the card it will be placed on. For example any 9 can be placed on any 10.
  • Groups of cards can only be moved if they are all in same suit and are in perfect descending order. For example you could move a 10, 9 and 8 of diamonds as a group onto any open Jack.
  • If a card that is face down in a column is open it must be turned over.
  • Any group or single card you might be able to move can be placed on an empty column.
  • You can deal 10 cards from the cards remaining, one to each column if you cannot make any moves. However there must be at least one card in each column when you do this.
  • If you have a complete group of cards in one suit in perfect descending order it can be removed from play. For example King of Spades all the way down to the Ace of Spades. Remove all the cards to win the game.

2 Suit Version Rules

  • This is common variant of spider solitaire seen in many computer versions. To simulate this using a 2 standard decks of cards just assume that all red cards are one suit and the other suit is all black cards. Now groups can be moved if they are in perfect descending order and they are all in the red suit or black suit. E.g. You could move a 10 of diamonds, a 9 of hearts and 8 of diamonds onto any open Jack.
  • If you have a complete group of cards in one suit in perfect descending order it can be removed from play. For example all red cards starting from the King down to the Ace.
  • All other rules are the same as the 4 suit version.
Pile

1 Suit Version Rules

  • To simulate this using a 2 standard decks of cards just assume that all cards belong to the same suit.
  • This means you can move any group of descending cards onto another appropriate card. E.g. a 6 of spades, 5 of diamonds, 4 of clubs can be moved onto any open 7.
  • Any group of cards in perfect descending order from King to Ace can be removed from play.
  • This version of Spider Solitaire is particularly easy, but it's quite relaxing!

Win Spider Solitaire Four Suit

The four suit version of Spider Solitaire is easily one of the most of the challenging solitaire games out there and simply put not every game can be won. You always need some luck! The two suit and one suit versions are far easier and winning is much more common!

  • If you are playing it on the computer with an undo feature (or just peeking when playing with two decks by hand), it's often worth looking under a card you are about to uncover to see if that will give you another move.
  • Where possible build cards together in their respective suit. This gives you greater freedom in moving the cards as the game progresses.
  • When you have two or more open columns it is often easier to restack columns so that they are in their suits before filling those columns with more permanent cards. The idea is to clean up your active columns so they are easier to move later.
  • Kings can never be placed on any card, so its usually best to move these to open columns.
  • Where possible try to play cards from columns that are closer to being empty. Really the key to the game is getting those empty columns!
  • Always try to expose new cards first by moving your current cards around rather than moving them straight to an empty column.
  • Always build on higher ranked cards. Often this means that you get more moves. For example move a Jack onto a Queen before moving a 10 onto a Jack.

We hope this guide will help you understand the rules of Spider Solitaire. Enjoy playing!

Solitaire Set Up

Further reading

Are you curious about how to play other solitaire variants? Check out one of our guides:


Play Spider Solitaire now!

Solitaire is a popular game. If you are feeling bored then you should definitely try this game. It is a good time pass and fun game. So, let’s start with how to set up and play solitaire.

Double Solitaire Set Up

Required

Deck

Standard Deck of 52 cards

Player

Only 1 player required, You.

Ranking of Cards from Highest to Lowest

  • King (K)
  • Queen (Q)
  • Jack (J)
  • 10
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • Ace (A)

How to Set Up Solitaire

  • First, put one card face-up on the table and then put 6 cards face-down next to the first card. As a result, 7 piles are created.
  • Then, put one card face-up slightly lower on the first face-down card and put one card face-down slightly lower on the remaining piles.
  • Repeat the above step until the last pile has a face-up card.
  • Your cards should Look like this,
  • Put remaining cards on top of this setup in the left corner. It is called the “Stock Pile”.
  • Four “Foundation Piles” will be created during the game in the right corner.
  • Also, one “Waste Pile” will be created on the right side of the stockpile during the game.
  • After the complete Set-Up, the table should look like this:-
  • Pile with the Blue rectangle is “Stock Pile”.
  • Pile with the Green rectangle is “Waste Pile”. However, the waste pile has no cards at the beginning of the game.
  • Four blank spaces for Piles with the Yellow Rectangle are for 4 “Foundation Piles”.
  • Seven Piles at the bottom combined, called as “Tableau”.

The Object of The Game

The main object of the game is to create 4 Foundation Piles of the different suits in a sequence starting from Ace(A) and ending with King(K).

How to Play Solitaire

First, if there is an Ace in the face-up cards then put it in the empty space of foundation piles and start a foundation pile from that Ace. Then start playing. Before starting on how to play let’s see the rules:-

Rules:-

  • Only Face-up cards are free to move and all the face-down cards are locked.
  • In the Tableau area, you can move the last card(which is face-up) from a pile to another pile and unlock a face-down card and make it face-up. Like, in image – 2 you can move 8 of spades and place it on the top of 9 of diamonds and unlock the card which is below the 8 of spades and make it face-up. Now, that card is also free to move.
  • When you move a card and place it on the top of the other card, both cards should be of different colors.
  • Also, the moving card should be one rank lower than the other card. For example, in the image -2, We can place either 8 of spades or 8 of clubs on the top of 9 of diamonds.

Now, keep moving the cards and creating different piles in the Tableau area by following the above rules. During the game, at any point, if you cannot move cards anymore, then you can pick a card from the stockpile and place it on the top of the relevant card, so you can move other cards smoothly.

In the Tableau area, while moving the cards if a blank space is created, it can be filled by moving King(K) to that blank space. It is very helpful for manipulating the game. You can move King(K) from any pile in the Tableau area to that space and unlock a face-down card.

During the game, you can transfer the cards to the Foundation Piles. Remember, a foundation pile must be in a sequence starting from Ace and ending with King and all the cards in the sequence should be of the same suit. It means one pile for each suit. While transferring the cards to the Foundation pile, the sequence of the foundation file should not break.

Solitaire Setup Free Download

When all the Foundation Piles completes the sequence, The game comes to the end and you win the game.

You can Play and Win this Game following any of the Two Approaches

How To Set Up Spider Solitaire

The first one is, from the beginning of the game, try to transfer as many cards as you can to the Foundation Piles and win the game by completing the sequences.

The second one is, focus to create 4 sequences starting from the kings of each suit in the Tableau area, and after all the cards are unlocked and all the cards of stockpile are used to form the sequences, start transferring them to the Foundation Piles.

Solitaire Set Up And Play

I personally play this game following the second approach, you can try anyone.

There is also an interesting game like this, named Hearts. You can checkout here How to Play Hearts – Rules for Hearts Card Game.

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