Most folks – myself included – recognize Spider Solitaire as arguably the most difficult Solitaire variant out there. However, in this variant lies an even more formidable monster: 4 Suits Spider Solitaire. Mastering this variant is something I’ve dedicated a lot of my time to, to varying degrees of success.
But one thing I found was there’s definitely a strategy to winning at 4 Suits Spider Solitaire. Yup, it’s not all luck – although it’s not all skill, either. To understand the strategies, first, we have to go through the underlying concepts and the basics of Spider Solitaire. This means we might just have to take a journey through 1 Suit Spider Solitaire before we address the big guy.
Understanding the Basics
Spider Solitaire is split into three different categories: 1-Suit, 2-Suit, and 4-Suit. While each variant has the same basic rules, the more advanced variants are slightly more nuanced compared to the 1-Suit variant. So, what’s common across all the variants? Well, each game of Spider Solitaire starts with two decks of cards (104 cards) with the Jokers removed.
With 1-Suit Spider Solitaire, the 104 cards will all be of the same suit. With 2-Suit and 4-Suit, the 104 cards will be split into two and four Suits, respectively.
| Spider Solitaire Variant | Number of Suits | Number of Cards | Number of Sequences per Suit |
| 1-Suit Spider Solitaire | 1 Suit | 104 cards | 8 sequences |
| 2-Suit Spider Solitaire | 2 Suits | 104 cards | 4 sequences per suit |
| 4-Suit Spider Solitaire | 4 Suits | 104 cards | 2 sequences per suit |
The goal of the game is to remove all the cards from the setup by arranging them in descending order – from King’s to Aces at the bottom. Also, remember that you can’t connect two cards if they aren’t in the same order, just like Klondike and other variants. For instance, you can only drag a seven onto an eight, and a queen onto a king, and so on. You can also drag entire sequences (for example, a sequence of 6-7-8) onto a nine.
Nuances Of More Advanced Variants
Now, one rule I glossed over was the fact that you have to arrange all the cards in the same suit in order for them to be ‘complete’ and move off the setup. In 1-Suit Spider, this rule doesn’t change anything since all the cards are already of the same suit. However, in two and four-suit variants, this creates another layer of complexity.
Firstly, you can drag a card of a different suit onto its predecessor, so a red six can fall onto a black seven. However, if you happen to complete an entire sequence of cards using this strategy, it won’t count toward completing the order.
Secondly, remember that rule about being able to move entire sequences if they’re in order? You can’t do that if the sequence includes cards of different suits. You can only move sequences as long as they are in order and of the same suit.
You can imagine how this might make 4-suit Spider incredibly complicated. Hopefully, the strategies I’ll dive into later on will help you minimize this beast.
Pre-Game Setup and Tips
If you’ve played any other Solitaire variants, the setup in Spider Solitaire won’t be too foreign for you. It contains essentially the same elements:
- The Tableau: This consists of ten columns of cards. At the beginning of the game, each column is dealt with a certain number of cards. The top card in each column is face-up, while the rest are face-down. The number of cards in each column from left to right usually follows this pattern: 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, resulting in 54 cards being dealt to the tableau.
- The Stockpile: The remaining 50 cards are left in the stockpile, face down. These can be drawn from during the game to add new rows of cards to the tableau. When you click on a Stockpile, one card is dealt to each column on the Tableau.
- Cleared Stacks: Completed sequences will be removed from the tableau to clear up space. Depending on what platform you’re playing on, you’ll usually find face-down sequences of cards at the bottom of your screen to represent the cleared stacks. Once you complete a sequence, you’ll see a neat animation where all the cards are whooshed to the bottom.
Strategic Moves and Techniques and Common Mistakes to Avoid
Now that we’ve set out the basics of 4 Suits Spider Solitaire, we can finally move on to how you can master the game through well-known strategies and techniques. Becoming adept at 4 Suit Spider means you’ll have to account for several strategies – you can’t just depend on a single strategy to carry you home.
Prioritizing Sequences and Exposing Hidden Cards
The first unwritten rule of Solitaire is to stick to the sequence. Of course, everyone knows that, but not many people actively focus on it. You need to focus on creating descending sequences within the same suit whenever possible. This might sometimes mean prioritizing completing a partial sequence of the same suit over a longer mixed-suit sequence since those are the sequences that contribute to the full run at the end of the day.
In a similar vein, revealing hidden cards also gets you much closer to your goal of completing sequences. This often involves moving partial sequences or even single cards to empty tableau columns.
Suit Management
In advanced variants like the two and four-suit Spider Solitaire variants, managing your suits is incredibly important. As a general rule of thumb, mixing suits should be a last resort as it can complicate future moves.
Utilizing Empty Tableau Columns
When you create empty spaces by completing and clearing stacks, you create more options to move cards around. You’ll often find that having this flexibility is crucial for maneuvering and reorganizing sequences in the early game.
This is the same reason why you are advised to be cautious about placing Kings in empty spaces. Once a King is placed, the only way to clear the space again is to complete the entire sequence from King to Ace.
Advanced Techniques for Frequent Players
A few general pieces of advice involve thinking several moves ahead. I know it’s tempting to just move the next card in order to its predecessor, but you need to consider the impact of each move not just immediately but in future turns. Sometimes, creating temporary mixed-suit sequences can help you achieve your long-term goal of uncovering more cards or building suit sequences.
My final piece of advice is to use the Stockpile wisely. You might be tempted to draw from the stockpile as soon as you see that you can’t make any more moves for your ‘favorite column’ – trust me, I know. However, it’s often best to deal with new cards when you have no other moves left or when dealing with new cards can directly lead to clearing a sequence.
Concluding Remarks
Now, these aren’t all the strategies that you’d need to utilize to become an expert at four-suit Spider Solitaire, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day. At the very least, this piece of advice gives you a nice baseline of how to approach your Spider Solitaire games, and it’s only up from there.
