Spiderette Solitaire Rules

Two games meet in Spiderette. The layout is Klondike, seven columns growing from one card to seven, while everything you then do with those cards comes from Spider Solitaire: build downwards, and finish a suit as a single run from king down to ace.

One pack and seven columns replace Spider's two packs and ten. Less to keep track of, and no easier to solve. The columns are cramped, the stock runs to three deals and no more, and most attempts end with cards still sitting on the table.

Fifteen to twenty minutes is a normal attempt. Several of them usually pass before one goes in.

One standard 52-card pack with the jokers removed. Nothing else.

Give yourself some table space, because the columns get long after a couple of deals. Overlap the cards enough to read what is underneath, and keep room to one side for the stock.

Deal seven columns of increasing length: one card in the first, two in the second, three in the third and so on up to seven in the seventh. Everything goes face down except the top card of each column, which you turn face up.

That puts 28 cards on the table. The remaining 24 go to one side as the stock.

There are no foundation piles. Runs are assembled inside the columns themselves, and only when a whole suit sits in order from king to ace does it leave the table.

You may move the top card of a column onto a card one rank higher, whatever the suit. ♠️9 goes onto ♦️10, and ♣️2 onto any 3.

Kings are high and aces low. Nothing goes on an ace, and a king goes nowhere. A column headed by a king is therefore stuck at the top until the whole run is finished.

Cards that lie in sequence and in the same suit move together as a unit. ♥️8, ♥️7 and ♥️6 travel as one onto ♥️9 or ♠️9. A mixed run has to be taken apart one card at a time.

Whenever a face-down card ends up on top of a column, turn it up straight away.

An empty column may be filled with anything: a single card, or a whole same-suit group.

Stuck? Deal a new row from the stock, one card face up onto every column. You may deal before you are stuck too, though it is rarely wise, since each new card lands on top of something you might have needed.

One rule limits it. All seven columns must hold cards before you deal. An empty column has to be filled first.

The stock of 24 cards covers three full rows. That leaves three cards, which go onto the first three columns in a short final deal. There is no redeal after that.

When thirteen cards of one suit lie in order from king down to ace in a single column, that suit is done. Lift the whole run off the table.

The game is solved once all four suits have gone and the table is empty. Fail to complete the last run and the game is lost, and whatever is left lying there usually shows you where it went wrong.

Some players keep score, ten points for each finished suit for instance, but most just play to get through.

These rules describe four-suit Spiderette: one pack, seven columns of one to seven cards, building down regardless of suit, and group moves only when the cards share a suit. The stock gives three full rows of seven and a final row of three. The requirement that every column hold a card before a deal is included, and the one and two-suit versions are covered under variants.