Hobbies Card Games Solitaire

How to Play the Little Spider Solitaire Card Game

By
Erik Arneson
Erik Arneson

Erik Arneson is a highly respected board game expert, sharing his 20 years of knowledge on gaming strategies. He's the author of the book, "17 Games You Can Play Right Now," has been a featured speaker at the American International Toy Fair, and is the former Vice President of the Strategy Gaming Society.

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Updated on 04/19/19
woman looking at her playing cards

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Little Spider is a solitaire card game that gives players plenty of choices to make. It uses a deck of 52 playing cards. A good player should win more than half the time. Little Spider is different from other Solitaire varieties, such as Yukon solitaire and Poker solitaire.

Players

1 player.

Deck

A standard 52-card deck.

Goal

To build on the four foundations, two from Ace up to King and two from King down to Ace.

Setup

Deal the entire deck into two rows of four face-up piles (eight piles total), leaving room between the rows for a third row (which will be the foundations). These two rows are known as the "upper tableau" and the "lower tableau."

As they become available during the deal, move two Aces of the same color (red or black) to the foundation row. Move the two Kings of the other color to the foundation row.

Gameplay

An exposed card on one tableau may be moved to another pile in the tableau at any time, as long as it is done in rank order. For these purposes, an Ace is higher than a King and lower than a 2. Note: This means the tableau piles can cycle around, e.g.: Q-K-A-2-3.

If an empty space is created in the tableau, it is not filled.

An exposed card in the upper tableau may be moved to one of the foundation piles at any time, as long as it is done in rank order and the cards are the same suit. Example: If the Ace of Clubs is one of the foundation cards, the 2 of Clubs may be moved from the upper tableau to that foundation.

An exposed card in the lower tableau may only be moved to the foundation pile immediately above it, and only if it is in rank order and the cards are of the same suit.

Once a card is played to a foundation, it cannot be removed.

In the foundations, an Ace and a King can never be played on each other. The two foundations that started with an Ace must be built in this order: A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K. The two foundations that started with a King must be built in this order: K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-A.

Strategy

Moving cards around the tableau effectively is a key to victory. Don't hurry to move available cards to the foundations. Often, they will be more useful to you in the tableau.

Try to stack tableau cards in the opposite order that they'll be played onto the foundations so that you can easily build the foundations later.

Winning

You win Little Spider solitaire by completing all four foundations.