Solitaire Strategy: How to Win More Games of Klondike and Spider
By the CrazyArcade team ·
Solitaire feels like a game of luck, and some deals really cannot be won. But many lost games are lost to a few bad habits: playing the waste pile too eagerly, filling empty columns with the wrong card and mixing suits in Spider. Fixing those habits wins noticeably more games.
We use our own Klondike Solitaire and Spider Solitaire for the examples. Both let you undo moves, which is a useful way to test an idea and take it back.
Klondike: uncover hidden cards first
The face-down cards in the seven columns are the real problem in Klondike. Every move that turns one face up gives you new options. When you have a choice, play from the column with the most hidden cards, even if a move from the waste pile looks just as good.
Do not rush cards to the foundations. Moving a low card up is always safe, but sending a 6 or 7 up too early can leave you without a place to park a 5 or 6 of the other colour later on.
Klondike: think before filling an empty column
Only a King can go into an empty column, so an empty column is valuable. Do not empty a column unless you have a King ready to move in, and when you have a choice between two Kings, pick the one that lets you build with cards you can already reach.
Draw 1 is the easier mode because you see every card in the stock. Draw 3 is harder, since only every third card is playable on each pass, so plan which cards in the waste pile you actually need.
Spider: build in one suit whenever you can
In Spider, you can put any card on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit. That freedom is a trap. Only runs of one suit move together, and only a full King-to-Ace run of one suit leaves the table. A column of mixed suits becomes hard to untangle.
When you have a choice, place a card on a card of the same suit. When you must mix suits, do it on a column you can sort out soon.
Spider: empty columns and the stock
An empty column is your most powerful tool in Spider, because any card or run can go there. Use it to rearrange runs, not as a permanent home for a single card. Before you deal ten new cards from the stock, make all the useful moves you can and try to free hidden cards, since the new deal will cover every column.
Start with 1 Suit to learn how runs and empty columns work, then move to 2 Suits. The 4 Suits mode is much harder and needs careful use of every empty column.