Play Fred's Spider Solitaire Online — Ten Open Columns, Same-Suit Runs

Fred's Spider deals two decks into ten open columns of five. Columns build down by rank regardless of suit, but a run moves as a unit only when it is all one suit; any card or run fills a space. The stock holds fifty-four cards and deals one to every column per click. Eight foundations build up in suit from the ace, one card at a time. Bank all 104 to win.

Setup

Shuffle two decks. Deal five cards face up to each of ten columns. The remaining fifty-four cards form the stock: five full rows and a last row of four.

Rules

• Foundations build up in suit from the ace; each suit has two piles, and a banked card never returns.
Unlike Spider, the foundations take cards one at a time.
• Columns build down by rank: any seven on any eight.
• Only a same-suit run travels. A group of cards moves as a unit only when every card is one rank lower and the same suit as the card beneath. A mixed sequence is a legal build but a frozen one.
• Any card or run fills a space.
• The stock deals a row: one card face up to every column per click, an empty column included, as far as the cards go. There is no waste and no redeal.
• Win when all eight foundations are complete.

Strategy

Fifty cards are on the table and none is hidden, so the first job is to find the same-suit runs that can be assembled and the second is to keep spaces open, because here any card or run may take one. Six deals cover every column; each one is a chance to have low cards on top.

• Deal only when stuck. A row covers every column at once, an empty one included, and cannot be taken back except by undo. Play everything that will go before you click the stock.
• Keep runs packed. Only a packed run travels, so a card dropped out of sequence freezes everything above it until the run is rebuilt.
• Bank as you go. Foundations are one-way; a card on a foundation never blocks a column again.
• Build in suit when you can. A same-suit run travels whole; a mixed run is a legal build that will have to be unpicked.
• Spaces gather suits. An empty column takes anything, so it is where a scattered suit is assembled into one run.
• Bank low cards at once. The foundations take cards one at a time; every ace and two banked is a card out of the way.

Every game in this line runs on one clock: the stock. It never reshuffles and never comes back, so the number of rows left is the number of times the board can change on its own. Deal a row to reach a card you need only when no move can reach it, and before each deal read the tops of the columns, because those are the cards the row will bury. The hint button names a legal move; when it names the stock, nothing else is left.

Where It Sits in the Gypsy Line

Fred's Spider is Spidike's two-deck cousin on the Yukon engine: the same move and card-by-card foundations on ten open columns of five with open spaces. Incompatibility is the same board whose row deal skips empty columns.

Other Games to Try

• Incompatibility — the same board, empty columns skipped by the deal
• Spidike — one deck, a staircase, kings into spaces
• Steve — the same move on Carlton's staircase
• Spider — the move with suits collected whole

About This Online Version

Fred's Spider runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer and it works offline. You get unlimited undo, a hint button that names a legal move, statistics that track your wins and times, and seeded deals: every game has a seed you can replay, so a board you enjoyed (or lost) can be played again exactly.