Play Spidike Solitaire Online — Spider's Move, Klondike's Foundations

Spidike crosses Spider with Klondike. One deck is dealt into seven open columns one to seven deep. Columns build down by rank regardless of suit, but a run moves as a unit only when it is all one suit; only a king, or a run headed by one, fills a space. The stock holds twenty-four cards and deals one to every column per click. Four foundations build up in suit from the ace, one card at a time. Bank all 52 to win.

Setup

Deal a staircase of seven columns, one card in the first and seven in the last, all face up. The remaining twenty-four cards form the stock: three full rows and a last row of three.

Rules

• Foundations build up in suit from the ace; 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.
• Only a king fills a space, alone or heading a packed run.
• 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 four foundations are complete.

Strategy

Everything is visible, so Spidike is a planning game: which same-suit runs can be assembled from the cards on the table, and in what order, before the three deals bury them. A cross-suit build is a tool for reaching a card, never a place to leave one.

• 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 and banks in order; a mixed run must be unpicked card by card.
• Bank aces and twos early. The foundations take cards one at a time, so a low card banked is a card out of the way for good.
• Save a space for a king. Only a king may take an empty column; a king-headed same-suit run there is a finished suit waiting.

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

Spidike is tagged a Spider game upstream, but its foundations are Klondike's card-by-card piles, which is why it sits with the Gypsy line on the Yukon engine. Fred's Spider and Incompatibility are its two-deck cousins.

Other Games to Try

• Fred's Spider — two decks, ten columns of five, any card into a space
• Steve — the same move on Carlton's staircase
• Spider — the move with suits collected whole
• Small Triangle — the same deal hidden, with alternating colours

About This Online Version

Spidike 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.