Spider Solitaire 1 Suit

The Cleanest Version of a Great Game

I still fire up 1 Suit Spider when I want a quick win before a meeting. There's something satisfying about watching those completed runs fly off the board — and knowing you built them cleanly. I started here when I first got serious about Spider, and it taught me more about the game's core logic than hours of struggling through the harder variants ever did.

1 Suit Spider removes almost every reason to feel stuck. Every one of the 104 cards on the table belongs to the same suit. There are no color clashes, no locked sequences, no moment where you realize you just buried a Hearts run inside a Spades stack. The game lets you focus on the underlying logic of Spider without the noise of mixed suits.

That clarity is what makes 1 Suit so valuable. It is not a dumbed-down game. It is Spider with one complexity layer removed, which puts the essential mechanics front and center: empty column management, stock timing, sequence building, and the quiet art of looking two or three moves ahead. Whether you are brand new to card games or a returning player who wants a fast, satisfying session, Spider Solitaire 1 Suit is the right place to start.

What Is Spider Solitaire 1 Suit?

Spider Solitaire comes in three suit configurations — 1, 2, and 4 — each representing a distinct tier of difficulty. The 1 Suit version is built entirely from one suit, with 8 copies of every rank from Ace through King spread across 104 cards.

In most implementations (including this one), that suit is Spades. When you look at the table, every visible card is a Spade. Every face-down card is a Spade. This uniformity changes the game in one fundamental way: any descending sequence can be moved as a group, regardless of how it was assembled.

In 2 Suit Spider or 4 Suit Spider, stacking a red 6 on a black 7 creates a sequence you can see but not move together — the suit break locks it in place. In 1 Suit, that restriction disappears entirely. A 7-6-5-4-3 built over several moves is fully portable, ready to slide as a unit onto any 8.

This single rule change makes the game structurally simpler while preserving the depth that makes Spider compelling.

Setup and Initial Deal

The table is laid out identically to every Spider variant:

• 10 tableau columns receive a total of 54 cards at the start.
• Columns 1 through 4 each hold 5 cards. Only the top card is face-up; the other four are face-down.
• Columns 5 through 10 each hold 4 cards. Again, only the top card is face-up.
• The stock holds the remaining 50 cards, stacked face-down. It is available in exactly five deals of 10 cards each — one card delivered to each column per deal.

At the start of the game, you are looking at 10 face-up cards and 44 face-down cards. Your immediate job is to uncover those hidden cards as efficiently as possible. Everything else — scoring, empty columns, stock timing — follows from how well you manage that information gap early on.

The goal is to build eight complete King-to-Ace runs of Spades in the tableau. When a run is complete, it automatically moves to the foundation, clearing 13 cards from the board. Win by clearing all eight runs.

Rules Specific to 1 Suit Play

Most Spider rules apply across all variants, but 1 Suit has one critical distinction worth understanding clearly.

Standard Spider rules:

• Cards are placed on the tableau in descending order — a 6 goes on a 7, a Queen goes on a King, and so on.
• You may place any lower-ranked card on any higher-ranked card, regardless of suit. This rule applies in all variants.
• When the top card(s) of a column are moved away, any face-down card directly beneath them flips face-up.
• An empty column can receive any single card or any legal stack.
• Dealing from the stock requires at least one card in each of the 10 columns.
• Completed King-to-Ace runs leave the table automatically.

The 1 Suit difference: In multi-suit Spider, only a same-suit sequence moves as a group. A mixed stack of Q-J-10 in different suits can only be moved one card at a time. In 1 Suit Spider, this constraint does not exist — every card is the same suit, so every descending sequence you build is automatically moveable as a unit.

This matters enormously for tempo. Moving a 5-card sequence in one action is much faster than dismantling and rebuilding it card by card. You will find that 1 Suit games open up opportunities that simply do not exist in harder variants, because your sequences have inherent mobility from the moment they form.

Scoring

Scoring works the same way across all Spider variants:

With eight runs to complete, you can earn up to +800 points from completions alone. Add the 200-point time bonus to your 500 starting points and deduct your move count, and strong games typically land between 700 and 950 points.

Because 1 Suit games tend to be won in 100 to 150 moves, the move penalty is relatively modest. Most players lose 100 to 150 points from moves, but recover that cost through the time bonus when playing at a brisk pace. Undos cost the same as regular moves, so use them strategically rather than as a way to cycle through options randomly.

A practical scoring target: finish in under 15 minutes with fewer than 140 moves for a score above 800.

Strategy for 1 Suit Spider

Empty Columns Are Your Most Valuable Asset

The entire game revolves around empty columns. An empty column is a free parking space where you can temporarily place any card or moveable sequence. This lets you reorganize the tableau, extract buried cards, and create longer same-rank groups.

Try to empty your first column within your first 25 moves, well before you deal from the stock for the first time. Once you have an empty column, guard it. Only fill it when doing so directly leads to completing a run or uncovering a critical face-down card.

Expose Face-Down Cards Before Everything Else

Every face-down card is an unknown variable. Your available options are limited to what you can see, so uncovering hidden cards should be the primary goal in the first third of the game. When evaluating two possible moves, default to the one that flips a card face-up rather than the one that builds a slightly longer sequence.

Delay Your Stock Deals

The stock is not a panic button. Dealing 10 new cards when you have already built useful sequences buries your progress under fresh cards that arrive in unpredictable positions. Before hitting the stock, spend time finding every possible tableau move, including ones that seem minor. The longer you can run on existing cards, the more control you maintain over the board state.

A good rule: do not deal from the stock until you have emptied at least one column or can clearly see that no useful moves remain.

Build Long Sequences Toward Completion

Because any descending sequence moves freely in 1 Suit, you can afford to build long runs aggressively. A 9-card sequence is just as portable as a 2-card one. Prioritize length when building — a longer sequence is more likely to contain the cards needed to complete a King-to-Ace run, and it clears more space when it moves to the foundation.

Use Completed Runs Strategically

Completing a run removes 13 cards and opens significant space. However, do not complete a run just because you can. Sometimes keeping a nearly-finished run on the tableau gives you more flexibility than sending it to the foundation immediately. This is a minor consideration in 1 Suit but becomes much more important in harder variants.

Win Rate and Difficulty

Spider Solitaire 1 Suit has an estimated win rate of 60 to 80% for casual players and 90 to 98% for experienced players. This is dramatically higher than the 30–40% win rate of 2 Suit, and far above the 10–15% win rate of 4 Suit.

The game is genuinely winnable in the majority of cases, but it is not automatic. Rushing through moves without tracking what you are revealing, filling your only empty column too soon, or dealing from the stock before exhausting tableau options will all produce losses.

If you are losing more than 30 to 40% of your 1 Suit games, two habits are almost certainly responsible: dealing from stock too early, and carelessly filling the last empty column. Both mistakes constrain your options at exactly the moment you need flexibility most.

Benchmarks by experience level:

Use 1 Suit as a training environment. When you are consistently winning above 85%, you have internalized the core habits of Spider well enough to take on the added complexity of 2 Suit.

Who Is 1 Suit Spider Best For?

If you have never played Spider before, this is genuinely the best place to start. The rules are simple, the feedback is immediate, and you will win often enough in the early going to understand what good play looks like. That early success matters — it is much easier to learn from wins than from a string of defeats where you are not sure what went wrong.

Players who used to play Spider years ago and are coming back to it will find 1 Suit a great warm-up. A few games here rebuilds your sequencing instincts before you step back into the harder variants. Think of it like stretching before a run.

If you are someone who likes a satisfying game that fits into a short break, 1 Suit is also a good fit. Most experienced players finish in six to nine minutes — fast enough to squeeze in a game before your next task. And for anyone chasing high scores, 1 Suit's short completion time makes it the best variant for hitting the 200-point sub-10-minute time bonus consistently.

1 Suit is not the game for players who want a long, grinding strategic challenge — that is what 4 Suit Spider is for. But for a clean, satisfying game that rewards skill without demanding mastery, it remains the most accessible version of one of the great card games.

Comparing 1 Suit to Other Spider Variants

The jump from 1 Suit to 2 Suit is substantial. When two suits enter play, every sequence you have built that mixes suits becomes immoveable as a group. You can still place cards individually, but the free mobility that defines 1 Suit disappears. Reorganizing the board becomes a much more deliberate process.

The jump from 2 Suit to 4 Suit is even larger. With four distinct suits and only two copies of each card, the probability of finding the card you need in a useful position drops sharply. Many 4 Suit games reach a state where no winning line exists regardless of skill — a situation essentially impossible in 1 Suit.

For a full explanation of the rules and strategy that apply across all three variants, see the Spider Solitaire guide.

Ready to Play?

Spider Solitaire 1 Suit is free, requires no download or account, and works on every device. The game embeds directly above — tap the Game button to select your suit count and start a new game at any time.

If you want to level up after mastering the basics here, try 2 Suit Spider for a meaningful increase in challenge, or jump straight to 4 Suit Spider if you are ready to test your limits.

The main Spider Solitaire page has a full breakdown of every variant in one place.