Spider Solitaire Win Rates: 1-Suit, 2-Suit, and 4-Suit Analysis

Last Updated: May 7, 2026

Spider has the widest win-rate range of any common solitaire game. The same rules apply across 1-suit, 2-suit, and 4-suit modes, but the practical win rate drops by an order of magnitude as the suit count goes up. With skilled play, expect about 95% in 1-suit, 30–40% in 2-suit, and 5–15% in 4-suit. This page breaks down where those numbers come from, why they vary so much, and how to push your own results higher.

Spider Win Rates by Difficulty

Unlike Klondike — which has a peer-reviewed solvability result from Yan et al. (2005) at ~82% — Spider has no equivalent published study. The numbers below come from large-scale play data and solver experiments, not formal proof. Treat them as strong estimates, not settled values.

1-suit: the winnable side (~95% with care)

Single-suit Spider is the most winnable common solitaire variant. Skilled play approaches 95%. The deck is still 104 cards, but every card matches every other for sequence-moving purposes. The hardest part of Spider — keeping suit groupings clean — disappears.

Average players land between 60 and 80%. The gap between average and skilled play here is nearly all decision quality: when to draw from stock, when to delay, how to use empty columns, when to commit to building a King-down run.

Why 1-suit is so winnable:

• No suit penalty — any descending sequence moves as a block.
• Every card can land on any higher-ranked card.
• Completing a King-to-Ace run is much easier without suit constraints.
• Far fewer dead-end positions where cards become permanently blocked.
• More opportunities to free up empty columns and create working space.

2-suit: the difficulty cliff (30–40% with skill)

Adding a second suit doesn't double the difficulty — it multiplies it. Practical win rates drop from ~95% to 30–40% with skilled play. About 1 in 3 deals goes your way. Average players land at 15–25%.

The new constraint is sequence movement. You can still build descending mixed-suit columns, but only same-suit runs move as a block. That changes everything. Mixed-suit sequences can move only one card at a time, which makes long blocks worthless for re-arranging the board.

Why 2-suit is much harder than 1-suit:

• Half the cards are the "wrong suit" for any sequence you're building.
• Suit-mixed runs can't be moved as a unit — you lose the leverage.
• Fewer in-suit completion paths, so blocking patterns are easier to create.
• Empty columns matter more, since they're often the only way to separate suits.
• Decisions get deeper — five to ten moves ahead instead of two or three.

4-suit: the standard challenge (5–15% with skill)

Four-suit Spider is the version Microsoft Solitaire calls "expert," and the version most casual players know as "Spider." Skilled play wins 5 to 15% of deals. Average players win 1 to 5%. This is hard, but not unbeatable — and the lower-end "1–2%" figures sometimes cited for 4-suit reflect random or weak play, not optimal play.

The difficulty is straightforward: only one suit in four matches any given sequence. Three out of four cards landing on a column break a same-suit run. The deck and rules are the same as the easier modes; the scarcity of usable cards is what changes.

Why 4-suit is so much harder than 2-suit:

• Only 25% of cards are the "right" suit for any sequence in progress.
• Three-quarters of stock cards land on a column with the wrong suit.
• Empty columns become essential for any chance of finishing.
• Many deals lock up after the third or fourth stock deal regardless of play.
• Single suboptimal moves early often kill an otherwise winnable deal.

What Determines Whether a Spider Game Is Winnable

Some Spider deals are unwinnable from the moment they're dealt. Others are easy. Most fall in between. A few factors swing the balance.

1. Initial deal distribution

The starting tableau matters most. Favorable deals look like this:

• Even suit distribution across columns rather than concentrated.
• Early access to high cards — Kings, Queens, and Jacks where you can use them.
• Few buried low cards — Aces, 2s, and 3s not deep under heavier ranks.
• Natural starting sequences already partly formed in the deal.
• Variety in face-up cards — a good rank spread among the openers.

2. Stock pile distribution

The 50 cards left in the stock decide most games after the opening. The stock deals 10 cards at a time. Each deal can solve a problem or wreck the position.

Favorable distributions:

• Useful suits at moments when sequences are nearly done.
• Low cards when you've already placed the high ones.
• Cards that don't break too many existing sequences.
• Anything that lets you create a new empty column.

Unfavorable distributions:

• High cards when you need lows to close sequences.
• All wrong suits when you're close on several in-suit runs.
• Cards that block every available move at once.
• Concentration of one rank that creates an unsolvable cluster.

3. Empty column timing

Empty columns are Spider's most powerful tool. They're temporary storage and suit-sorting space. Games where you can create empty columns early and protect them through stock deals win far more often than games where every column stays full.

Creating and keeping empty columns means:

• Completing sequences to remove cards from play.
• Consolidating short columns into longer ones.
• Protecting empty columns from stock deals when you can.
• Using empty columns for the suit moves that actually matter.

4. Sequence-building opportunities

How often you can build same-suit runs decides a lot. Games with many natural in-suit pairs are far easier than games that force constant suit-mixing.

Easy deals tend to feature:

• Multiple columns where in-suit builds work right away.
• Access to both high and low cards of the same suit.
• Limited interference between different suit-building efforts.
• Clear paths to finishing more than one sequence.

5. Move-order sensitivity

Some deals have a single correct move order. Take the right cards in the wrong sequence and the deal becomes unwinnable, even though the right sequence would win. These are why Spider sometimes feels unfair — even strong players miss them without trial-and-error.

How to Push Your Own Win Rate Higher

Many Spider deals can't be saved no matter how well you play. But within the winnable pool, your decisions are everything. Avoid the common mistakes and apply these principles.

Strategic principles

1. Make an empty column early. Your first goal each game should be clearing one column before you draw from stock. Empty columns are flexibility.
2. Build same-suit when you have the choice. Mixed-suit runs are legal but they don't move as blocks. Only mix when there's a tactical reason.
3. Delay stock draws. Each draw lands 10 cards on your tableau and often breaks runs. Draw only when the current position is fully worked.
4. Preserve options. When several moves are available, take the one that leaves the most future moves open.
5. Verify before completing. Before sending a King-to-Ace run off the board, check that you don't need its cards for another sequence.
6. Use undo as a learning tool. Don't be afraid to undo five or ten moves. Spider rewards experimentation.
7. Recognize dead positions. Learning to spot truly stuck deals saves time. If careful analysis shows no path forward, restart.

Common mistakes that cost wins

• Completing too early. Removing cards can eliminate building blocks you'll need.
• Breaking same-suit runs without need. A last-resort move only.
• Drawing from stock too soon. Adding 10 cards before the position is exhausted buries solutions.
• Ignoring suit distribution. Not tracking where each suit lives leads to dead ends.
• Filling empty columns cheaply. A waste of your strongest tool.
• Tunnel-visioning one sequence. Balanced progress across runs usually beats single-minded pursuit.
• Reflex moves. Take a moment before committing — the obvious move isn't always the best.

Difficulty-specific targets

1-suit. Focus on creating empty columns fast. Suits don't matter; space management does. Aim for 80%+.

2-suit. Master suit tracking and suit separation. Learn when mixing is forced vs when to keep runs pure. Aim for 25–35%.

4-suit. Accept that most deals are unwinnable and focus on recognizing the small share that aren't. Perfect execution is required. Aim for 8–12%.

Comparison to Other Solitaire Variants

How Spider win rates stack up against other common variants.

Spider 4-suit sits at the hard end of common variants, alongside Klondike Draw 3 and Scorpion. The dramatic range within Spider — from ~95% in 1-suit down to 5–15% in 4-suit — is unusual. Most games don't offer that much spread within a single ruleset.

Track Your Progress

The fastest way to improve is to measure. TrySolitaire tracks per-mode statistics automatically:

• Games played. Total starts.
• Games won. Total completions.
• Win percentage. Wins ÷ games.
• Current streak. Consecutive wins or losses.
• Best streak. Longest winning run.

Set incremental goals:

• Start with 1-suit. Hit 80% before moving up.
• In 2-suit, every win is real. Aim for 25–35%.
• In 4-suit, expect 10–20 games per win at the start.
• Notice which positions cost you most of your losses.
• Pay attention to which deals were truly unwinnable vs which you misplayed.

Conclusion

Spider has the widest practical win-rate range of any common solitaire game. From ~95% in 1-suit to 5–15% in 4-suit, the same rules produce three almost different games depending on suit count. The 1-suit version rewards space management. The 2-suit version adds suit separation. The 4-suit version requires both, plus a tolerance for losing.

Set the right target for your chosen mode. Track your numbers. Focus on decision quality over win count. Even a few percentage points of improvement over hundreds of games is real progress.

References & Sources

1. Yan, X., Diaconis, P., Rusmevichientong, P., & Van Roy, B. (2005). "Solitaire: Man Versus Machine." Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 17, 1493–1500. The peer-reviewed result establishing approximately 82% theoretical solvability for Klondike. No equivalent peer-reviewed study exists for Spider, which is why this page hedges its Spider win-rate figures as estimates from play data rather than proofs.
2. Microsoft. Microsoft Solitaire Collection. Microsoft Solitaire. Source for Spider's "Beginner / Intermediate / Expert" suit-count modes and the de facto modern reference implementation.
3. Parlett, David. The Penguin Book of Patience. Penguin, 1979. Standard reference for the ruleset and historical context of Spider and other patience games.
4. Spider win-rate ranges on this page are aggregated from large-scale play-data observations and solver experiments. They are presented as practical estimates, not formal solvability bounds. The lower-bound figures occasionally cited elsewhere (1–2% for 4-suit) reflect random or weak play; skilled-play figures are higher.

Related Spider Guides

• Spider Solitaire — the main landing with rules and a deep play page
• Complete Spider strategy guide — rules, supermove math, the strategies (covers suit management at #7/#8), history
• Strategies that actually work — empty-column timing, in-suit building, stock-deal discipline
• Spider vs Klondike — picking the right variant for your skill level
• Hardest solitaire games — where 4-suit Spider sits among the toughest variants