Rules for Spider

Brought to you by Semicolon Software, makers of Solitaire Till Dawn.

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Spider uses ten tableau piles and the hand, and nothing else. (Solitaire Till Dawn also offers eight wastepiles to hold the King-to-Ace builds which the rules allow you to discard; but normally you'd just scoop up these builds and set them aside.)

Shuffle two decks together. Start the game by putting five cards face-down and one face-up in four of the tableaus, and four face-down and one face-up in the remaining six tableaus -- a total of 54 cards. Keep the remaining 50 cards in your hand.

The tableaus build down, without regard for color or suit. The topmost card of each tableau is available; in addition, full or partial builds in suit are also available. (Although you do not have to build by following suit, there is an advantage in doing so because such builds can be moved while mixed-suit builds cannot.)

Empty spaces may be filled with any available card or build. Note however that Kings can only be played into empty spaces because there's no higher rank to build them on.

You may deal any time you wish, provided that no tableaus are empty. To deal, turn up ten cards from the hand and put one onto each tableau regardless of rank or suit. Usually you'll deal when you've run out of other moves.

Completed King-to-Ace builds in suit may be discarded from play (in Solitaire Till Dawn, by dragging them onto an empty wastepile). Note that you are not required to discard such builds, and there may be an advantage to leaving them in the tableau for a time to help in untangling other tableau piles. When all cards have been discarded, the game is won.

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