Play Tarantula Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Build down in any suit across ten piles, move same-color runs as one, and chase a 70% win rate in this gentler cousin of Spider.

Tarantula Solitaire is a gentler Spider: you still build down the tableau, but any suit will do, and any run of one color moves as a group even if the suits inside it don't match. That single loosened rule cuts out a lot of Spider's suit-tracking headaches while keeping the deal-and-clear structure intact. Expect medium difficulty with two full decks in play, and count on your own skill more than luck to land the 70% of deals that are winnable.

Spider Solitaire and Black Widow Solitaire are its closest relatives — Black Widow uses the same layout and deal but lets you move any run regardless of color.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Have fun!

How to play Tarantula Solitaire

Layout:

10 tableau piles: Build down in any suit. Cards in sequence down in color can be moved as a group. Any card or legal collection of cards can fill a space. At the start of the game, the top four piles are handed six cards, while the remaining piles are dealt five cards. Only the top card is showing.

Stock: Click the stock to deal one card to each tableau pile. Every tableau pile needs at least one card in it before you can do this.

Foundation:

There are eight foundation piles.

Single cards are never allowed to be moved to the foundation. Only once you've built a complete sequence on the tableau, thirteen cards in order from ace to king, can you transfer it to the foundation.

The top card of each foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.

Tableau:

Ten tableau piles of cards are dealt: the first four piles receive six cards each and the remaining six piles five cards each, with only the top card of each pile face-up.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower than the pile's current top card, regardless of suit, so any four fits on a five.

Cards on the tableau that are not covered by another card can be played onto any other tableau pile.

Any card can fill an empty slot in the tableau.

If all cards are of the same color, groups of cards in succession from high to low can be transferred from one tableau column to another.

Stock:

The stock is made up of leftover cards.

When you click on the stock, a card is dealt to the top of each tableau pile. No tableau pile may be empty before you deal.