Play 2 Suit Spider Solitaire
Spades and hearts, two decks' worth of cards. Build each suit from King to Ace to clear the board.
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2 suit Spider Solitaire is Spider played with only spades and hearts. You build columns down from King to Ace, and a run only moves as a group when all its cards share one suit. It sits between the easy 1 suit game and the hard 4 suit game. Play it free above, no sign-up needed.
How the 2 suit game works
Two suits means the 104 cards are four copies of the spade cards and four copies of the heart cards. Everything else follows standard Spider.
You start with 10 columns. The first four hold six cards, the other six hold five, and only the top card of each is face up. The remaining 50 cards wait in the stock.
Building. Any card can go on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit. A 6 of hearts can sit on a 7 of spades.
Moving groups. You can only move several cards at once if they run down in order and are all the same suit. So 8-7-6 of hearts moves as one piece. A 7 of spades with a 6 of hearts on it does not.
Empty columns take any card or any group that could legally move.
The stock deals one card face up onto every column, but only when no column is empty. You get 5 deals.
Winning. A full King-to-Ace run in one suit clears off the board on its own. Clear all 8 and you’ve won.
The group-move rule is where two suits gets hard. Building across suits is legal, but it locks cards together. A 6 of hearts on a 7 of spades is fine to play, yet the 7 can’t take the 6 with it when it moves. The rest of this page is about managing that.
In Windows, Microsoft called this level Intermediate.
Read the board by colour
With only spades and hearts in play, every suit change is also a colour change. Black to red, or red to black, means a break: a spot where the column stops being one movable run.
Scan each column from the top card down to the first face-down card and count the breaks. A column with no breaks moves in one go. A column with one break needs one extra spot to take apart. A column with three breaks is a problem you’ll need empty columns to fix.
This is the big advantage two suits has over four. You can see every break at a glance, without reading the suit symbols.
Strategy for 2 suit Spider
Build in suit when you have the choice
If a 5 of hearts could go on a 6 of hearts or a 6 of spades, play the heart. Both moves are legal now, but only the in-suit build keeps the stack movable later.
Make an off-suit build only when it pays
Sometimes the only move is an off-suit one. Make it when it does one of these:
- turns over a face-down card
- empties a column
- frees a card you need for an in-suit build right away
If it does none of those, you’re adding a break for nothing. Look for another move or deal.
Send runs to a home in their own suit
When a heart run sits on a spade, look for a heart one rank higher somewhere else. Say a column ends in 7 of spades, 6 of hearts, 5 of hearts, and another column shows the 7 of hearts. Move the 6-5 of hearts onto the 7 of hearts. You’ve removed a break, built a longer heart run and freed the 7 of spades, all in one move.
Use an empty column to split a mixed stack
An empty column lets you move a stack that has one break in it. Here’s how it works.
Column A ends in 7 of spades, 6 of hearts, 5 of hearts. Column B shows the 8 of spades. You want the 7 of spades on the 8, because that’s an in-suit build, but the hearts on top of it won’t move with it.
- Move the 6-5 of hearts into the empty column.
- Move the 7 of spades onto the 8 of spades.
- Move the 6-5 of hearts back onto the 7 of spades.
Three moves later, column A has a new card turned over (or is empty), the spades are joined, and your empty column is free again. With two empty columns you can split stacks with more breaks, which is why the first empty column is worth so much.
Keep track of each card’s copies
The deck holds four of every heart and four of every spade. If you’re waiting for a 9 of hearts and can see three of them in awkward places, the fourth is face down, in the stock or already cleared in a finished run. Counting what’s visible tells you whether a plan can work before you spend moves on it.
Protect your runs before each deal
Every deal lands a random card on every column, and with two suits many of those cards won’t match the suit beneath them. Before you deal:
- Make every in-suit join you can.
- Fill any empty column (you can’t deal with one open), ideally with a single-suit run that will move cleanly afterwards.
- Leave your longest clean runs on the columns where a new card hurts least.
After the deal, look for new cards that match the suit below them. Those are free builds.
Don’t rush to finish a run
A completed King-to-Ace run clears itself and scores points, so it’s tempting to build toward one at any cost. But clearing face-down cards and making empty columns usually helps more early on. A run that’s nearly complete is safe where it is. Turn your attention back to it once the board opens up.
Two suits compared with one and four
One suit removes the problem of breaks: every build is in suit. Four suits makes breaks constant, and you can’t spot them by colour, because spades and clubs are both black and hearts and diamonds both red.
Two suits gives you the real Spider puzzle with one break type to watch. If two suits feels too hard, drop back to one-suit Spider and practise making empty columns. When it starts to feel easy, try 3 suit Spider, which many Spider sites leave out, or the full four-suit version.
Want the basics first? See how to play Spider, the full rules of Spider Solitaire or our broader Spider strategy tips.
Scoring in 2 suit Spider
The score starts at 500. Each move costs 1 point, each undo costs 1, and each completed run adds 100. Dealing from the stock is free. Moving a whole run counts as one move, so clean in-suit runs also save points. The scoring guide explains the full system.
Features for 2 suit play
The game here has unlimited undo, hints, auto-complete and your stats saved in your browser for each suit count. You can share any numbered deal by link, so a friend can try the exact game you just played. There’s also a daily deal with a streak, big-cards and left-hand modes, themes and fullscreen. It all works on phones, tablets and computers.
For more games like this, see the full list of Spider-family games, or try Tarantula, which relaxes Spider’s rule on moving groups.
Rules source: Pretty Good Solitaire (Goodsol)
Frequently asked questions
What suits are used in 2 suit Spider Solitaire?
Spades and hearts. The deck is four copies of the spade cards and four copies of the heart cards, so every rank appears eight times, four black and four red. Because the two suits are also two colours, you can spot a break in a column, where the suit changes, without reading the symbols.
Is 2 suit Spider harder than 1 suit?
Yes. In 1 suit Spider, every run you build can move as a group. With two suits, you can still build a heart on a spade, but that pile won’t move together, so careless builds trap cards. It’s still easier than 4 suit Spider, where four suits make breaks far more common.
Can you move a mixed-suit run in Spider?
Not in one move. Only runs of a single suit in descending order move together. To shift a mixed pile, move it in pieces: put the top suit run in an empty column or on a matching card, move the card underneath, then bring the run back. Empty columns make this possible.
What is the best strategy for 2 suit Spider?
Build in suit whenever you can choose, and only make an off-suit build when it turns over a card or empties a column. Create empty columns early, use them to split mixed stacks, and make every in-suit join you can before you deal from the stock, because each deal covers every column.
Is 2 suit Spider the same as Intermediate in Windows?
Yes. Microsoft’s Spider Solitaire used Intermediate for its two-suit level, between Beginner with one suit and Advanced with four. Our 2 suit game uses the same rules and the same score system: start at 500 points, lose 1 point for each move or undo, and gain 100 for each finished run.