Play Will o' the Wisp Solitaire
One deck, seven columns of three cards, Spider rules. Deal a free game of Will o' the Wisp below.
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Will o’ the Wisp is a one-deck Spider game. You deal seven columns of three cards, with only the top card face up, and keep the rest as a stock. You build down in any suit, move same-suit runs as a group, and win by clearing four King-to-Ace runs, one per suit.
How the Will o’ the Wisp deal is laid out
The deal uses one deck of 52 cards. Each of the 7 columns gets three cards: two face down with one face up on top. The rest of the deck is the stock, which you deal onto the columns a row at a time. The last deal is short, so only the leftmost columns get a card.
Every column starts the same height. That evenness is what sets the game apart.
Will o’ the Wisp rules
These rules follow Pretty Good Solitaire’s Will o’ the Wisp page.
- Build down by rank in any suit. A 3 of hearts goes on a 4 of any suit.
- Move one card, or a run going down in one suit, as a unit.
- Fill an empty column with any card or legal run.
- Turn a face-down card up when it’s uncovered.
- Deal from the stock to put a card on each column (the short last deal covers only the leftmost columns). You can only deal when no column is empty.
- A full King-to-Ace run in one suit leaves the table straight away.
- Clear all four suits to win.
How it differs from Spiderette and Spider
Will o’ the Wisp plays exactly like Spiderette Solitaire. Only the deal changes. Spiderette uses a Klondike staircase, one card in the first column up to seven in the last, with 21 cards face down. Will o’ the Wisp deals three cards to every column, so only 14 start face down.
Pretty Good Solitaire says the smaller number of face-down cards makes Will o’ the Wisp slightly easier than Spiderette. The trade-off: more cards stay in the stock, so you deal more rows, and more of your work gets covered.
Against two-deck Spider Solitaire, you have half the cards, seven columns instead of ten and four runs to build instead of eight.
The game comes from Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith’s 1949 book The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games, according to Pretty Good Solitaire.
Will o’ the Wisp strategy
Turn over the second layer fast. Each column has just two hidden cards. That’s shallow enough that one or two moves can reach the bottom of a column. Go for the column where a single move flips a card and empties nothing important.
Build empty columns early. With only three cards per column, you can empty one quickly. Do it before the stock starts adding cards, because every deal makes each column one card taller.
Prefer same-suit builds. Pretty Good Solitaire’s tip for this family applies here: build in suit when you can. Same-suit runs move as one. Mixed runs have to be taken apart card by card.
Expect a long stock. More of the deck sits in the stock than in Spiderette, so plan for several rounds of deals. Get the table tidy before each one. You’ll need to fill any empty column before you can deal.
Check the column tops. Before you deal, check which columns end in low cards. A dealt card on top of an Ace or a 2 often buries it for a long time.
The board above is free in your browser with unlimited undo, hints and shareable numbered deals. For a one-deck game with no stock at all, try Simple Simon.
Rules source: Pretty Good Solitaire (Goodsol)
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Will o’ the Wisp and Spiderette?
Only the deal. Spiderette deals a Klondike staircase of one to seven cards per column. Will o’ the Wisp deals three cards to each of the seven columns, two face down and one face up. The building, moving, stock and empty-column rules are the same in both games, so anything you learn in one carries over.
Is Will o’ the Wisp easy?
Not really. Pretty Good Solitaire still rates it hard, though it says the smaller number of face-down cards makes it slightly easier than Spiderette. You still have only one deck, so each card has just one copy, and only same-suit runs can move as a group. Careful suit sorting matters as much as in Spider.
Who invented Will o’ the Wisp Solitaire?
Pretty Good Solitaire credits Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith, who described it in their 1949 book The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games. Pretty Good Solitaire calls it a variation of Spiderette, dealt in the same way as the game EastHaven, with three cards in each column.
Can you deal with an empty column in Will o’ the Wisp?
No. Under Pretty Good Solitaire’s rules, every empty column must be filled before you deal from the stock. Move a card or a same-suit run into the gap first. A King is often the best choice. No card ranks above a King, so it could only ever move to another empty column anyway.