Yes, that can be done, I’ve done it. And you lose unless you undo.
I play the two suit game and ONLY allow alternate color columns…in other words I never complete two of the same colors in a row. I always alternate. I don’t mind using the undo key because sometimes I have a choice of a card to move to reveal a card beneath and i check them out to see which gives me the most options. I follow the following rules…
- always move the highest possible card to the same suit (unless there are open columns and moving another card allows a hidden card to be turned or a suit completed…)
- Complete all same suit moves first ((unless there are open columns and moving another card allows a hidden card to be turned or a suit completed…).
and 3. alternate completed columns…
my success rate is around 75% or better. I don’t complete all games I start and I quit games that can easily be won if I have to complete two of the same suits in a row.
I’ve had a couple of stretches of over 100 games but someone reported on another thread on this board that they’d reached over 200.
To add to the discussion:
[ul]
[li]I’m increasingly sure that every game is winnable, although I’ve had games that required several thousand moves to find a win[/li][li]I’ve just stumbled on a quirk in Windows 7 that apparently doesn’t restart the count if you restart your computer in the middle of a game! This allows you to cheat if you get a difficult game. (Not sure what you’d gain by cheating other than reporting bogus results here).[/li][li]You get better at the game as you play. I usually try for a high score until it is clear that that isn’t going to happen, and then start to undo.[/li][/ul]
Of course you are playing the newer version, when you can undo dealings. But even in that is the case, what if there are all kings hiding until the last dealing - that could be uninable
Of course you are playing the newer version, when you can undo dealings. But even in that is the case, what if there are all kings hiding until the last dealing - that could be unwinnable. Right now, I am playing an old version. Played 3850 games in total (two suits). Have been climbing from the about 30% winning rate to 61%. When I do play the newer version, it is about 98-99%.
Since this thread 's been bumped, has anyone else noticed that, when you’re playing with 4 suits, the last card to be turned over has a slight tendency to be an ace or a king? Obviously the chance of them being on the back row is standard, but maybe I’m experiencing confirmation bias?
Right now i am on a 1845 games winning streak 2 suit. The most moves i had to make was over 2000.
I believe on Win 7 and 8 each 4-suit deal is beatable. Yes, in theory you could construct a hand that isn’t but I don’t believe that these are random deals. My max in-a-row (all assuming ‘undo’ of course) was over 100 (114 I think) and I averaged 88% over 1000+ games. On that run I bailed out deliberately on games that proved too tedious as I like the variety of new games but still usually came close to winning each of those.
Spider is different on each OS. XP was more difficult because you couldn’t undo a ‘deal’ so I’m not sure that every hand was beatable. But on Win 7 it was. I’m now on Win 8.1 and what a pain that is–both the OS and Spider on it. On 8.1 MS is pushing XBox at every turn. Spider is slow and it seems that all hands are very difficult to beat, in part because the game is so slow and undo so sluggish. Have half-considered trying to copy over the Win7 executable and seeing if it runs. Anyone tried this?
25 wins, 3 defeats
I’m not sure this is correct. I’ve come across deals where little could be done, and I’m batting 96%+.
And it’s trivial to construct hands that are unwinnable.
Since you’re an expert, have you noticed that, when you’re playing with 4 suits, the last card to be turned over has a slight tendency to be an ace or a king? Obviously the chance of them being on the back row is standard, but maybe I’m experiencing confirmation bias?
Hi,
I strongly believe that every Spider Solitaire 4-suit games are solvable (with undo’s of course).
My record (so far):
Games played: 159
Games won: 159
Games lost: 0
Percent won: 100%
Wins with undo: 11
Total time played: 11d 17h 51m 7s
Avg game time: 106m 21s
Shortest win time: 14m 4s
Longest win time: 976m 35s
Fewest winning moves: 179
Most winning moves: 375
Highest score: 29256
I will report if I lose.
I started playing to prove that all games are winnable. Seems so so far.
It’s trivial to construct deals which are impossible to solve.
About a year ago I had to get a new laptop and since then my record on Adv Spider Solitaire with 4 suits is
Played 2426
Won 2423
Longest winning streak 1833 (still ongoing)
Longest losing streak 1
Win percentage 99% (99.8763%)
The only times that I havent won the game was when (three times so far) I accidentally restarted the game when I only intended to go back and keep playing so I am pretty sure that every game is winnable
This
And I’ll back out and try other moves if I don’t like the way it’s going.
I only play two suits
1750 games
800 wins for a 45 percent win rate ( it’s been slowly but steadily climbing upwards) longest losing streak is 20 (which was a long time ago)
Longest winning streak is 9
Best score is 1174
I have been playing since Nov 2011. I only play Advanced, as anything else is too easy
My statistics are
Played 1891, won 1753 (92%)
Longest winning streak 104
Longest losing streak 7
Current streak 51
Highest score 1144
I do use undo a lot, and know every game can be won…
Got my winning streak up to 2300 now (on advanced level) and it’s still ongoing.
Stats are played 2893
won 2890 longest
longest losing streak 1
win percentage 99% (99.896%)
I don’t bother about highest score because its easy to get it as high as you want:-
For unlimited high score wait until you get to a point where you finish a suit but leave yourself no more moves after that. You get 100 points for finishing the suit but it will bring the game to an end and you will get the option to start a new game or go back and try again. If you chose to go back and try again you will not lose the 100 points for clearing the last suit so you can make the same move again and get another 100 points and then you can repeat that as many times as you want to to rake up a huge (but very boring) high score.
Anybody else consider ‘undoing’ cheating? If so what are your statistics?
My mother used to always play and I would make fun of her for it till I was bored one day and got hooked. I play only four suits and only the version you get for free with Windows XP. My mother was terrible. Had less than 1% win rate.
I have a 20% win rate. That is with no ‘undos’ or restarts. I don’t care how many moves it takes. It’s all about the wins. My win percent slipped below 20 and I fought for a long time to get it back. I am now at 76 wins and 302 losses ( on this computer… I’ve played a lot more games than that ). I think I need to retire from this. It is not out of control. I have a girlfriend and a life, but I really think I need to be more productive with my free time.
So just curious how good I am before I hang it up. If I really am good, I may consider coming out of retirement to compete in the Spider Solitaire World Championships, but only if I get some fat sponsorship deals from it…
my stats are
games played 437
won 184
high score 1148
yes I back out to the beginning a lot and exit so I’ve really lost like 500 games:(
interesting what scots_nomad says about being able to cheat up the points. my 1148 is valid (152 moves). I’ve seen others saying they have scores of over 1200 which means less than 100 moves if not cheating. that’s pretty frickin awesome if so.
anyone else ot there, what your least moves games
I have noticed that on Windows 7 I seem to be getting the same deals frequently. I don’t undo, so sometimes these games don’t get too far and maybe only the top of the stacks seem similar. Or perhaps it was always that way and I didn’t notice. Anybody else seeing this?
Four suits
9.7% wins
Shortest time 12m 46s
Fewest moves 191
48 wins without undo
High score 63007
Longest winning streak 3