# Spider stock timing: when to deal the next ten cards

The stock in Spider looks like a reserve to call on whenever you are stuck. It is better treated as five events to plan for: each deal changes all ten columns at once, and you do not choose where the cards land.

## What a deal does

- The stock holds 50 cards: five deals of 10. The status line shows how many deals are left.
- Each deal places one face-up card on each of the ten columns, whatever is underneath.
- Dealing is not allowed while any column is empty. Tap the stock with a column empty and the game reminds you to fill every empty column first. Any card or valid run may fill an empty column.
- A deal counts as one move in your statistics, and Undo takes it back like any other move.

## What ten new cards cost, and what they bring

A new card on top of a run freezes that run until the new card moves away. Two-suit Spider, a column ending 8♥ 7♥ 6♥:

- If the deal drops a 2♠ on it, nothing below the 2♠ can move until the 2♠ finds a 3 or an empty column.
- If the deal drops a 5♥, the run grows to 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ and still moves as one.

You cannot choose which happens, so expect most of your runs to be covered. That is the price of a deal.

Deals bring something too. Ten new face-up cards are ten possible landing places, and a deal can even finish a run: if a column ends with a same-suit run from King down to 2 and the deal drops the matching Ace on it, the 13 cards are removed at once, just as if you had moved the Ace there.

## A checklist before every deal

1. **Turn over every face-down card you can.** Each deal adds a card on top of every column.
2. **Join same-suit pieces.** Two pieces that could be one run should become one while both are on top.
3. **Finish what can be finished.** A completed King-to-Ace run leaves the table and can no longer be covered.
4. **Fill every empty column** with the filler that minds being covered least.
5. **Deal**, then look at all ten columns before your next move.

For step 4, a King or a King-headed run is ideal. No card ranks above a King, so it can only ever move into an empty column and needs a column of its own anyway; a card dropped on it hides nothing you must dig out. The worst filler is a lone card that reveals nothing when it moves.

## Worked example: an empty column and two deals left

Two-suit Spider with three runs complete and two deals left. Face-down cards are shown as a count, and the last card listed is on top.

```
Col 1:  [4 down]  K♥ Q♥ J♥
Col 2:  [3 down]  10♠ 9♥
Col 3:  (empty)
Col 4:  [3 down]  10♥
Col 5:  [4 down]  5♠
Col 6:  [4 down]  7♥
Col 7:  [4 down]  3♠
Col 8:  [4 down]  A♥
Col 9:  [4 down]  5♥
Col 10: [3 down]  7♠
```

You cannot deal yet, because column 3 is empty. Apart from moves into column 3, only two moves exist: 10♥ onto J♥, and 9♥ onto 10♥.

**The hasty plan.** Drop the A♥ into column 3 and deal. One face-down card turns over, in column 8, but the hearts stay in three pieces, in columns 1, 2 and 4, and the deal covers each of them.

**The better plan.**

1. Move 10♥ from column 4 onto J♥ in column 1, a same-suit join. A face-down card in column 4 turns over.
2. Move 9♥ from column 2 onto 10♥. Column 1 now ends K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 9♥.
3. Move that five-card run into column 3. A face-down card in column 1 turns over.

Play any useful moves the newly turned cards offer, then deal. Three moves have turned over two cards instead of one, the hearts form one King-headed run in a column of their own, and whatever lands on that run covers nothing you need. The deal is your fourth move.

## The last deal

After the fifth deal there is nothing left to call on. Spider is lost when the stock is empty and no legal move changes the position, so the final ten cards deserve the most preparation. While stock cards remain the round cannot end as lost, one more reason not to rush the last deal. If you deal too early, Undo is there; see [hints and undo](hints-and-undo.html).

## Try it

One deal is left and column 6 is empty. You could fill it with the 4♠ from column 2, which sits on a 5♥; with the run Q♠ J♠ 10♠ from column 8, which sits on two face-down cards; or with a K♥ alone on a face-down card in column 9. Which do you choose?

**Answer:** The K♥. It turns over a face-down card, and a King can only ever move into an empty column. The spade run would also turn over a card, but it does not need the empty column: once the K♥ is in column 6, the Q♠ J♠ 10♠ can go onto it, if the card beneath is worth an off-suit build. The 4♠ reveals nothing and just blocks the column.

Deal with care in [Spider two suits](../play/spider-two-suits.html), and see [why an empty column is so valuable](spider-empty-columns.html) for using the space before you fill it.