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GUEST
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 205.188.117.11
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - 11:04 am:   

I LOVE THIS GAME AND THE BEST SCORE I EVER MANAGED WAS 1206.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE SCORE IS?
I'VE PLAYED 2 SUITS BUT CAN'T GET BETTER THAN
1196.

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Allan McNeill
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 203.164.248.88
Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 3:16 am:   

i got 1207
allanmcneill@optusnet.com.au

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Allan McNeill
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 203.164.248.88
Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 3:18 am:   

1196 on 2 suits is real good

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Allan McNeill
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 203.164.248.88
Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 3:18 am:   

1196 on 2 suits is real good

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helen
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 144.138.104.33
Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 6:20 am:   

Don't know the answer, but I've managed 1210

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Christopher Y
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 168.209.98.35
Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 3:19 am:   

My highest ever on one suit is 1214 (86 moves). I play a high risk game for the sake of high scores so my win rate is 63% (which I imagine is quite low). I've scored 1210 or over at least 30 times.

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TAhir Aziz
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 203.135.0.66
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 1:00 pm:   

I got score 1208

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Tahir Aziz
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 203.135.0.66
Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 2:29 am:   

Dear Christopher Y, will you please telle me the technique to get higher score in spider soliataire with one suit as you got 1214 score.
Thanks

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Christopher Y
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 168.209.98.35
Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 2:55 pm:   

Hi Tahar. I guess the main contributor to the extra points is the fact that I never create or use empty spaces until the last row. Also you need to rid yourself of any need to come out at the end and go only for high score (I usually abandon a game at 100 moves, or 1200 score). The two goals of high win rate and high score oppose each other, you have to choose one.

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Lina
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.195.176.152
Posted on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 8:11 pm:   

singles i scored 1212 (88) and doubles 1198 (102)
I think that's pretty good

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Carl
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 24.11.190.240
Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 12:16 pm:   

Normally you should need 96 ( = 12 x 8 ) moves to clear out a spider board at minimum. This can be reduced by lucky deals (such as where a 6spade lands on a 7spade when dealing, etc.). Since there are 5 deals of 10 cards each, if all 50 of these deals were to go in your favor, you would need 46 moves, for a score of (500 - 46) + (100 * 8) = 1254.

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Caroline Smith
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 220.239.17.43
Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 5:13 am:   

What about the win percentage for 4 suits, any idea what is a decent one?
Mine is currently 24.9% (335 won / 1010 lost), I feel I'm doing well but may be wrong.

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Molly
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 71.107.17.151
Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 7:15 am:   

good question . my highest is 2145. my sister has gotten 1351

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Lina
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.195.176.152
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 - 7:36 pm:   

I just posted 1202 (98) at doubles.

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Tracey
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 65.94.202.162
Posted on Tuesday, August 02, 2005 - 6:56 am:   

isn't 1351 a mathematic impossibility?


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bsd987
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 24.8.169.215
Posted on Friday, August 19, 2005 - 10:19 pm:   

my highest is 1208. I woulda had 1210, but my laptop is sensative and i lost two moves.....



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furieuxfleur
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 213.196.231.130
Posted on Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 1:38 pm:   

i just got 1212 (88 moves) and it's my best ever! picture of score

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Christopher Y
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 196.207.45.254
Posted on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 12:57 pm:   

Yup, I did it again. I was getting worried, its been a year since I got 1214. My 2nd time now.

Spider Solitaire Score

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STEPH
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.17.151.60
Posted on Saturday, October 08, 2005 - 7:16 pm:   

"I guess the main contributor to the extra points is the fact that I never create or use empty spaces until the last row."

You have to use empty spaces because it won't let you deal a new row until all spaces are full...
maybe you could explain what you mean? :S

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Christopher Y
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 196.207.45.254
Posted on Monday, October 10, 2005 - 7:02 am:   

I suppose I should have said 'create *to* use'. Ie. I never remove the last card from the space, as filling it later is a wasted move. I consider any move that is not directly building the suit, a wasted move.

Incidentally, I've been wondering why Spider Solitaire players are not very active on the web in terms of reporting high scores. I searched a bit harder, and found 2 other high scores of 1216 and 1218!

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hepzibah netherlands
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 194.109.252.204
Posted on Sunday, November 06, 2005 - 7:27 am:   

what is the average wins for the 2-suit spider solitaire? i have 25% and my highest score is 1177. i can't find info anywhere about if i'm a lousy player or not.

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Veronika Netherlands
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 62.163.96.189
Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 6:28 pm:   

To Caroline, i think you are doing fine, mine is 21,5 % now (500 games played), didn't play seriously for a long time, and since paying attention it's moving up very slowly now ;-) I suppose i could calculate my current rate by monitoring the growth - per - game.

Surely someone is doing better?????

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RotorAI
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 68.67.93.21
Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 11:12 pm:   

My win rate is 100% for 105 games. The highest I ever gotis 1173, not very good by the standerds here but I am trying to never lose.
Score

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M Walsgh
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 64.12.116.69
Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 5:55 pm:   

If you have 105 wins why is your streak only 4?

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mark steil
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 24.86.146.94
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 1:15 am:   

i rock :-)

..

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Steve Harris
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 138.88.48.42
Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 9:01 am:   

Highest possible score theoretically:

One starts with 500 and gets a bonus of 100 for each completed stach of 13, but one point is deducted for each "move". So the maximum possible points with zero moves is 500 plus eight stacks * 100 = 1300. But one cannot complete the game with zero moves... the face down cards must be flipped. There are 44 face down cards, so to get them face up requires 44 moves minimum. If all the kings are dealt as bottom cards in each of the 10 piles AND all of the "deals" lands perfectly (i.e. requires no move to adjust them) AND the player manages to make all of the 44 required moves with complete efficiency (moving sequenced cards in their entirety, not breaking into the middle of a partial sequence), then 6 stacks will magically come off after the last deal, leaving two top portions and two bottom portions of the remaining two stacks, requiring one move each to complete the final two stacks. That's 46 moves total in a perfect world for a MAXIMUM TOTAL SCORE of 1254.

I would personally rather win the multi-state lottery and doing so would probably be a lot easier to do.

Steve

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Jim Fluri
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 212.152.222.252
Posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 - 3:45 am:   

easy 1219
medium 1201
difficult 1178

most wins difficult 17 straight

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Noam
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 80.178.103.130
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 10:01 am:   

Well, I play the difficult level, and it's hardly challenging anymore. My aim is to win (not high score), so I use the undo all the time (you have to, if you want a good rate). Currently I have a 58% win out of 400 games, and it keeps improving. I believe i can reach 2/3 win rate.
Spider win rate
I would like to know if there is an online champonship for this game...

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Bubbalicious!!
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 195.93.21.34
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 8:14 pm:   

I'm relatively new to Spider Solitaire... and I won't lie .. I can only play the easy level.

What I want to know is...and it's time to break out the math skills.

I hope this makes sense
Can anyone work out how many games you would need to play to get your win rate to 100% if you only had 1 loss?


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Ken Blackwell (Blackie9)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Blackie9

Post Number: 104
Registered: 8-2003
Posted on Sunday, April 30, 2006 - 10:45 am:   

would think it is around 200. As soon as you get over 99.50% it should round up.

Ken
Ken Blackwell (Blackie9)
Master Solitaire Player
Username: Blackie9

Post Number: 105
Registered: 8-2003
Posted on Sunday, April 30, 2006 - 10:50 am:   

Oops 99.951% so it would be 2000
Bubbalicious
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 195.93.21.34
Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 4:57 pm:   

Thanks Ken ... I was on 346 and was wondering if I was fighting a losing battle lol!

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Mitch in Virginia
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 68.48.81.45
Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 4:50 pm:   

I have a hard time believing some of the claimed scores and streaks on this board. I'm pretty good with puzzles and similar games (I once had a 172 game win streak on Free Cell), but the best I've managed on medium difficulty Spider is 1168.

Either the world's elite geniuses have found their way to this board, I'm missing something, or there are some people talented in photoshop and making things up.

I've also seen some boards explaining how to hack Microsoft games, so anyone who did that could play a record-setting game with ease.

My percentage is just over 50%, but that's because I replay losing games a few times trying to untangle them. After 3 losses, I conclude that a game is a unwinnable and move on. It seems that some people with high win percentages bail out and go on to a new game when they get stuck.

Comments?

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jim fluri
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 212.152.136.52
Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:31 pm:   

Comment to Mitch from Virginia,

The only fake score or static is I see is the obvious one humorously posted by mark steil, the rest look real.

I think you are missing something

At the moment my high scores are-
Easy 1223
Medium 1204
Difficult 1178

My best winning streak is 17 straight wins on the difficult level, one win after the another (I was going for 20 as I had done 10 before that). I am not sure but I think all games are winnable, anyone have any info on this?

PS I only played the difficult level until I got interested in high scores on the easy and medium level to make them more interesting.



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Kevin
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 199.184.196.47
Posted on Friday, June 02, 2006 - 5:02 pm:   

I don't think every game is winnable. Wouldn't it be possible for the last stack to be dealt in such a way as to prevent any possible moves (e.g., only kings and aces)?

By the way, I can't resist sharing my high score for the difficult (4-suit) level: 1154.

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Chris Drost
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 24.58.5.139
Posted on Monday, June 05, 2006 - 12:23 am:   

Winnability

Not all games are winnable. The last row could conceivably be:

K K K K J J J J 9 9

If none of the jacks lands on an open queen and none of the nines lands on an open ten, then this game is unplayable.

High Scores

(MS Windows XP version assumed.)

Theoretical Highest: 1254.

Typical Highest: 1208.

Practical Highest Scores: The following is based on a rough model. To read it, say "The odds of getting a game with a high score of S or greater, are N to 1 against."

S = 1208 : N = 1.1
S = 1209 : N = 2.6
S = 1210 : N = 6.1
S = 1211 : N = 15
S = 1212 : N = 41
S = 1213 : N = 120
S = 1214 : N = 420
S = 1215 : N = 1,600
S = 1216 : N = 6,400
S = 1217 : N = 30,000
S = 1218 : N = 150,000
S = 1219 : N = 830,000
S = 1220 : N = 5,100,000
S = 1221 : N = 33,000,000
S = 1222 : N = 240,000,000
S = 1223 : N = 1,900,000,000
S = 1224 : N = 16,000,000,000
S = 1225 : N = 150,000,000,000
S = 1226 : N = 1,500,000,000,000

The Reasoning Behind the Math
First, let's calculate a base score. The highest base score requires moving every queen onto a king, every jack onto a queen, et cetera, without doing any superfluous moves. You're using 8 stacks (from king to ace), but you don't actually ever need to move the kings (they can go away whenever you've moved the queen through ace on top of them). You do have to move the other 12 cards in each stack. Eight times twelve is 96.

The base score that they give you is 500, and each of the 8 stacks you clear is 100 apeice, giving you 500 + 800 = 1300 points. Subtract 96 for the moves you had to do, and you get 1204.

1204 is the highest base score.

Now, on top of that, when you deal a card on each row, sometimes they happen to land on cards that they're buddy-buddy with. So sometimes a queen lands on a king.

Theoretically, this means that, since there are 5 deals and 10 cards per deal, maybe by fortune all of them land on the right spots. That'd give you 50 extra points, or a score of 1254.

Theoretically. But that's very unlikely. First off, you could never have any aces at the bottom of any stack on the board, ever, because there's no card that can follow an ace. So you'd have to be a master player. And second, the probabilities are way against it; if all the cards just started magically landing on good cards, you would probably start thinking that you were in the Twilight Zone (or that God exists and really wants you to win that game).

The math required to figure out the exact probabilities of matching is in general, insuperably difficult. (It depends on how likely, say, an ace is to be out, which depends on your play style as well as the draw; situations where there are more aces out on the table are less likely to deal aces, et cetera. Far too messy.)

However, I can give you a ballpark figure with the following model.

In general, just pretend that probability of matching whatever card you're dealing doesn't depend on the board's present layout. (It does, but we're trying to get a ballpark figure here.) Then, for each of the ten positions on the board, there's a 12/13 chance that any of them is not an ace; and given that, there's a 1/13 chance that the thing which you're placing on top of them is the appropriate next card. That gives a 12/169 chance of any card giving you a free move.

Multiplying by 50 cards gives a typical value of 3.55; evidently, in a typical game, the maximum score you could get is 1207-1208.

You can use a Binomial Distribution to calculate the table above. Specifically, to generate that table, use a binomial CDF, then given S in the table above, the parameters are:

u = BinomCDF(x = S - 1205; n = 50; p = 12/169)
N = 1/(1 - u) - 1.

It is instructive to plot these values in OpenOffice.org Calc (available free from OpenOffice.org). In particular, you can see that just changing the probability from 12/169 to 1/13 (to reflect the same model with an amazing player that leaves no aces around ever) affects those numbers greatly, nearly halving them.

So this is really just an order-of-magnitude calculation, nothing more.

--- Chris Drost
(My LJ)

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spideraddict
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 24.243.172.114
Posted on Tuesday, June 06, 2006 - 12:32 am:   

Chris Drost, you are my hero. I have been obsessing about this subject for the last few days, and here I find you have explained it. Even better, your calculation of the theoretical highest score of 1254 in a perfect game is also what I had arrived at after thinking about it way too much and discussing it with my friend Chucky who is an accountant and a Spider expert. Your explanation of the highest base score, practical score etc. is also very interesting and very welcome. I better get to work, 'cause my high score is only 1187. I'm such a Spider slacker...

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Jim Fluri
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 212.152.142.84
Posted on Tuesday, June 06, 2006 - 9:24 am:   

Highest Possible Score

Getting high...scores greatly depends on your knowledge of the game-
If you are God you know what is under each card, what card is going to fall and where.
As in the movie “Groundhogs Day” you become like God (only with respect to this silly game) when you play the same game over and over again.
If only life were that simple!

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rufjumprEd
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 208.54.201.56
Posted on Thursday, August 17, 2006 - 1:49 pm:   

Ive enjoyed all this. Played for percent at first then went to high score. Played about 30,000 games. Dad has Alz, I guard the door out alot. You cant upset anybody else playin Spider if something happens. Keeps me sane. I got score of 1209, now I know life goes on. Thanks to all, nice info.

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Hilary Pierce
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 212.126.152.218
Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 12:02 am:   

best winning streak was yesterday 57 straight wins!!! bit miffed though, I was sure it would have boosted my 86% success rate!!

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Joe Average
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 71.156.86.158
Posted on Saturday, September 02, 2006 - 12:47 am:   

Spider solitaire, free version that comes with windows:

I haven't kept precise records, but here are my typical winning percentages and high scores:

Easy: 85% to 90%, high score 1185 to 1195
best winnning streak: over 20

Medium: 50% to 60%, high score 1170 to 1180
best winning streak: about 15 (same for losing streak). There was one game (and only one game over the years) where I had no available moves!

Difficult: 5% o 10%, high score 1160 to 1170
Best winning streak: 4. Worst losing streak: about 20 to 25.

I consider myself an average player. I usually reset statistics after accumulating several hundred games. After reaching these levels, I haven't noticed any further improvement.

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Dennis Tovey (Rockdweller)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Rockdweller

Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2007
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 - 10:20 am:   

Han't even thought of playing for high score only as been more challaging, have been concentrating all my effort into win percentage for some time now (years).

Currntly run a percentage level in difficult of over 85% which may sound hard to believe, but the secret is to totaly forget about score and use the undo option to view as many possible paths before deciding which way to go. You also need to take your time and think about each deal.
Originaly I started on easy and moved on to medium after about 4 months when it was no longer challanging. Then to difficult some 3 months after that
Nodays I don't bother with easy or medium as I found a 98% win rate (some games can't be solved) boring.

However I may be an above average player as I also play Align-It and have been ranked in the top 10 scores for a given month worldwide about 11 times.
Funny enough my chess is average, which means I can beat most irregular players, but not so good against regular players, about 50%

Very interesting about the high scores.
Anton P. (Goocerize)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Goocerize

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 5:00 pm:   

There are tons of ways that games can be unwinnable. The easiest frequently-occuring examples to conceive of are when only even or only odd cards are dealt on the final deal (and none falls on its next highest card of the same suit). Awkwardly-landing Kings are probably the cause of most game losses.

Hi Dennis (Rockdweller), your score seems incredible! My average on Difficult usually fluctuates between the mid-50s and low 60s like the guy who posted earlier. I would guess that anyone able to achieve and average of above 50% knows the game really well and perseveres to win many tough games which can often seem lost immediately after the final deal. This means that they must know the basic strategy to win (of which I describe some details below). But you are a full 30% above this average, which I find hard amazing, as many games at Difficult certainly become /provably/ unwinnable (by evaluating which columns are blocked by Kings, and which columns require too many moves to reach that critical 4, etc etc) so either you are lucky and don't get Kings etc turning up in your key columns, or you have very powerful elements to your strategy which are applied before the final deal. I would love to discuss strategy with you if you would like to; put a post here in reply if so, and we'll talk.

The basic strategy to winning games of Spider is:

1. Use the Undo feature continuously. It is virtually impossible to win on Difficult without this. Learn what as many cards as possible are, and constantly refine your route to choose the optimal one.

2. Be as agressive as possible. Aim to unturn as many cards as possible as soon as possible. Blank columns are a requirement to win at Difficult, so do pretty much anything to get one as soon as possible. (The vast majority of Difficult games require two blank columns before you can be begin to be confident of winning, yet very often the second blank column -- and fairly often even the first blank column -- can only be gained after the final deal.) Of course, there are times where caution pays off, such as just prior to the next deal where you play defensively in the hope of creating oportunity straight after the new deal.

3. Don't be distracted by the suit of the cards. The critical thing is to have cards in sequence, whereas beginners often think that the important thing is to keep cards in suits, at the expense of putting cards in sequence. Having non-consecutive cards together on a column is highly damaging at Difficult level, whereas if you keep cards in sequence you can wait until you get a blank column and then usually swap sets back an forth to match up the suits. Obviously, you should make every effort at every oportunity to match up suits when there's no harm in doing so, but you should rarely sacrifice sequenciality in one column for suitedness in another.

[The importance of these rules only becomes evident at Difficult level, where you have to fight to win, which is why beginners often lose Medium games; you can win too easily by playing badly at Medium level, so it can be hard to spot and understand the relative importance of the strategic rules there. However, after undertanding these rules at Difficult level and then retrospectively applying them to Medium level, winnable games are pretty much impossible to lose there, hence averages of 98% etc. at this level.]
Rose M (Travelinro)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Travelinro

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 4:51 pm:   

I had never thought of playing for percentage, only trying for my highest score. OK, I am still using the Easy level, but playing is more to relax me at the end of a busy day. My high score to date is 1211! Quite unexpected and things went swimmingly.
Nancy R (Nancyr)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Nancyr

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 10:36 am:   

Best score was 1216 for Easy Level (84 moves). It was a magical game! Usually play with four "deals" before making any moves to see how many sequential cards fall naturally. If you can get 6 or 7 cards already in the proper position before making any moves that makes for a great game.
Dennis Tovey (Rockdweller)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Rockdweller

Post Number: 2
Registered: 4-2007
Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 8:07 pm:   

Hi Anton (Goocerize) I pretty much agree with what you say, you seem to have a good understanding of the game on hard.
I would like to add that getting a score on hard of 70% and over requires patience. I find that 60% is fairly achievable if you play well but give up on the ones that seem impossible. To lift the average higher you need to take your time, often over several sessions/days. (Since my earlier post I reset my statistics and currently have a 81% average, not quite as high, but certainly more then luck would account for)
Powerful strategy...hmm? I'm like a dog with a bone, keep knawling away at it,... many, many, many hard games come down to the last deal.
I try to place single cards in the blank columns before a deal that have the highest probability of being able to be placed elsewhere, (after I have removed the dealt one on top of it). and I use the undo option so much that often my points score is negative.

Cheers.

Dennis Tovey (Rockdweller)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Rockdweller

Post Number: 3
Registered: 4-2007
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 2:18 am:   

Further thoughts in regards to my having "very powerful elements of strategy which are applied before the final deal."
Reading through what has been written here, I see a few statements that may be misleading. For instance:-..If you are playing for Max points, then avoiding putting a King on to a blank line may well be very good advise. However when playing for percentage of wins that is not necessary true at all. How?... well, while in max point games the object is make the minimum number of moves, in percentage games the object is to reposition the maximum number cards to maximize your win rate, which involves heavy use of the undo option. You clearly can't do both, so different strategies are required for the different games outcomes. In the case of playing for max wins, moving the King will sometimes result in another blank row being opened up, if not you can undo and have the knowledge of what cards are under it, but for those playing for max Points its something that will most likely reduce their points for unlikely reward.

One strategy that I use that has not been mentioned, is sometimes it is better to leave cards where they are, instead of moving them as far as you can before a deal, (this can maximize chances of a dealt card being useful). However this depends on what the gains lost would be.
.....I often will use some columns as storage areas (leaving dealt cards there) through several deals in order to keep the other columns as short as possible while exploring options

Tip: what you do on the first deal, makes an enormous difference later on, select carefully what cards are best put in sequence and which are best not. The first deal is one of your best chances to set up potential blanks.

All in all, There's no reason why most people shouldn't be able to achieve a win rate in the 60's if they take their time. Getting into the 70's is harder, but still realistic , as for hitting the 80's, immense effort required, very hard to stay there. I've only got to relax a bit and I'm back to a 70's average
Anton P. (Goocerize)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Goocerize

Post Number: 2
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 7:11 am:   

Hi Dennis,

You raised some interesting points.

Firstly, that you keep some games going over long periods of time. I think this could be really valuable, coming back and looking at a game with fresh eyes. I'm not sure I have the patience for that, though!

That you try to place those single cards in the blank columns prior to a deal that have the highest probability of being able to be moved again (after having removed the dealt one on top of it) is a strategy that I alluded to in my Point 2 above. It's definitely important.

> "I use the undo option so much that often my points score is negative."

yep, Undo Is Your Friend :-P

As for leaving cards where they are in oder to maximize the chances of a dealt card being useful, this is interesting. I'll think about this and try it out.

> "What you do on the first deal, makes an enormous difference later on"

Again, something to think about. I always attempt to expose every card possible on the first deal, creating columns of consecutive cards that are as long as possible, with the aim of making as many face-down columns as short as possible to increase the chances that they can be emptied later. However, I think that in conjuction with what you said about making the upcoming deal more useful, there's an argument for not necessarily moving everything into consecutive sequence.

> "I currently have a 81% average ... certainly more then luck would account for"

Sure! No-one gets 30% by luck on Difficult, let alone 80%. Congrats on such a good average :-)
Peter van der Vos (Petervandervos)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Petervandervos

Post Number: 1
Registered: 12-2007
Posted on Friday, December 28, 2007 - 3:20 pm:   

We play this game a lot. One evening, my wife had a good highscore, somewhere high in 1100 when she noticed she didn´t beat the highest score. We never got it higher and until I read this thread, I noticed it´s very high. Nobody know who did it. Can it be a mistake in Windows Vista or did somebody realy do it: 1249.
Spider solitair medium highscore
Maggie Javier (Maggietx)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Maggietx

Post Number: 1
Registered: 1-2008
Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 12:24 pm:   

I have been playing SS for a couple weeks and reached a high school of 1208 (beginner) and thought I was pretty impressive. haha... well, my 7 yr old got on today to play and somehow got a high score of 1271. What happened? There has to be a glitch. I saw him win the game, but I didn't watch the whole thing play out. I was wondering if there was some trick to the game that gave you bonus points???
Robert Shafran (Bob)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Bob

Post Number: 1
Registered: 1-2008
Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 7:51 pm:   

I have been playing SS for years - the one that comes with the Windows package. I play 4 suits. I never look at my score, always go for the fewest number of moves. My best win was in 147 moves, and I've had a couple of other games come in at 150. Is this good? average? incredible?

Also, I am very new to this whole culture! What is a pgl file (I think I got the extension right!) and how are they used?

Someone, educate me, please.
J Blake (Jblake99)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Jblake99

Post Number: 1
Registered: 2-2008
Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 - 2:39 pm:   

The posts in this forum that claim very high percentages for medium and high difficulty levels (like 100% medium and 83% high) would be more believable if it wasn't common knowledge that the Spider Solataire scores can be "adjusted" through the registry. I've been playing SS for years and the best percentage I can maintain (over about 1000 games) is 71% for medium. To do this you MUST use the undo feature. I've never paid attention to "high score".

For those who've haven't noticed, the percentage is calculated by truncating rather than rounding. So, if your wins are 1068 and your losses are 444, your winning percentage is 70.6% and this is reported as 70%. To move to 71%, in this case, you would need to win the next 20 games in a row. The best winning streak I've experienced at the medium difficulty level is 13 games.

Of course, I could just be impatient and unable to do better than 71% at medium difficulty. I have no problem with that since I use Spider as a mindless distraction from work. I intend no disrespect for those who have more patience and time than I have.
Dennis Tovey (Rockdweller)
Junior Solitaire Player
Username: Rockdweller

Post Number: 4
Registered: 4-2007
Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 7:06 am:   

If one wanted to cheat to make their high percentage score look higher then the truth, they don't even need to go to the extent of "adjusting the registry". You should have noticed that when you save a game it does not alter yout score. so if you get stuck (lose) you could just save it, close SS. re-open ss and start a new game.
In fact its so easy, its a problem when you are trying to keep the score as acurate as possible.

In my case I often return to a saved game, which I may play over several days. I would prefer that starting a new game while there is an uncompleated one counted as a loss. When I do finaly give up on a saved game, I actualy have to make sure that I don't save it to ensure a true score.. If I don't return to a sved game, (overwrite it with another) I need to deliberatly lose a game to account for it.

As for claims, yes of course one could claim anything one wanted to, but whats the point, you know you are lying!

For my part, I really do hit 80%+, I mentioned it not to boast, but to encourge others to try. I trully believe high 60's to low 70% is achivable for most people if they try hard enough.
However I'll admit that the high 70's into the 80's% is possibly not a realistic target for most, it requires a huge level of concentration and perhaps a nack for puzzles.

There was a time I could'nt even play in hard mode, couldn't win a single one, so stayed with easy until it got boring.
Yes thats true.........



Nicholas Hamlin (Sacrilicious8)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Sacrilicious8

Post Number: 1
Registered: 2-2008
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 10:46 am:   

I have been trying to figure out how Spider Solitaire on Vista calculates the score because it doesn't appear to be a straight calculation of moves. My highest score is 1434, with my top 5 scores 1250 and higher. The suspicion arose when my second highest score, 1301, happened Monday, and the best game I had was 132 moves. Not nearly perfect. Yet, when I solved the game in 120 moves, it was 1180. So, I wonder if there isn't a weight for the difficulty of the game that adds on bonus points. (or maybe my version has a bug?)

Top 5 Scores

ps. I didn't change the registry, or cheat in any way to get these scores.
Dennis Tovey (Rockdweller)
Junior Solitaire Player
Username: Rockdweller

Post Number: 5
Registered: 4-2007
Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 9:25 pm:   

Aghh........throw the whole high percentage win out the window, I just done the switch across to Vista and found that now you can even undo deals! ...all the way back to the first hand.
So the highest possible percentage is darn near 100% (I reserve the possibility that card fall may still prevent some game solution). I'm not sure I like this. To date I haven't lost a game, and saying I have 100% win rate is pointless.

And before anyone suggests, "just don't undo deals", its same situation as having the undo option there, its just too easily to have a look.
C C Murray (Saki)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Saki

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2008
Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 4:09 pm:   

I can verify that the (awful) Vista version makes mistakes in statistics. I have played it less than 100 times (easy), never scoring better than 90 moves (1210) a few times, but today it shows high score as 1246, a score I do not think is humanly possible, at least not by me. I have played the prior version for years, always playing for high score. The best I ever scored was 83 moves, and have scored in the 80 move range many times. Early on it seemed to me that there were too many coincidences for the deal to be random so I thought there must be a logical way to play. I start by making the highest card move I can with card nearest left side taking precedence for ties, and continue making the highest card move available to the longest sequence. I always move cards to the longest sequence, first choosing the longest stack, but longest sequence always takes precedence. Be careful not to build a sequence longer than is needed to clear another sequence. Never rearrange cards to make a longer sequence because it wastes moves and never void a stack. On the second deal and all following deals I start by uncovering the longest stack whether highest card or not, unless there is a long sequence that can be moved, examining which move will produce the longer sequence, again farthest left taking precedence. All possible moves, with the exception of rearranging or voiding a stack, must be taken. If that means I must move a long sequence to the last card in a stack that move must be made and that sequence is not available until the last deal. Never undo until it’s the only way left to win. On the last deal importance is placed on moves that will conclude a sequence. Always use moves that will uncover a new card and do not use the final card in a stack until it is the only available choice to clear a sequence. One thing that almost always happens in my high score games is a free move when a new deal lands an ace as the last card in a sequence. It also takes quite a few dealt cards in sequence to score well. If you have to do any rearranging or manually uncovering a new card on the last deal it is unlikely to complete it in less than 90 moves. Following my strict procedure did cause me to lose some games, but I always replayed a lost game until I won it, and never changed my strategy, playing it as though I had no prior knowledge. Some games were hard to win this way, but eventually I would find the little combination I had missed before. I did have some games I could not win, but those were few. In my experience any game that is winnable can be done in 100 moves or less. I found that the hardest games to win often scored in the low 90’s for number of moves (referring to the pre-Vista version) when I finally discovered the right combination. Just one early mistake usually meant I would lose that game. To keep from hurting your stats by playing the hard games over, save the game after re-dealing it, and then when you lose again just open last saved game and there is no loss. I know that some go for high scores by dealing several times before making a move, hoping for good sequences, and starting a new game when they don’t get it, but that is not playing the game fairly and is considered cheating by those who record high scores. In my view every game should be played to conclusion. In answer to those who suggest that Photoshop is used to alter the screenshot of a score, I suggest that the only proof of a high score is an unedited, uncropped screenshot. The exif file is proof of that. It is nice to get the occasional game with less than 90 moves, but those games are always the easiest and far less fun to play, the luck of the draw and little skill. I much prefer the difficult ones that have to be replayed many times before I can win it in less than 100 moves. I really hate the Vista version of the game. I have found it harder to score well in and harder to win without a lot of undoing. I have a 100% win rate in Vista, meaningless because of the ability to undo as far back as you need. My strategy still holds for scoring well in the Vista version, but I also have more first time losses before undoing.
Greg Bowers (Greg869)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Greg869

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2008
Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 - 9:17 am:   

I have been playing the beginning level SS for about two months now using a Vista operating system. I was playing just for fun and some mindless activity but began to wonder if there was a system to score a higher score. After playing a relatively short game I noticed that my score was 1275 which led me to this forum to determine what is the highest possible score. Frankly I am not sure how I reached the score and I wasn't aware at the time that 1275 was a relatively high score. I had mostly been in the 1190 - 1200 range. After briefly reading the forums I am still not sure what the ultimate score would be but it would seem to me that 1275 may not be possible unless almost every deal allowed the cards to follow in sequence. Anyway my question to more knowledgeable players: Is 1275 possible/probable or did I find a glitch in the software?


Thanks
eric smith (Moondog)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Moondog

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2008
Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 3:54 am:   

I play on XP and my best score is 1161.

I don't care about winning percentage; I like to restart, but don't use "undo" often.

Almost all hands are winnable.
JoAnn (Jr615)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Jr615

Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Friday, October 17, 2008 - 6:22 pm:   

I found this site when I did a search for how to increase my score. I have seen the math for the highest possible score, but I have high scores of 1323 and 1263.. both over the mathmatical max. I'm using the Vista version. I'd also like to know why this is happening.
Marie Pedersen (Mariep)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Mariep

Post Number: 1
Registered: 1-2008
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 3:59 pm:   

Just to have it on record that I've done it: Just beat the Easy Level/One Suit Spider Solitaire in only 82 moves, for a score of 1218. I had 15 lucky deals. I have a graduate degree and this is what I get excited about!
Marie Pedersen (Mariep)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Mariep

Post Number: 2
Registered: 1-2008
Posted on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 - 11:51 am:   

Whoo-hoo! Update on Easy Level Spider Solitaire high score: 1223, Completed in 77 moves. I worked off of my last high scoring game (having saved it) and noted which cards were dealt. I amended my moves to increase the number of "lucky" deals that ended up in the correct order. I think I can die happy now - not sure if I'll see a higher scoring game.
Anton P. (Goocerize)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Goocerize

Post Number: 3
Registered: 6-2007
Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:54 pm:   

Can someone explain here what is new to the Vista version of the game that makes the scoring different from the XP version?

The ability to undo all the way to the beginning completely spoils any interest in aiming for percentage of wins, because all games that are theoretically winnable become practically winnable given enough time and patience.

Boycott the Vista version! You can download a freeware version which behaves exactly like the XP version from a couple of places on the web.

@J Blake (Jblake99): the XP win rates described on this thread are believable; Dennis Tovey (Rockdweller) and I even provided detailed strategy to explain how to achieve them. To put your Medium/XP win rate into perspective, my medium win rate was 80-85% after some practice, but as soon as I overcame my fear of Difficult (which I lost hopelessly on my first couple of attempts) and developed the strategy, Medium became trivial. As I said above, it's almost impossible to lose a Medium game if it's theoretically winnable once you know how to play difficult.
Denis O'Sullivan (Denis_os)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Denis_os

Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2009
Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 4:26 pm:   

Vista version seems to have some 100 point bonuses, I have got 1300 with 200 moves and some others that were 100 points to high.
Pawel Marek Maruszewski (Pawelpolak)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Pawelpolak

Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2009
Posted on Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 2:46 am:   

Okay im getting a bit freaked out, how's 1377 possible in 124 moves ? (1 suit) That's what i was about to post until i spottet the post on Vista.. Vista version seems bugged, with it's "bonusses" tho i don't mind them, would love to know exactly how they're aquired. Here's my Vista scores none teh less:
image/bmpVista Scores
Vista Scores.bmp (925.5 k)
Pawel Marek Maruszewski (Pawelpolak)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Pawelpolak

Post Number: 2
Registered: 4-2009
Posted on Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 2:48 am:   

Well didn't quite picture frame as i wanted it too :P But should be a screenshot of ma scores if any of you are interested!
Paul E. Scraggs (Pescraggs)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Pescraggs

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2009
Posted on Friday, June 19, 2009 - 2:45 pm:   

Thanks to you who figured out the theoretical maximum score at spider solitaire. I managed what I thought was a great score of 212 last week and wondered how high a score was possible. Along the way after winning about 20 games in a row, I decided to see how long a winning streak I could get. Thus far I am at 825 wins and "still going". Of course, everything goes, and damn the score.
Bryan Johnson Warner (Bryanjwarner)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Bryanjwarner

Post Number: 1
Registered: 5-2010
Posted on Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 5:18 pm:   

Hello, this is my first posting. Tomorrow I'll be showing (via text and graphics) a step-by-step procedure whereby the reader can actually see exactly how a perfect 46-move / 1254 score can be achieved on the beginner level of the Windows version of Spider Solitaire. I finally figured it out today (5/20/2010), and wanted to at least announce this notable achievement on the date of its creation, while at the same time giving this forum a little test drive. I think most of you will find seeing my results rather exciting. After all, “perfection” is something you just don’t see every day, lol! :D
Bryan Johnson Warner (Bryanjwarner)
Junior Solitaire Player
Username: Bryanjwarner

Post Number: 6
Registered: 5-2010
Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2010 - 9:01 pm:   

Hello again, please disregard my "first posting" above (May 20, 2010). I did indeed complete and post my step-by-step procedure on 5/21 but asked that it be removed when it was pointed-out to me that Goodsol's Pretty Good Solitaire program could essentially achieve the same results. At any rate “have a good one!” :-)
Connie T. Anderson (Candidcon)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Candidcon

Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2008
Posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2010 - 8:27 pm:   


As you can see by the number of games i've played and the % is low, i usually just try to beat my highest scores
Dennis M. Wage (Dwage)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Dwage

Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2010
Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 8:19 am:   

My OS is Windows 7
I play Spider Solitaire which came with the OS.
I play one suit for high scores (no undos).
My average scores are 1190-1200.

I started playing a new way. I play the 1st deal as far as it will go, then I deal the rest of the cards.

I played one game this way, and I was able to win with 107 moves(very high), but my score was 1293 which I understand to be impossible.

How does this happen?

DW
Dennis M. Wage (Dwage)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Dwage

Post Number: 2
Registered: 6-2010
Posted on Monday, June 14, 2010 - 8:21 am:   

Sorry, forgot to include screen shot.
Jackalyn Hill (Gorgon)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Gorgon

Post Number: 1
Registered: 7-2010
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 6:05 pm:   

This is mine!
Jack Dawson (Stickler)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Stickler

Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2010
Posted on Thursday, November 11, 2010 - 5:32 am:   

Hi,
I've played the XP version for years at the 'Difficult' level but have never yet scored more than 1145.
After very many tries, you can tell which are possibly winnable from the deal; I think the majority are not. I select 'New' whenever I feel the deal is not winnable. Honestly, I do have better things to do with my time. It's just sometimes better than 'counting sheep'.
As far as I can tell, no repetitions were included during my best period so far; if ever.
The problem is that I don't know how to get the image into this post. HELP
Meezer Wayne (Meezer)
New Solitaire Player
Username: Meezer

Post Number: 1
Registered: 2-2011
Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2011 - 6:30 pm:   

My prior high score was 1240; never though I'd beat that ... but today, after a rather long game, 1426 in 176 moves (intermediate).

For Stickler (previous poster): Try snipping tool & save jpeg to your docs, then upload from your system to this page.


MeezerSpiderScore

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