Play Will o' the Wisp Solitaire

Play Will o' the Wisp Solitaire Online for Free (Compact Spider by Geoffrey Mott-Smith)

Will o' the Wisp Solitaire applies Spider movement rules to a uniquely compact opening. Seven columns of exactly three cards each start play with only the top card face-up, while the remaining 31 cards wait in stock for up to five deal rounds. Designed by Geoffrey Mott-Smith as a Spiderette alternative with uniform column depth.

What is Will o' the Wisp Solitaire?

Will o' the Wisp is a single-deck Spider variant attributed to Geoffrey Mott-Smith, the twentieth-century American card game author and bridge authority. It uses one standard 52-card deck with all four suits and targets four same-suit King-to-Ace completions. Where Spiderette deals 1-to-7 cards per column in a pyramid, Will o' the Wisp deals exactly three cards to every column - creating a flat, uniform starting position with no column being deeper or shallower than another.

Will o' the Wisp Solitaire history

Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1902-1960) introduced Will o' the Wisp as part of a broader effort to create Spider-family variants with more controlled opening conditions. The name references the atmospheric light phenomenon - a will-o'-the-wisp lures travelers toward it and then disappears, reflecting the game's deceptive openings where a balanced initial layout can quickly become elusive to convert into a win. Mott-Smith is also known for his contributions to Canasta rules and bridge theory.

Will o' the Wisp deal layout

Seven columns, each starting with exactly three cards. Only the top card of each column is face-up. The remaining 31 cards sit in stock, dealt one per occupied column when all columns are non-empty.

Column	Starting cards	Face-down	Face-up	Notes
1-7 (all)	3 each (21 total)	2	1	Uniform depth - unlike Spiderette's pyramid
Stock	31	31	0	Deals 7 at a time (4 full rounds + 1 partial of 3)

After the initial 21-card deal, the game has 4 full stock deals of 7 cards (28 cards) plus one final partial deal of 3 cards to columns 1-3, totaling all 31 stock cards across up to 5 deal rounds.

How to play Will o' the Wisp Solitaire - step by step

Flip face-down cards quickly. Each column starts with only 2 face-down cards, so you can reveal everything in a column after just 2 moves. Do this before making cosmetic rearrangements.
Build in-suit descending runs from the first move. Every card placed onto a different-suit sequence becomes orphaned from multi-card stack movement. The small starting tableau punishes suit-mixing early.
Aim to create at least one empty column before the first stock deal. With only 3 cards per column, a column can empty in 2-3 moves if one card moves to a neighbor and the next moves elsewhere.
Use empty columns as extraction lanes - move blocking card(s) aside, expose what is beneath, then return them to their suit sequence. Never park cards in empty columns with no plan to retrieve them.
Deal from stock only after all useful tableau moves are exhausted and all seven columns are occupied. Early dealing congests already-tight columns.
Track stock rounds: after 4 full deals the board has 49 cards across 7 columns averaging 7 deep. The final partial deal adds only 3 cards to columns 1-3. Plan your suit consolidation before that last deal.

Strategies to win Will o' the Wisp Solitaire

Flip both face-down cards in as many columns as possible before the first deal to maximize board information.
Preserve suit continuity from the first move - in-suit stack mobility is the engine of the endgame.
Avoid filling all seven columns before exhausting tableau move options.
Empty columns are rare but powerful - use them for extraction, not permanent card storage.
Track stock rounds remaining and complete suit consolidation before the final deal saturates columns 1-3.

The uniform-depth trap: Will o' the Wisp's 7x3 layout looks more balanced than Spiderette's pyramid. That symmetry is deceptive. In Spiderette, columns 1-2 empty quickly, providing workspace early. In Will o' the Wisp, all seven columns are equally deep, so emptying any column requires the same 2-3 careful moves. Players who treat it as a "relaxed" smaller game tend to make suit-mixing moves that freeze the board before the third stock deal.

Will o' the Wisp vs. Spiderette comparison

Feature	Will o' the Wisp	Spiderette (Baby Spider)
Deck	1 deck, 4 suits	1 deck, 4 suits
Columns	7	7
Column depth	Uniform: 3 per column	Pyramid: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
Starting face-down	2 per column (14 total)	0-1-2-3-4-5-6 (21 total)
Stock cards	31	24
Designed by	Geoffrey Mott-Smith	Traditional / unknown
Est. win rate	~20%	~10%

How difficult is Will o' the Wisp Solitaire?

Will o' the Wisp is medium-to-hard. The shallow starting columns expose face-down cards quickly, but the uniform depth means no column provides quick early workspace. Mixed suits and the compressed 7-column layout make reorganization expensive - every move in a 7-column game has wider ripple effects than in a 10-column game.

What is the Will o' the Wisp Solitaire win percentage?

A practical win rate for Will o' the Wisp is about 20%. The uniform column depth makes early workspace creation harder than Spiderette's pyramid, but the slightly smaller hidden-card count (14 face-down versus 21) provides better early information. Suit-aware sequencing from move one is the strongest predictor of reaching a win.

What is the difference between Will o' the Wisp and Spiderette?

Both use one deck and seven columns with Spider movement rules, but Spiderette deals 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 cards per column (a pyramid) while Will o' the Wisp deals exactly 3 cards to every column. Spiderette's short column 1 empties immediately and provides early workspace. Will o' the Wisp's uniform depth requires deliberately working to empty even the shortest column. Will o' the Wisp also has 7 more stock cards than Spiderette (31 vs 24), giving slightly more relief deals but a heavier endgame board.

Will o' the Wisp Solitaire FAQ

Can I move a card to an empty column?

Yes. Any single card or valid same-suit descending stack can be moved to an empty column. Empty columns are rare in Will o' the Wisp because all columns start with equal depth - none empties by accident from being too short. Treat any empty column as a high-value extraction space and protect it from casual filling.

When should I deal from stock in Will o' the Wisp?

Deal only after exhausting all useful tableau moves. All seven columns must be non-empty before any stock deal. Early deals that bypass useful moves bury sequence potential under mixed blockers. With 31 stock cards (4+ deals), there is a temptation to deal early when stuck. Resist it - sit with the board longer and find moves that reveal face-down cards or extend in-suit runs first.

Why does same-suit movement matter so much in Will o' the Wisp?

With all four suits in one deck compressed into 7 columns, suit collisions are very common. A mixed stack - even two cards of the right ranks but different suits - cannot be moved as a unit. As columns grow deeper through stock deals, the cost of early suit-mixing compounds. By deal 3 or 4, a board full of mixed stacks has almost no movable groups and no path to completing suit runs.

How many deal rounds does Will o' the Wisp have?

Starting with 31 stock cards dealt 7 at a time, the full sequence is: 4 complete deal rounds (7 cards to all seven columns, 28 total) plus one partial round that deals only 3 remaining cards to columns 1-3. Plan your final sequence consolidation before that last partial deal, as it adds cards asymmetrically to only 3 of 7 columns.

What makes Will o' the Wisp different from its companion game?

Our Will-o'-Wisp variant (without "the") uses the same movement rules but a slightly different column configuration. The compact "three per column" deal is the signature of Mott-Smith's original design, while variants may adjust column count or stock size. Both share the same core appeal: Spider tactics in a compressed, faster-playing format.

Will o' the Wisp Solitaire