This is our position from last time.
Bart Wright suggested we turn over a card in column 3. With nobody else suggesting otherwise, column 3 it is.
We turn over a Six of clubs. Not the best card but definitely not the worst, since it gives us an extra turnover. Unfortunately we can’t turnover column 6 without “committing” the Jack of Hearts first. But recall that we wanna have Ks-Qh-Jd on column 7 so the Jack of Diamonds in column 7 must be shifted before the Jack of Hearts. This kind of delicate maneuvering is typical when you have no empty columns to work with, and playing this situation well is essential to becoming a better player.
If we label columns from a-j, then our next sequence of moves should be <gh,bg,hg,ih,fi,fa>. We turn over a Five of Hearts. Not great, but at least we can choose Column 6 instead of Column 9 and work on getting our first empty column.
We now reach another “instructive moment in the game”. There is the obvious option and one or more not-so-obvious options. What are these options? Which would you prefer and why? 😊
Edifying Thoughts of a Spider Solitaire Addict 
I would move the ace of hearts onto the two, the obvious move.
Most of the other legal moves make things worse (sometimes much worse), as far as I could tell. The only one that doesn’t is moving the 4 of hearts in i onto the other 5 of hearts in c before moving the ace. I don’t think it’s an improvement, but here’s a surefire reason why it’s not the right move: If we decide we want to do that, we can do it after we turn the ace of hearts without being billed for an extra move (since the ace of hearts is in-suit), and we will have more information from the card under the ace.
I did go through all the other legal moves I could spot and convinced myself they all made things worse, but I’ll leave it here.
LikeLike
As I stated one iteration back, I would keep an eye on joining the jack and ten of hearts. The downside is what to do with the club 8? Is joining the hearts worth messing up either col 4 or 8? The upside is that we would be only 4 cards and a bit of organizing away from a heart run.
I vote to join the hearts. If we don’t now, there seems to be a good chance to hopelessly bury them here, then we would need to encounter the other pair and who knows where they are.
So having cast that die, WT#$?? to do with the club 8? I feel it would be coldhearted to break up the friendship between it and the heart 9, they have been together for a large part of the game.
Also. We have two events coming up soon, moving the heart ace and a new draw.
Upon turning over the card under the heart ace, to gain a card in either col 4 or 8 requires a 10. Col 8 has the further requirement of a king or blank. Col 4 requires only a 10 or blank thanx to the diamond 3 in the far right outpost. Edge to keeping col 4 cleaner.
Upon the new draw: for col 8 to yield a turnover requires us being able to access it, a king and a 10. Similarly col 4 yields a turnover with access, a 10 and a three. But col 4 also yields a card with access, a 10 and access to that 3 out in the wasteland of the right frontier. So again the edge to a cleaner col 4.
So I say: join the hearts, keep the 8-9 friendship alive by destroying col 8 and be ready to sing and dance and a round on the house when we uncover the diamond ten in col 6
So after posting this I will read the other post. I assume it is from Bart and that it makes more sense than this.
LikeLike