Canfield Solitaire
Canfield deals a 13-card reserve, one foundation-starting card, and four single-card tableau columns from what is left. Whatever rank that starting card happens to be becomes every foundation's base rank — foundations build up in suit and wrap King back to Ace. The tableau builds down in alternating colour and also wraps, a King landing on an Ace. Free the reserve first: twelve of its thirteen cards start hidden.
New game deals a fresh shuffle, Hint highlights a legal move, and the three-dot menu at the end of the bar holds redo, auto-finish, today’s deal, the keyboard shortcuts and the rule set.
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Kept in this browser, on this device only. Abandoning a deal in progress counts as a loss, so the win rate means something.
Today’s deal
Everyone playing Canfield today gets deal #3638011217. It changes at midnight UTC.
Track the month on the daily challenge page.
Replay a deal
Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.
Keyboard
- U / Z
- Undo
- R
- Redo
- H
- Hint
- N
- New deal (asks first)
- F
- Full screen
- Space
- Turn the stock
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
- Deck
- One deck, 52 cards
- Reserve
- 13 cards, 12 hidden
- Tableau
- 4 columns, 1 card each
- Foundations
- Open on a dealt base rank, wrap K→A
How do you play Canfield solitaire?
Thirteen cards are squared into a face-down reserve with only the top card turned up. One more card is turned face up to start the first foundation, and four single cards are dealt to the tableau. The other 34 cards form the stock, turned three at a time to a waste pile with unlimited redeals — you can cycle through the stock as many times as it takes.
The card that opens the first foundation is not necessarily an Ace. Whatever rank the deal turns up becomes the base rank for all four foundations, which build up in suit and wrap from King back around to Ace so each one closes one rank below where it opened. The tableau builds down in alternating colour and wraps the same way — a King may land on an Ace of the opposite colour and the run keeps going down from there.
What is the "base rank" and why does it matter?
It is the one rule that trips up anyone who learned Klondike first. In Klondike every foundation always starts on an Ace. In Canfield, the base rank is whatever card the deal happens to turn face up — a Seven, a Jack, anything — and all four foundations open on that same rank, one per suit, as soon as a card of it becomes available. Each foundation then climbs through every other rank in order, wrapping past King to Ace, and finishes one rank short of the base.
The tableau's wrap works the same direction: a King is one rank below an Ace here, not one rank above a Queen and nothing more. That single reversal from what feels intuitive — most players' first instinct is that a 2 should sit on an Ace — is worth checking before your first deal.
Why is Canfield named after a casino?
The story usually told is Richard Canfield's, from his Saratoga Springs casino around the turn of the twentieth century: he sold a shuffled deck for $52 and paid $5 for every card a player got down onto the foundations. A skilled player banks perhaps five or six cards a deal on average, so the house came out ahead almost every time — which is the reason Canfield's name has stuck to the hardest of the one-deck patiences rather than to anything easier.
The board here keeps that scoring as a running number under the board — $5 a foundation card, less the $52 buy-in — purely as a nod to where the game came from. Nothing is wagered and nothing is owed.
How is Canfield different from Klondike?
| Canfield | Klondike | |
|---|---|---|
| Tableau columns | 4, one card each | 7, one to seven cards |
| Extra pile | 13-card reserve | None |
| Foundation starts on | Whatever rank is dealt | Always the Ace |
| Foundation wraps? | Yes, King back to Ace | No, stops at King |
| Tableau wraps? | Yes, King onto Ace | No |
| Redeals | Unlimited | House rule, often unlimited |
How do you get better at canfield?
- Empty the reserve before anything elseTwelve of its thirteen cards are hidden from the start, and only the reserve can fill an empty column while it still has any left. A move that frees the next reserve card is almost always the best move on the board.
- Remember the wrap goes the "wrong" wayA King can sit on an Ace, both in the tableau and, in its own way, on the foundations. Players who assume the 2-on-Ace direction end up stuck looking for a move that was never legal.
- Do not bank a card the tableau still needsOnce a rank is on the foundation, the card that would have built onto it in the tableau loses its home. Look at what is still buried before sending a mid-rank card up.
- Treat the four tableau columns as temporary, not permanentWith only four columns and one card apiece to start, there is far less room to park cards than in Klondike's seven. Plan a move as much by what it frees in the reserve as by where it lands.
Canfield Solitaire questions people ask
- Is Canfield solitaire hard?
- Yes — it has the reputation of being the hardest common one-deck patience, mainly because twelve of the thirteen reserve cards start hidden and there is no way to see them coming.
- Does an empty tableau column in Canfield take any card?
- Only while the reserve still has cards left — during that time only the reserve may fill an empty column. Once the reserve is exhausted, any face-up card can go there, of any rank.
- What is the base rank in Canfield solitaire?
- Whichever card is turned up to start the first foundation. All four foundations must open on that same rank, one per suit, then climb up in suit and wrap from King back to Ace.
- Can you redeal the stock as many times as you want?
- Yes, in this version. The waste pile turns back over into the stock with no limit on how many passes you take.
The rules in six lines
- 1Deal the reserve, the base card, and the tableauThirteen cards form a face-down reserve with the top card turned up. One more card is turned face up to found the first pile — its rank becomes the base rank for every foundation. Four tableau columns each get one card.
- 2Foundations build in suit from the base rankEach foundation opens with a card of the base rank and climbs up in suit, wrapping King back to Ace, until it closes one rank short of where it started.
- 3The tableau builds down, alternating colour, and wrapsA card may be placed on a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. Unusually, a King may land on an Ace — the run continues downward past the wrap.
- 4Fill empty columns from the reserve firstWhile the reserve has cards left, only the reserve's top card may fill an empty tableau column. Once the reserve is empty, any face-up card may go there.
- 5Turn the stock three at a timeClicking the stock deals three cards face up to the waste. Redeal the waste back into the stock as many times as you need.
- 6Bank all 52 cards to winThe game is won when every card sits on one of the four foundations, each a complete 13-card wrapped run.
The long version, with worked examples and the questions beginners actually ask, is on how to play canfield solitaire.
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