Canfield Solitaire Rules

How to Play Canfield Solitaire

Canfield is one of the most celebrated solitaire card games in history, named after Richard A. Canfield, a famous 19th-century casino owner who offered it as a gambling game in his Saratoga Springs resort. Players paid $52 for a deck and earned $5 back for every card placed on a foundation, making it one of the first commercially offered solitaire variants. The game uses a single standard 52-card deck and features a distinctive 13-card reserve pile that makes it both challenging and strategic. Estimated win rates range between 10% and 30% depending on the dealing variant used.

Initial Setup

Setting up Canfield involves three distinct areas. Understanding each one is essential before you begin playing.

1. The Reserve: Deal 13 cards into a single face-down pile, then turn the top card face-up. Only the top card of the reserve is visible or playable at any time.
2. The Foundation Starter: Deal one card face-up to the first foundation position. This card's rank becomes the starting rank for all four foundation piles. For instance, if you deal a 7 of Hearts, every foundation must begin with a 7.
3. The Tableau: Deal one card face-up to each of four separate columns, placed to the right of the reserve. These four single-card columns form your initial tableau.
4. The Stock: The remaining 34 cards form the stock pile, kept face-down and dealt from during play.

Foundation Building

The four foundations are the ultimate destination for every card. Each foundation is built up in suit, starting from the rank of the foundation starter card. When building reaches a King, it wraps around through Ace and continues upward. For example, if the foundation starter is a Jack of Spades, that foundation's sequence would be: J-Q-K-A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, all in Spades.

The remaining three foundations begin when cards of the same rank as the starter appear during play. You cannot place any other rank as a foundation base. Each completed foundation will contain exactly 13 cards.

Tableau Building

Tableau columns are built downward by alternating color. A black 9 can be placed on a red 10, a red Queen on a black King, and so on. Like the foundations, tableau sequences wrap — an Ace can be placed on a 2 of the opposite color, and a King can be placed on an Ace of the opposite color.

Complete properly-sequenced groups of cards may be moved together as a unit from one tableau column to another. However, partial sequences cannot be split. This group movement is a critical tool for rearranging the tableau and uncovering buried cards.

Stock and Waste Pile

Cards are dealt from the stock three at a time to a face-up waste pile. Only the top card of the waste pile is available for play. Some versions of Canfield offer an “easy mode” where cards are dealt one at a time, giving you access to every card in sequence rather than only every third card.

When the stock is exhausted, pick up the waste pile, turn it face-down without shuffling, and it becomes the new stock. You may cycle through the stock as many times as needed. There is no limit on the number of passes through the stock in standard Canfield rules.

Using the Reserve

The top card of the reserve is always available for play — you can move it to a foundation or to a tableau column at any time. When the top card is played, turn the next card in the reserve face-up.

Once the reserve is emptied, it is not refilled. Depleting the reserve is a significant achievement and greatly improves your chances of winning. Whenever a tableau column becomes empty, it must be filled from the reserve first. Only after the reserve is exhausted can empty columns be filled from the waste pile.

Winning the Game

The game is won when all 52 cards have been moved to the four foundations, each containing a complete 13-card run in suit. The game is lost when no more moves are available and the stock has been cycled without making progress. Because Canfield is a difficult game with a relatively low win rate, even experienced players consider getting most of the reserve onto the foundations a respectable outcome.

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