Canfield solitaire rules
Canfield is the solitaire with a casino behind it. The deal hides thirteen cards in a reserve you must dig through, the foundations start on whatever rank the deck hands you, and the sequence wraps from Ace back to King. Learn those three twists and you can play it in five minutes.
Canfield in 30 seconds
- Count 13 cards face down into a reserve and turn its top card up. Deal one card above as the first foundation, then four face-up cards in a row as the tableau. The rest is the stock.
- Every foundation starts with the same rank as that first card and builds up in suit, wrapping from King to Ace (a 7 foundation runs 7, 8 ... K, A ... 6).
- Tableau piles build down in alternating colors, also wrapping (a red King may go on a black Ace).
- An empty tableau pile is filled at once from the reserve. Once the reserve is gone, fill it from the waste.
- Turn the stock three cards at a time; go through it as often as you like.
The rules in full
The deal
- Count off 13 cards face down to make the reserve, then turn its top card face up.
- Turn the next card face up and place it as the first foundation. Its rank is the base for all four foundations in this deal.
- Deal four cards face up in a row: the tableau.
- The remaining 34 cards are the stock.
Foundations
When another card of the starting rank appears, it begins a new foundation. Each foundation then builds up in its own suit, going past the King back to the Ace if needed, until it holds 13 cards. With a 7 as the starter, every suit runs 7 to King, then Ace to 6.
Tableau
Build down by alternating color, again wrapping, so a black Ace takes a red King. You can move the top card of a pile, or a correctly built run. Some rule books only allow moving a whole pile at once; agree on this before you start (the solver study below measured both).
The top card of the reserve and the top card of the waste are always available to play onto the tableau or a foundation. When a tableau pile becomes empty, fill it straight away with the top reserve card. After the reserve runs out, you may leave the space or fill it with the top card of the waste.
Stock
Turn three cards at a time onto the waste and play the top one if you can. When the stock is empty, turn the waste over and keep going; there is no limit on passes. The game is lost when a full pass changes nothing.
The casino story
The game takes its name from Richard A. Canfield, who ran a casino in Saratoga Springs around 1900. According to the Wikipedia article, players bought a deck for about $50 and were paid $5 for every card they got onto the foundations. The "Vegas" scoring in computer Klondike uses the same buy-a-deck, paid-per-card idea, and you can track that kind of score with our Vegas solitaire scoring tracker.
How often can you win?
- In theory, with every hidden card known: about 71.2% of deals, falling to about 67.6% under the whole-pile-only rule (Blake and Gent solver study).
- In real play: much lower. Wikipedia quotes odds of about 1 in 30, and Solitaire Bliss reports its players winning about 7% of games.
The gap is the reserve. You cannot see 12 of its 13 cards, and you can only reach them one at a time, in an order you do not choose.
Strategy
- Work the reserve down. Every reserve card is trapped until the ones above it are gone. When you can play the top reserve card or an equal stock card, play the reserve card.
- Empty tableau piles on purpose. A space fills itself from the reserve, so clearing a tableau pile is the fastest way to bring a reserve card into play. Look for moves that consolidate two piles into one.
- Know which rank is the "King" this deal. The card one below the starter (a 6 when the starter is a 7) goes to the foundations last, so those four cards clog the tableau. Avoid building long runs on top of them.
- Count the cycle. With three-card draws, playing one waste card shifts every later triple. If the card you need is stuck second in a triple, a waste play can bring it up next time round.
Play Canfield online or at home
Play at home: one deck. Fan the reserve slightly so you can see how many cards are left in it at a glance. To play Canfield the casino way, count foundation cards at the end and score $5 each against a $52 buy-in.