Playable Solitaire variant
Canfield Solitaire
- Objective
- Move all 52 cards to the four wraparound foundations.
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Win rate
- Roughly 3ā5% of standard Canfield deals fully clear.
How to play Canfield Solitaire
A standard 52-card deck. The top card becomes the foundation base rank (placed on one foundation). Thirteen cards form a face-down reserve with the top card flipped. Four tableau columns are dealt with one face-up card each. The remaining 34 cards form the stock, dealt three at a time to the waste with recycling.
- Build foundations upward from the random base rank, wrapping King to Ace as needed, by suit.
- Build tableau columns downward by alternating color, also wrapping King to Ace.
- Move any sequence as a group when the bottom-of-stack card is a legal target.
- An empty tableau column is filled automatically from the reserve first, then from the waste.
- Draw three cards at a time from the stock to the waste. The stock recycles unlimited times.
Objective and winning
Move all 52 cards to the four wraparound foundations.
A typical Canfield clear takes 100ā160 moves with 3ā6 stock recycles. Most attempts stall when the reserve refuses to drain ā restart the same deal rather than grinding a dead position.
Scoring on vSolitaire
vSolitaire awards +1 per valid move and +10 per card placed on the foundations, with a +100 win bonus on completion. Stock draws cost -1, so recycling the deck repeatedly chips at the final score.
Strategy tips
- Clear the reserve as a priority. The reserve is the bottleneck ā every card stranded there is a card the foundations cannot receive.
- Use empty tableau columns sparingly. They refill from the reserve, which is what you want, but only when the new reserve top is actually useful.
- Track the foundation base rank. If the base is a 9, the next card you need is a 10 of that suit ā and you should treat 8s as nearly worthless until late game.
- Recycle the stock with intent. Every recycle adds moves and reduces score; only recycle when you have a specific card to chase.
- Plan around the wrap. K-to-A foundation wrapping means a King can land on top of a Queen-foundation, which is unusual and easy to miss.
Common mistakes
- Leaving reserve cards untouched while chasing easy waste-to-foundation moves.
- Recycling the stock blindly before reading the waste pile order.
- Forgetting that the base rank changes per deal and using stale Ace-up mental shortcuts.
Difficulty and odds
Canfield is one of the lowest-win-rate Solitaire variants. Historical estimates of full clears sit around 1 in 30 deals (~3%), which is exactly why Canfield's gambling version was profitable for the house.
Origin and history
Canfield was popularized in the 1890s by Richard A. Canfield, who ran a gambling house in Saratoga Springs, New York. Players paid $52 for a deck and won $5 for every card sent to the foundations ā a wager Canfield won on the long-run odds because the game's win rate is famously low.
Canfield Solitaire in multiplayer
Canfield works as a same-deal race more than a turn-based match. With shuffle luck so dominant, comparing two players on the identical base rank and reserve order is the only fair format.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the win rate so low in Canfield?
The 13-card face-down reserve creates a permanent bottleneck. If a key card is buried near the bottom of the reserve and another key card sits behind a stock cycle, the deal locks. Historical estimates place full-clear rates around 3%.
Does Canfield really come from a casino?
Yes. Richard A. Canfield ran a Saratoga Springs gambling house in the 1890s where players paid $52 per deck and won $5 per foundation card. The low solve rate kept the house profitable.
Why does the foundation start from a random rank?
The first card dealt sets the foundation base rank. Foundations then build upward from that rank and wrap King to Ace, so an 8-base foundation goes 8-9-10-J-Q-K-A-2-3-4-5-6-7.
Can the stock be recycled in Canfield?
Yes. Standard Canfield allows unlimited stock recycling, but each draw and recycle costs activity. The trade-off is fishing for one specific card versus protecting your score.