Canfield Solitaire is one of the hardest one-deck patience games in the family, infamous for a win rate that hovers in the single digits even with careful play. It uses a 13-card reserve, a four-column tableau, and a base card that dictates where every foundation pile must start, turning every decision into a puzzle that punishes greedy play and rewards patience.
If you already know Klondike, Canfield will feel familiar but noticeably tighter. The reserve keeps pressure on every move, the foundations don’t start at the ace, and the three-card stock draw leaves you working with less information than you would like. That difficulty is exactly why Canfield has kept a loyal following from its Saratoga Springs casino days to modern solitaire apps.
This guide walks through the full rules, setup, detailed gameplay, a strategy section aimed at actually raising your win rate, the most common variations, the game’s colourful history, and answers to the questions new players ask most.
Canfield Solitaire at a Glance
- Players: 1
- Deck: One standard 52-card deck, no jokers
- Difficulty: Hard
- Average game length: 5 to 10 minutes
- Win rate: Roughly 8 to 10 percent for casual players; expert play can push toward 35 percent
- Goal: Build all four foundation piles up in suit from the base card until each pile holds 13 cards
What You Need to Play Canfield
All you need is a standard 52-card deck and enough table space for a reserve pile, four tableau columns, four foundation piles, a stock, and a waste pile. Canfield is a single-player game, so there is no bidding, no partner, and no need for a scoring pad unless you want to track multiple deals for a personal streak.
How to Set Up Canfield Solitaire
Setup is quick but precise. Getting the layout right matters because the position of each area determines the legal moves you can make.
Building the Reserve
Deal 13 cards into a single pile. Twelve go face down and the top card is turned face up. This is the reserve, and it is the feature that gives Canfield its bite. Only the top card is available to play, and you cannot shuffle or reorder the reserve at any point.
Placing the Base Card
Deal one more card face up above the tableau. This card becomes the base card and starts the first foundation pile. Whatever rank it happens to be is the rank every other foundation must start with as well. If the base card is a 6, each foundation begins on a 6, runs 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and then wraps around to A, 2, 3, 4, 5 to finish a complete set of 13.
Laying Out the Tableau and Stock
Deal four cards face up in a row under the foundations. These are the four tableau columns. The remaining 34 cards form the stock, held face down in your hand or placed to one side.
How to Play Canfield Step by Step
Once the layout is ready, play flows between the tableau, the reserve, the stock, and the foundations. The goal is to fill every foundation with 13 cards in suit, starting from the base card rank and wrapping past the king back to the ace.
Foundation Rules
Foundations are built up in suit, one rank at a time, always starting from the base card. A foundation locked onto hearts will grow as all hearts in ascending order, wrapping king to ace when needed. Once a card reaches a foundation, most rulesets allow you to bring it back down to the tableau if it helps unblock a column, though strict versions freeze foundation cards in place.
Tableau Rules
Tableau columns are built down in alternating colours, exactly like Klondike. A red 9 can land on a black 10, and so on. You can move a single card or a full ordered group between columns as long as the alternating-colour sequence is preserved. When an entire tableau column is emptied, it is refilled automatically with the top card of the reserve, not left open as a free cell.
The Reserve
The top card of the reserve is always available to play onto a tableau column or a foundation. Every time you move that top card, the next reserve card is flipped face up. Clearing the reserve quickly is the single most important tempo move in Canfield, because until it is gone, your tableau refills are dictated by whatever the reserve hands you.
The Stock and Waste
Deal cards from the stock in groups of three to the waste pile. Only the top card of the waste is available to play. When the stock runs out, flip the waste back over to form a new stock and keep dealing. Most rule sets allow unlimited redeals, which is part of why the game is technically winnable so often even though human players rarely come close to perfect play.
Winning the Game
You win the moment all four foundations each hold 13 cards. You lose when no legal moves remain and cycling the stock produces nothing new. Because Canfield is a three-card-draw game with a hidden reserve, many losses come not from bad luck but from decisions made in the first ten moves that quietly strand key cards later.
Canfield Solitaire Strategy
Canfield is a skill game dressed up as a patience game. These strategic priorities separate a casual 8 percent player from someone breaking 20 or even 30 percent.
Empty the Reserve First
The reserve is the tightest constraint in the game, so every plan should orbit around clearing it. A card you leave in the reserve is a card you cannot reorder, cannot pair with the waste, and cannot use to break a tableau blockage. Prioritise reserve plays even when a stock or waste play looks more immediately productive.
Keep Foundations Even
Racing one foundation up while the others lag is a classic Canfield trap. Because the tableau requires alternating colours, burning through all your low reds or low blacks too early removes the very cards you need to land bigger tableau groups later. Build foundations roughly in lockstep so your colour options stay balanced.
Cycle the Stock Before Committing
A quick first pass through the stock, with nothing moved to the foundations yet, shows you where the other base cards live and which sequences you will eventually need. That mental map lets you plan which tableau column to preserve and which to tear down aggressively.
Think Twice Before Emptying a Column
In many games, emptying a column is pure upside. In Canfield it forces an immediate fill from the reserve, which may or may not be the card you wanted. Only clear a column if the reserve top card would genuinely help, or if you have no better play.
Use Foundation Takebacks Sparingly
If your rule set allows it, pulling a card back down from a foundation can break a jam, but every takeback delays the win condition by two moves. Save it for truly stuck positions rather than routine shuffling.
Popular Variations
Canfield has spawned several relatives, some easier and some even harder than the original.
Storehouse (Provisions, Thirteen Up)
The four aces are pre-placed on the foundations, so the base card is fixed at ace. The tableau is built down in suit rather than alternating colours. Many players find Storehouse more winnable because the suit-only tableau lines up more predictably.
Superior Canfield
The reserve is dealt face up, so you see every card from the start. This removes most of the hidden-information handicap and raises the practical win rate dramatically, which is why serious solvers often prefer it for study games.
Rainbow Canfield
The stock is dealt one card at a time rather than in threes, effectively letting you see everything before committing. It’s the most forgiving Canfield variant and a good training ground for learning the patterns before tackling the standard game.
Chameleon
Uses only three tableau columns and a 12-card reserve, and allows tableau builds down by any suit regardless of colour. Shorter and slightly friendlier than classic Canfield.
A Short History of Canfield
The game is named after Richard A. Canfield, a gambler, art collector, and proprietor of the Saratoga Springs casino that bore his name in the 1890s and early 1900s. Canfield, dubbed the “Prince of Gamblers,” allegedly let house guests buy a 52-card deck for $50 and paid out $5 for every card they managed to move to a foundation. Break even required 10 cards up; anything more was profit.
The historical wrinkle is that researchers still disagree on which solitaire Canfield actually offered. Some accounts suggest the house game was really Klondike and the name Canfield got attached to the harder Demon variant by association. In Britain the game is still widely called Demon Patience, and many European rule books list the two names as synonyms. Either way, the Canfield name stuck in North America, and the game has outlived the casino by more than a century.
Common Mistakes New Players Make
Most losses in Canfield trace back to a handful of early-game errors. Rushing to build a single foundation because a card happens to fit, ignoring the reserve because the waste pile looks tastier, and emptying tableau columns without a plan for the reserve card that will replace them are the three big ones. Avoiding those alone will move your win rate out of the single digits.
Canfield Solitaire FAQ
Is Canfield Solitaire harder than Klondike?
Yes. Klondike’s win rate sits around 33 percent for random deals, while Canfield lands near 9 percent for casual players. The hidden reserve, the three-card draw, and the non-ace base card all tighten the game considerably.
Can every Canfield deal be won?
No. Computer solvers estimate that roughly 70 percent of random Canfield deals are winnable with perfect play and full information. Real human play, with hidden reserve cards and three-card stock dealing, tends to fall far short of that ceiling.
What is the base card in Canfield Solitaire?
The base card is the single card dealt to the first foundation during setup. Its rank becomes the starting rank for all four foundations, which then build upward in suit and wrap past the king to the ace until each pile holds 13 cards.
Do you flip the stock in threes or one at a time?
Classic Canfield deals the stock in groups of three with unlimited redeals. Variants like Rainbow Canfield use a one-at-a-time draw, which is noticeably easier because you see every card before committing a move.
Can I move cards back from the foundation to the tableau?
Most modern rule sets allow it, and it can rescue an otherwise dead game. Stricter historic rules and some casino scoring versions lock foundation cards in place, so agree on this point up front if you are playing for points or against a timer.
Conclusion
Canfield is a deliberately punishing game, and that is exactly its appeal. The tight reserve, the shifting base card, and the three-card stock draw force you to think several moves ahead rather than chase the next obvious placement. Start with Rainbow or Superior Canfield to learn the rhythm, then move to the classic version once clearing the reserve and balancing the foundations feels automatic. With a little patience, a game that seems to lose 90 percent of the time becomes a genuine test of planning, and the rare wins feel earned.