Play American Toad Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)
Whittle down a twenty-card reserve, watch eight foundations climb from a random base card, and enjoy near coin-flip odds: about half of deals win.
American Toad Solitaire is Canfield's two-deck sibling, sharing its amphibian name with Frog, an older two-deck patience also known as Toad-in-the-Hole. The "toad" is the reserve: a fat pile of twenty cards that you must slowly whittle down while the rest of the game turns around it.
A single card dealt to the first foundation fixes the base rank for the entire game, and all eight foundations must climb thirteen cards in suit, wrapping from King to Ace. The tableau builds down in alternating colors, and a vacated column is refilled automatically from the reserve. Once the toad is empty, a space may be filled from the waste, but never from another tableau pile.
The game is moderately easy, and careful players can win about half of their deals. You're working two decks here, and getting there takes real skill layered on top of the luck of the draw.
The obvious next stops are Canfield Solitaire and Chameleon Solitaire.
For a change of pace, standard Solitaire is where all of this started.
If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.
Enjoy playing!
How to play American Toad Solitaire
Layout:
8 foundation piles: Build up in suit from the rank of the first card dealt, wrapping from King to Ace as needed until each pile has 13 cards.
8 tableau piles: Build down in alternating colors. Spaces are automatically filled from the reserve. At the start of the game, each pile is dealt one card.
Reserve: The top card is available for play on the tableau or foundations. 20 cards are dealt here at the start of the game.
Stock: Click to flip over cards one at a time to the waste. One redeal is allowed.
Waste: Top card is playable.
Foundation:
There are eight foundation piles.
A foundation pile will be given a card at random. This is the starting card. Begin the remainder of the piles with cards of the same rank.
A card can be added to a foundation pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, wrapping from King to Ace. There can be no more than 13 cards in a pile.
The top card of each foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.
Reserve:
There is one reserve pile, which originally contains twenty cards. Only the top card is dealt face-up. No cards may be moved into the reserve.
The top reserve card can be played to the tableau or the foundations, and it automatically fills any tableau pile that becomes empty.
Tableau:
Eight tableau piles, each dealt one card face-up.
A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower and the opposite color of the pile's current top card, so the only cards that fit on an 8 of spades are the red 7s. Ranking is circular, so a King may be played on an Ace.
Uncovered cards are free to be played onto the foundation or any other tableau pile, and a face-up run in descending alternating colors may be moved as a group.
Empty spots are immediately refilled from the reserve. Once it is exhausted, a space may be filled from the waste, but never with cards from another tableau pile.
Stock and waste:
There is one waste pile and the remaining seventy-five cards comprise the stock.
When you click on the stock, one card is dealt to the waste. When the stock runs out, the waste is turned over once to form a new stock, for a total of two passes.
The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or foundation.
