Play Canfield Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Work a thirteen-card reserve while you build four foundations up in suit. Single deck, medium difficulty, and a 35% win rate that rewards real skill.

According to legend, Richard Canfield, who owned a lavish casino in Saratoga Springs, New York, invented this game in the 1890s. Players paid $50 for a deck and got $5 back for every card they moved up to the foundation.

That story is probably too good to be true. Canfield Solitaire isn't so hard to win that a skilled player couldn't have walked away richer than the house, and some historians think the game actually played at Canfield's tables was Klondike, not this one.

Either way, if you get more than 10 cards up to the foundation, count it as a win.

In the United Kingdom this game goes by the name Demon Solitaire. It's medium difficulty with a 35% chance of winning, played with a single deck, and your odds come down mostly to skill.

Canfield has spawned a whole family of variants over the years, including Double Canfield Solitaire, Triple Canfield, Quadruple Canfield, Superior Canfield, Variegated Canfield, Chameleon, Storehouse, Rainbow, and American Toad.

If you enjoy Canfield, the original Solitaire it's sometimes confused with is worth a try too.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Enjoy the game!

How to play Canfield Solitaire

Layout:

4 foundation piles: Build up in suit from whatever rank the first card happens to be, wrapping from King to Ace as needed, until each pile holds all 13 cards.

4 tableau piles: Build down by alternating color. Sequenced groups move together the same way. Empty spaces can take any card — traditionally from the reserve, though the game doesn't require it. Each pile starts with one card, dealt face-up.

Stock: Click to flip three cards at a time to the waste. Redeals are unlimited.

Waste: The top card is always available for the tableau or foundations.

Reserve: The top card is always available for the tableau or foundations. Thirteen cards are dealt here at the start of the game.

Foundation:

There are four foundation piles.

One pile gets a random starting card. The other three piles must be started with a card of that same rank as it becomes available.

A card can be added to a foundation pile if it's one rank higher than the pile's current top card and shares its suit — so the only card that can follow a 6 of clubs is a 7 of clubs. If the top card is a king, the sequence wraps and an ace of the same suit can follow, continuing until the pile holds all 13 cards.

The top card of any foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.

Reserve:

There's one reserve pile, dealt with thirteen cards at the start. The top card is face-up; the rest are face-down. Nothing can be moved into the reserve. Its top card can be played to the tableau or a foundation.

Tableau:

Four tableau piles, one card each to start, all dealt face-up.

A card can be added to a tableau pile if it's one rank lower than the pile's current top card and the opposite color — so the cards that can follow a 5 of hearts are the 4 of spades or the 4 of clubs.

Any tableau card not covered by another is free to move to a foundation or another tableau pile.

Empty tableau spaces can be filled with any available card. Taking it from the reserve is the traditional play, but the game doesn't enforce it.

When cards run in alternating colors from high to low, you can move the whole group from one tableau pile to another.

Stock and waste:

There's one waste pile; the rest of the deck makes up the stock.

Click the stock to deal three cards to the waste. You can go through the stock as many times as you like — if fewer than three cards remain at the end of a pass, only those are dealt. Before the next pass, the waste is turned back into a fresh stock.

The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or a foundation.