Canfield Solitaire

Canfield is one of the most historically rich solitaire games around, with a backstory that is almost certainly apocryphal — but too good to drop. According to legend, Richard A. Canfield — a notorious 19th-century American gambler — sold players a deck for $52 and paid $5 for each card they moved to the foundations. With fewer than five cards typically reaching the foundations in a losing game, the house edge was brutal.

Whether or not the story is true, Canfield is a genuinely distinctive solitaire variant. Its most unusual feature is the foundation starting rank: instead of always beginning with Aces, the first card dealt to the foundation sets the required starting rank for all four suits. Sequences wrap continuously — if the starting rank is 7, a foundation builds 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

The setup includes a reserve pile of 13 cards dealt face-down in a single stack, with only the top card turned face-up and available at any time. Four tableau columns each start with one card, and the remaining 34 cards form the stock. Players draw three cards at a time in the standard variant, one at a time in the easier version.

Tableau building follows Klondike-style rules: descending rank, alternating colors. But the tight starting position, wrapped foundation sequences, and small tableau make Canfield considerably harder than Klondike. Winning even one game in ten with standard rules is solid play. That brutal win rate has made Canfield beloved by dedicated players — and avoided by casual ones.

In British card game collections, Canfield is usually listed as "Demon" or "Demon Patience," and it remains a staple of traditional patience game books.

Setup: Shuffle a standard 52-card deck. Deal 13 cards face-down in a pile — this is the reserve. Turn only the top card face-up; it is the only reserve card available at any time. Deal one card face-up to begin the first foundation pile — its rank becomes the foundation starting rank for all four suits. Deal one card face-up to each of the four tableau columns. The rest form the stock pile, face-down.

The four foundation piles must each begin with that starting rank (one per suit) and build upward by suit, wrapping from King back to Ace as needed. For example, if the starting rank is 9, foundations build: 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

On each turn, you may do the following:

1. Move tableau cards. Move a face-up card or an alternating-color, descending-rank sequence from one tableau column to another. The sequence must land on a card one rank higher and the opposite color.
2. Play from the reserve. Play the top reserve card to a tableau column or directly to a foundation.
3. Draw from the stock. Draw three cards at a time in standard play, one at a time in easier variants. Play the top card of the resulting waste pile. Empty columns must be filled immediately with the top reserve card. If the reserve is empty, you may fill the column with any available card. The stock may be redealt from the waste pile indefinitely in some rule sets, or limited to two or three passes in stricter versions. The game is won when all 52 cards are on the four foundation piles.

Canfield's origin story centers on Richard A. Canfield (1855–1914), an American gambler who ran high-stakes casinos in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Manhattan. According to the legend, he offered the card game as a casino wager in the 1890s — charging $52 for a deck and paying $5 per card placed on the foundations. The mathematical expectation was firmly in the house's favor.

The game appears as "Demon" in British card game books of the same era, suggesting it developed independently or spread quickly across the Atlantic. Mary Whitmore Jones's patience game collections from the late 1800s document Demon as one of the most popular single-player card games of the Victorian era.

Confusingly, the name "Canfield" is sometimes applied to Klondike in North America — reflecting decades of naming inconsistency in popular culture. Purists insist the reserve-pile version is the true Canfield, and the historical casino story supports that distinction.

• Focus on depleting the reserve. Every top reserve card you play to the tableau or foundation exposes the next card and expands your options. Prioritize this over chasing foundation building early.
• Manage empty columns carefully. The rule forcing empty columns to be filled from the reserve is a double-edged mechanic — it gets reserve cards into play but costs you flexibility. When the reserve is empty, protect any open columns and use them for reorganization.
• Track wrapping foundations closely. Sequences that cross the King-to-Ace boundary are easy to lose track of. A common stall: forgetting that a low card is needed next after a King completes. Keep a mental note of what each foundation needs.
• Treat each game as practice, not a test. Win rates are low by design. Study the games you come close to winning — those reveal the structural decisions that matter most.