Canfield Solitaire

Canfield Solitaire is a solitaire card game created by Richard Canfield in the 1890s, as a game played in his casino in Saratoga Springs, New York. Canfield Solitaire is a very difficult game to win, as Mr. Canfield, undoubtedly understood. Legend has it, he sold a deck to a player for $50, and had an attendant watch the player as he played Canfield Solitaire. The player received $5 for every card he put into the foundations. In Canfield Solitaire, the player has a 13 card reserve pile, 4 columns to build down regardless of suit, and 4 foundations to build up by suit. When a player moves cards between the columns, if a column becomes empty, it MUST be filled IMMEDIATELY from the reserve, if there are still cards in the reserve. Cards from the deck are dealt out 3 at a time, and the player can use those to build down the columns, or build up the foundations. The player has a good chance of winning if he can use all the cards in his reserve, allowing the player to strategically use empty columns.

How to play Canfield

Canfield Solitaire is a challenging solitaire game that is very difficult to win. The player deals 13 cards into the reserve pile. Four cards are dealt as the start of four columns, an a single card is dealt into one of the four foundations. The value of the first card dealting into the foundations is the starting value for all four foundations. In other words, if a 3 of hearts is dealt into the first of the four foundations, the player must start the other three foundations with the 3 of clubs, 3 of diamonds, and 3 of spades. The player must build up the foundations wrapping from King to Ace until the card showing in the foundation is one less than the starting cards.

Cards can be moved between the columns building them down regardless of suit, and wrapping from Ace to King. Any time a column is empty, it MUST be filled with a card from the reserve pile, as long as the reserve pile is not empty. If the reserve pile is empty, the player may choose to fill the column with a cards from the column, or cards from the deck.

When a player clicks the deck he is dealt 3 cards from the deck, and may reset the deck as many times as he likes when it is out of cards. The player's goal is to move all 52 cards to the foundations. When all 52 cards have been moved to the foundations, the player wins.