Canfield is tight because every resource is under pressure.
The reserve, the base-rank foundations, the wraparound sequences, and the waste-cycling limit all converge to make Canfield one of the most constrained common solitaire games. Strong play means understanding how all of these systems interact before making your first move.
Last updated: May 2026
History and background
Canfield Solitaire is named after Richard A. Canfield (1855–1914), a celebrated American gambler who ran the Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs, New York. According to the most popular account, Canfield sold decks of cards to gamblers for $52 and paid out $5 for each card the player moved to the foundations — making a maximum payout of $260 against a $52 buy-in. The house edge was substantial because most games move fewer than 20 cards to foundations.
The game is also widely known as Demon Solitaire in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, and as Fascination in some other traditions. The British and American names are used interchangeably in most modern implementations.
Canfield has a win rate of roughly 3 to 5 percent with optimum play — making it one of the hardest of the commonly played solitaire formats. The low win rate is partly why it was a casino game: most players lose.
How the game is set up
The deal is unusual and worth understanding precisely:
- Reserve — 13 cards dealt face-down into a single pile, then flipped face-up. Only the top card of the reserve is playable at any time.
- Foundation starter — One card dealt to start the first foundation. All four foundations begin on cards of this rank. For example, if a 7 of diamonds is dealt, foundations will build 7→8→9→10→J→Q→K→A→2→3→4→5→6, wrapping around from King through Ace.
- Tableau — Four columns of one card each, dealt face-up.
- Stock and waste — The remaining 34 cards form the stock. Cards are dealt three at a time to the waste pile (one at a time in some implementations). The waste can be recycled when the stock is exhausted, but only a limited number of times.
Tableau sequences build in alternating colors, downward — but they wrap around. An Ace can be placed on a 2 (wrapping below), and a King can be built below an Ace. This is what makes Canfield’s tableau dramatically different from Klondike.
Understanding the base-rank foundation
In most solitaire games, foundations always start on Aces. In Canfield, they start on whatever rank the first foundation card happens to be. This single rule change has enormous strategic consequences:
Because all four foundations must start on the same rank, three of the four starter cards are still in the stock or reserve when the game begins. Locating those three cards early — and clearing the path to moving them to the foundation — is the core early-game task.
Similarly, the wraparound sequence means you need to think about the full cycle of ranks, not just a linear Ace-to-King path. A foundation starting on 7 wraps through King and Ace before reaching 6. Cards of ranks 8–K and A–6 each play a different role in the sequence depending on where the base sits.
Foundation starts on a 9. The 10s are your immediate foundation targets after the 9s are placed. But Jacks, Queens, Kings, Aces, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, and 8s all need to follow in order. Cards of rank 8 are the last cards you need — they go to foundation only after the full wraparound completes.
This means 8s are not urgent at all at the start of the game. Building alternating-color tableau sequences that use 8s as high cards is fine — they will not be needed on the foundations for a long time.
The reserve: your most important constraint
The reserve is a pile of 13 face-up cards, and only the top card is accessible. It functions as a constant pressure on your tableau: whatever the top reserve card is, you need to find it a home in the tableau or foundation soon, or it blocks all 12 cards below it.
The strategic implication is that you should think about the reserve card not as a bonus option, but as a constraint. What move sequence would integrate the current reserve top into the tableau? What tableau space would it need? Can you create that space before cycling through enough waste cards to bury that reserve card deeper? (It cannot be buried — but the cards below it become accessible only after the top card is played.)
Every time the reserve top changes (because you played the top card), reassess your plan. The new reserve top may change which column you want to develop and what tableau sequences you need to preserve.
Waste cycling and stock management
Canfield allows the waste pile to be recycled a limited number of times (typically three full passes through the stock in the draw-three version). This sounds generous, but the draw-three rule means many cards are skipped or unavailable on any given pass.
The practical strategy for waste management:
- Do not race through the stock. Before drawing, use every available foundation and tableau move. Cycling quickly through the stock without using your plays wastes a pass.
- Track the waste cards you need. If a specific rank is needed for a foundation slot and you have seen it pass in the waste this pass, note that it will be accessible on the next recycle. Plan the current pass around creating the tableau space to receive it.
- Avoid creating tableau positions you cannot fix within this pass.A tableau blocker that you cannot resolve in the current cycle will compound on the next cycle.
Common mistakes
- Treating the reserve as optional. Players who focus entirely on stock-and-waste play and ignore the reserve until stuck find that a 12-card reserve backlog is essentially unrecoverable.
- Building wraparound sequences carelessly. A sequence that wraps from Ace down to King can look fine until the King needs to go to the foundation before the wraparound completes — and then the entire sequence is frozen.
- Moving to foundations too eagerly on the wrong base rank.Because the foundation wraps, some ranks are urgently needed (those just above the current foundation top) and others are far from needed (those just below the base rank). Confusing these two groups leads to moves that look like progress but are not.