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Canfield family · The Heights

Selective Canfield

Selective Canfield gives you a choice: five cards are dealt face-up and you pick which rank becomes the foundation base. Your chosen card goes immediately to its suit's foundation; the other four deal to the tableau. Then play like classic Canfield — draw three, unlimited redeals, alternating-color tableau with wrap-around.

Decks
1
Pace
Medium
Difficulty
Medium
Family
Canfield family

Choose a card from the selection to set the base rank for foundations.

Choose a card to set the foundation base rank. That card goes to its foundation; the other 4 deal to the tableau.

Strategy tips

  • Choose a base rank that lets you place multiple cards from the dealt tableau immediately.
  • Ranks near the middle of the deck (6–9) are often safer choices.
  • Read the full Selective Canfield strategy guide.

How Selective Canfield compares

What is Selective Canfield?

Selective Canfield is a Canfield variant with one meaningful change: instead of the foundation base rank being determined randomly by the first card dealt, the player chooses the base rank before play begins. All four foundations will start on the chosen rank and build upward in wrapping order (e.g. base 7 → 7→8→9→10→J→Q→K→A→2→3→4→5→6).

This player choice transforms the opening of the game. Rather than adapting to a randomly assigned base, you can survey the initial tableau and reserve, then select the base rank that gives the most immediate foundation progress.

How to choose the base rank

The optimal base rank in Selective Canfield is the one whose cards are most accessible in the opening deal — on top of tableau columns, on the top of the reserve, or early in the stock. A base rank of 7 is immediately useful if two or three 7s are visible; it is nearly useless if all four 7s are buried.

Middle ranks (6–9) are generally safer choices than extreme ranks (Ace, King) because middle ranks have the most balanced set of cards on either side of them, giving the tableau more useful building material regardless of which direction the foundation wraps.

Read the Selective Canfield strategy guide →

How Selective Canfield compares

  • Canfield — base rank chosen randomly; same play structure
  • Superior Canfield — full reserve visible; unlimited redeals
  • Rainbow — draw one, no redeals, any-suit tableau building
  • Agnes — similar base-rank dynamic in a Klondike-style layout

Selective Canfield is part of The Heights · Canfield family and is a variant of Canfield.

More Canfield family games

  • Canfield — Compact reserve patience with wrap-around foundations.
  • American Toad — Two-deck patience with a 20-card reserve.
  • Chameleon — Canfield variant: 3 columns, any-suit, no redeals.
  • Rainbow — Draw one, any-suit tableau, no redeals.
  • Superior Canfield — Visible reserve, unlimited redeals.
  • Thirteen Up — Canfield with 2s as base, same-suit building.

Also try

  • Gaps (Grid & sequence puzzles) — Fill four rows of gaps to build 2–K suit runs. No aces, three passes.
  • Klondike (Klondike family) — The patience everyone knows. Draw 1 or 3.
  • Seahaven Towers (FreeCell & open packers) — FreeCell cousin: ten columns, same-suit builds, two cells.

Learn