Rules
Double Canfield Solitaire rules at a glance
- Use two standard 52-card decks shuffled together, with no jokers.
- Deal one card to a foundation; its rank becomes the base rank for every foundation.
- Use eight foundations, two for each suit, building upward by suit from the base rank.
- Deal 13 cards to the reserve, with only the top reserve card available.
- Deal one face-up card to each of five tableau piles, sometimes called depots.
- The remaining 85 cards form the stock.
- This playable version draws three cards at a time to the waste.
- Only the top waste card is playable, and the waste recycles without shuffling for unlimited passes.
- Tableau piles build downward by alternating color, wrapping ace to king.
- While the reserve has cards, empty tableau spaces fill automatically from the reserve.
- After the reserve is empty, any legal card or legal tableau sequence can fill an empty space.
- Win by moving all 104 cards to the foundations.
How to play
How to play Double Canfield Solitaire
Double Canfield is Canfield with a second deck added, but that small description hides a much larger puzzle. The game still revolves around a base rank. The first foundation card sets that rank, and all eight foundations must begin with cards of the same rank in their own suits. If the starter is a queen, every empty foundation needs a queen before it can climb king, ace, 2, and onward.
Your available cards come from three places: the five tableau piles, the top reserve card, and the top waste card. Move a single exposed card to a foundation when it follows the current suit order. Move cards within the tableau when they build downward by alternating color. A black 9 can take a red 8, and because this version wraps, an ace can take a king of the opposite color.
The pressure point is the reserve. Empty tableau spaces are not open choice spaces while the reserve still has cards. They are immediately filled from the reserve, which can reveal a helpful card or drop a stubborn blocker into the table. Once the reserve is empty, those spaces become genuinely flexible.
Background
What is Double Canfield Solitaire?
Double Canfield is a two-deck patience game in the Canfield family. Traditional Canfield uses one deck, four foundations, four tableau piles, and a 13-card reserve. Double Canfield keeps the reserve idea but expands the foundation target to eight piles and gives the tableau a fifth depot. The result is roomier than one-deck Canfield, but it is not simply easier. You have twice as many cards to move home and twice as many copies of each rank competing for good timing.
The game rewards players who like long foundation builders but want more tension than a straightforward two-deck layout. It shares some DNA with Forty Thieves because both use two decks and eight foundations, yet Double Canfield feels more volatile because the base rank changes every deal and the reserve can seize empty tableau spaces before you do.
Setup
The layout on this page
The opening deal uses 104 cards. One card goes straight to a foundation and sets the base rank. Thirteen cards go into the reserve, with the top card turned face up. Five face-up cards become the tableau. Everything else becomes the stock, which starts with 85 cards.
The foundation area shows two slots for each suit. The two heart foundations do not care which physical deck a heart card came from; they care only about suit and rank order. A base-rank heart can start either empty heart foundation, and the next heart in sequence can build on the matching pile.
Foundations
How the eight foundations work
Foundations build upward by suit, wrapping from king to ace when needed. The base rank decides where each 13-card lap begins. In a deal based on 10s, a clubs foundation runs 10, jack, queen, king, ace, 2, 3, and continues until the 9 of clubs finishes that pile.
Because there are two decks, each suit has two foundation piles. Opening the second copy of a suit matters. If one diamonds foundation already has the base card and the second base-rank diamond appears, starting the duplicate foundation can free future diamonds that would otherwise have no home.
Reserve
How the reserve changes the game
The reserve is only 13 cards, just like regular Canfield, but its influence lasts longer than the count suggests. Only the top reserve card can be played. When a tableau pile becomes empty, the reserve automatically sends its top card into that pile and reveals the next reserve card.
That makes emptying a pile a decision, not a reflex. If the current reserve card has a good foundation move or creates a useful tableau bridge, opening a space is excellent. If the next reserve card has nowhere to go, the empty space may turn into another jam.
Stock
How the stock and waste work
This site uses a draw-three stock for Double Canfield. Three cards are moved to the waste at a time, and only the newest waste card is playable. When the stock is empty, the waste turns back into the stock without shuffling. You can make unlimited passes.
Unlimited passes do not make the stock harmless. A useful waste card can be buried by the next draw, and removing cards to the foundations changes which waste cards matter on the next pass. Before drawing, check the top waste card, the reserve card, and all foundation starts.
Examples
Legal and illegal Double Canfield moves
Foundation moves must match suit and sequence. If the base rank is 4, an empty spade foundation needs a 4 of spades. Once that 4 is placed, the 5 of spades is legal, but the 5 of clubs is not. When a foundation reaches king, the ace of the same suit is next.
Tableau moves care about color and descending rank, not suit. A red jack can move onto a black queen. A black 10 can move onto that red jack. A same-color card is illegal, and so is a rank skip. You may move a legal sequence together as long as the first card of the sequence fits the destination.
Foundation baseIf the starter is 9, every empty foundation starts with a 9 of its suit
Duplicate foundationsThe second 9 of hearts can start the second hearts foundation
Foundation wrapQ, K, A, 2 can continue in the same suit
TableauRed 6 onto black 7
Tableau wrapKing onto ace of the opposite color
ReserveOnly the top reserve card is playable
WasteOnly the top waste card is playable
Empty spaceReserve cards fill empty tableau spaces before you can choose the filler
Strategy
Double Canfield Solitaire strategy that improves the position
Start foundations when the base rank appears, especially duplicate foundations in the same suit. In a two-deck game, a single open foundation per suit can become a bottleneck. The second foundation gives later cards somewhere to land and can prevent a whole suit from waiting behind one blocked copy.
Treat reserve progress as a quality check, not just a count. A good reserve move should reveal another playable reserve card, start a foundation, or build a tableau link that lets waste cards move later. A reserve card placed under a poor color chain can sit there for many turns and make the fifth tableau pile feel smaller than it is.
Use tableau sequences to make stable landing places. Since tableau building wraps, a chain such as 2, ace, king can be real structure, not a novelty. Those wraparound connectors are especially useful in deals where the base rank is in the middle and the ranks just below it will not reach the foundations until late.
Be cautious with automatic foundation moves. Sending a card home is usually good, but not always urgent. If a card is supporting a long tableau sequence or keeping a reserve card mobile, check whether the foundation move opens more than it costs. Double Canfield gives you many foundations, but the tableau still has only five piles.
Mistakes
Common Double Canfield mistakes
- Forgetting that the foundation base rank changes every deal.
- Starting one copy of a suit and ignoring the second matching foundation.
- Opening a tableau space without checking which reserve card will fill it.
- Drawing through the stock while the top waste card has a useful move.
- Missing wraparound tableau moves such as king onto ace.
- Moving a connector to a foundation before it has finished its tableau job.
- Treating Double Canfield like Forty Thieves and forgetting the reserve pressure.
Difficulty
Is Double Canfield Solitaire winnable?
Double Canfield is not guaranteed from a random shuffle. Two decks give you more duplicate chances, but they also create a longer game with more places for key cards to arrive at the wrong time. The reserve, the base rank, and the draw-three waste order all matter.
This page does not invent a win-rate number. A meaningful percentage would need to be measured against this exact implementation, including draw-three stock, unlimited passes, movable tableau sequences, undo, hints, and automatic reserve fills. The honest guidance is simpler: expect real decisions, expect some blocked deals, and use undo when you want to study a position rather than race through it.
Variants
Double Canfield variants and house rules
Descriptions of Double Canfield agree on the core identity: two decks, eight foundations, five tableau depots, a 13-card reserve, automatic reserve fills, and unlimited passes through the deck. Software versions may still differ in stock handling. This page uses draw three because it matches the familiar Canfield rhythm and makes waste timing a real part of the puzzle.
A draw-one version would be friendlier and more open. A limited-redeal version would be harsher. A strict one-card tableau-move version would also change the texture of play. Those are real variants, not cosmetic settings, so this page states its exact rule set rather than pretending every Double Canfield table plays identically.
Nearby games
How Double Canfield compares with Canfield, Casket, and Forty Thieves
Regular Canfield is tighter and faster. It has one deck, four tableau piles, and four foundations, so every reserve card feels immediate. Double Canfield gives you an extra tableau pile and twice as many foundations, but the longer 104-card target makes planning more durable.
Casket is another two-deck reserve game, but its lid and jewels create a very different flow. Forty Thieves has two decks and eight foundations, yet it is stricter about tableau building and has no Canfield-style reserve. If you like foundation builders with a strong reserve personality, Double Canfield sits neatly between those games.