Play Canister Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Every card starts face up, there's no stock to hide behind, and suit never blocks a move. Single deck, medium difficulty, with a 50% shot at clearing it.

Canister Solitaire is one of the more forgiving open-tableau solitaire games: every card is dealt face up at the start, there's no stock to hide anything, and suit never restricts a move. You can build the tableau down regardless of suit, shift a whole run of cards at once, and drop any card, or a whole run, into an empty column. The game is medium in difficulty, with a 50% chance of winning, and it's played with a single deck.

British Canister Solitaire and American Canister Solitaire are stricter cousins of this one, as is Bucket Solitaire, which switches building to alternating colors and single-card moves.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Have a good time playing!

How to play Canister Solitaire

Layout:

4 foundation piles: Build up from Ace to King in the same suit.

8 tableau piles: Build down regardless of suit. A run of cards in sequence, regardless of suit, can be moved together. Any card, or valid run of cards, can fill an empty space. The first four piles get seven cards each at the start; the last four get six.

Foundation:

There are four foundation piles.

An Ace already on its foundation can be sent back to fill any empty tableau pile.

A card can be added to a foundation pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on a 4 of hearts is a 5 of hearts.

The top card of each foundation can be moved back into play if another pile will accept it.

Tableau:

There are eight tableau piles, with the first four holding seven cards each and the next four holding six. Every card is dealt face-up.

A card can be added to a tableau pile only if it's one rank lower than the pile's current top card, regardless of suit, so you can play any 8 on top of a 9, whatever the suits.

Cards on the tableau that are not covered by another card are free to move to the foundation or any other tableau pile.

Any card, or valid run of cards, can fill an empty tableau space.

A run of cards in sequence from high to low, regardless of suit, can be moved together from one tableau pile to another.