Some things come to light through accidental discovery and others by hard work after the conception of an idea. This is one of the latter. I play solitaire a lot and thought how effective it would be if one could play such a game and win at will. Obviously, the deck would have to be stacked. I wondered if I could take a commonly arranged deck according to one of the popular magical systems and win at one of the best known solitaire games. The game described below is known as ‘canfield’ and it can be beaten with a deck stacked in the ‘Eight King’ ditty set-up. Have any Jack at the bottom and go ahead. I went through the entire deck card by card when set in the Si Stebbins A-4-7-10 etc., arrangement but none would work out. After a few tricks at a card party with an arranged pack, it is a nice finish to say you’ll show how you can always win at solitaire. False shuffle the deck and go ahead. There is one spot in the whole thing to watch out for and not miss. About the middle there will be two red sevens upon either of which a black six is to be played. Always put it on the right-hand seven and you are safe. I am giving here instructions for the game itself.

There are twenty-eight cards in the tableau of this game and they are laid out as follows: There are seven cards in the first horizontal row, the first six from left to right being played face down and the seventh face up. There are six cards in the second row, the first five being placed face down and overlapping the five cards directly above in the first row, and the sixth card is placed face up. The third row has five cards with the last one to the right face up. The others are face down and all overlap the cards in the row above. Continue in the same manner with the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh rows, the last card of each row being placed face up and the other cards of each row being face down. The last or seventh row has only one card, face up, being the bottom card of the column to the extreme left.

The object of the game is to build the suits separately and in sequence from ace to king, in spaces to the top of the tableau. These are called foundations. To play, remove any aces which happen to be exposed face up and place them at the top to form the foundations. Follow with deuces, threes and so on in the same suits if the cards are available. When any card that is face up in the tableau is played on the foundations or moved to another position, the card immediately above it in the same vertical column must be turned up, and becomes available for play.

Plays must then be made in the tableau in descending sequence and in opposite colors, black on a red and a red on black. All cards in each vertical row are moved at one time. As many moves as possible should be made as it is to the player’s advantage to turn face up as many cards in the tableau as possible. A move once made cannot be recalled and a red seven, for instance, once played on a black eight spot cannot be removed to the other black eight spot once the original play has been made. Vacant spaces at the top of the columns can be filled only with Kings.

When all possible moves have been made in the tableau, the play proceeds from the stock in hand. Cards are turned face up in groups of three and the top card of this one pile is always available for play under the above rules. When no more plays can be made in tableau or from stock face up on the table, the next three are placed face up on top of it. The stock is gone through as many times as possible until there are no more possible plays. The stock is never shuffled but picked up, turned face down and gone through again as before. Do not reverse the three cards when taken from the stock but take them off in solid groups of three.

Personally, I think this an excellent stunt at card parties and places where cards are in evidence. It is always a simple matter to leave the room for a few minutes and stack one of the decks taken away with you. My book The Book Without a Name gives a mechanical and fast set-up method for the ‘Eight King’ system. It is different from the usual card stunt. It makes use of a game which everybody knows is difficult to win, and it serves the purpose of convincing watchers that you are a great card man. Cold decking a solitaire game is nothing. I only claim the originality of the effect and the discovery that the ‘Eight King’ stack will beat this particular game.