Canasta

Canasta is Rummy scaled up: two decks, a partner, wild cards, and one big target - the canasta, a meld of seven cards. It was the most popular card game in the world in the 1950s and it still rewards patient teamwork. A full game to 5000 takes over an hour, so many groups play a single hand.

What You Need

• Players: 4 in two partnerships is the classic game. 2 or 3 players work with the adjustments below.
• Deck: Two standard 52-card decks shuffled together with all 4 jokers - 108 cards.
• Extras: Pen and paper. The scoring has several parts.

Key Terms

• Meld: Three or more cards of the same rank laid face up. Runs do not exist in Canasta.
• Canasta: A meld that has reached seven or more cards. This is what the game is really about.
• Natural canasta: Seven cards with no wilds - worth double a mixed one.
• Wild cards: Jokers and all 2s. They can stand in for any rank.
• Red threes: Bonus cards. You never meld them; you set them aside and draw a replacement.
• Freezing the pile: Making the discard pile harder to take, by discarding a wild card or a red three onto it.
• Going out: Ending the hand by getting rid of all your cards.

Setup

1. Sit so partners are opposite each other.
2. Deal 11 cards to each player (15 each for 2 players, 13 each for 3).
3. Place the rest face down as the stock and turn one card face up to start the discard pile.
4. If that first upcard is a wild card or a red three, turn another on top of it - the pile starts frozen.
5. Any red threes in your hand go face up on the table immediately, and you draw a replacement card for each.

How to Play

Take turns clockwise. A turn has three steps:

1. Draw. Take the top card of the stock, or take the entire discard pile if you are allowed to.
2. Meld (optional). Lay down new melds or add cards to your partnership's existing ones. Partners share melds - there is only one set on the table per team.
3. Discard. One card face up. Your turn ends.

Taking the discard pile

This is the heart of the game and the rule new players most often get wrong.

• You may take the pile if you can immediately use its top card in a meld - either by matching it with two cards from your hand, or by adding it to a meld your team already has on the table.
• If the pile is frozen against you, you must use two natural cards from your hand that match the top card. A meld already on the table is not enough.
• Take the pile and you get every card in it, which can be dozens.

Melds

• Melds need at least three cards of the same rank, and at most three wilds.
• A meld must always contain more natural cards than wild ones.
• Threes cannot be melded normally - black threes only in the very last turn when going out.
• Your first meld of the hand must reach a minimum point value, and that minimum rises as your score does:

Scoring & Winning

• Card values: jokers 50, 2s and aces 20, K down to 8 are 10, 7 down to 4 and black 3s are 5.
• Bonuses: natural canasta 500, mixed canasta 300, going out 100, each red three 100 (all four are worth 800 together).
• Your team scores its melded cards plus bonuses, then subtracts the value of every card left in both partners' hands.
• You may only go out if your team has at least one complete canasta. Without one, you must keep playing.
• First team to 5000 points wins.

Example

You draw a card, add two 8s from your hand to your team's meld of five 8s to make seven, and it becomes a canasta worth 300 or 500. Now your team is allowed to go out. You discard the 4♥ and pass play on.

Variations

• Two players: deal 15 each and draw two cards per turn instead of one.
• Hand and Foot: a popular American cousin where each player gets two hands, played one after the other.
• Samba and Bolivia: larger variants that add sequence melds and use three decks.

Tips for New Players

• The discard pile is the real prize. A big pile can be worth hundreds of points, so think hard before you feed it a card someone can use.
• Do not rush to go out. Building a second canasta usually beats ending the hand early.
• Hold black threes. Discarding one blocks the next player from taking the pile at all.