Canasta

Players and equipment

Four players in two partnerships is the classic game, partners sitting across from each other. Two standard decks shuffled together with all four jokers: 108 cards. Jokers and twos are wild, which means they stand for any card in a meld; the threes are special and never played as ordinary cards.

The deal

Eleven cards each. The next card is turned to start the discard pile, and the rest is the stock. If the turned card is a joker, a two or a red three, another card is turned on top of it and the pile starts out frozen — what that means is explained below.

Red threes are pure bonus: lay one out as soon as you have it and draw a replacement. Any you were dealt go out on your first turn.

Play

The player to the dealer's left goes first. Draw the top card of the stock, or take the entire discard pile — which you may only do if you can immediately meld its top card: with two natural cards of that rank from your hand, with one natural card and one wild card from your hand, or onto a meld your side already has down. When the pile is frozen only the first of those will do: you need a natural pair in your own hand, and an existing meld does not help. The rest of the pile is then yours.

The pile is frozen by the turn-up at the start of the deal, and freezes again whenever anybody discards a wild card or a red three onto it, until somebody takes it. A black three on top stops only the next player from taking the pile.

Melds are three or more cards of the same rank; sequences do not count. Melds belong to the partnership, so either partner may add to one, and a side never has two melds of one rank. A meld may hold at most three wild cards and must always have at least two natural cards. Black threes may only be melded in the turn you go out, three or four of them with no wild card.

A canasta is a meld of seven or more cards, squared up with a red card on top if every card in it is natural and a black card on top if it holds a wild one. A wild card added later to a natural canasta makes it mixed.

Your side's first meld of a hand has to reach a minimum that rises with your score, given under Scoring. Only the card values count towards it, never red threes or canasta bonuses, and if the first meld takes the pile, the top card and the cards from your hand must reach it by themselves.

Going out is melding every card left in your hand, with or without a final discard, and a side may only do it once it has a canasta. You may ask your partner "May I go out?" first, and the answer is binding. If the stock runs out, play carries on while each player in turn can take the pile, and the hand ends, with nothing for going out, when somebody cannot.

Scoring

Each side adds up its melds and bonuses, then takes off the cards still held in its two hands. Card values, counted for you when melded and against you when left in hand:

Joker

50

Wild

Aces and twos

20 each

Twos are wild

King down to eight

10 each

Natural cards

Seven down to four

5 each

And the black threes

A black three is worth 5 against you in hand, and 5 for you when melded in the turn you go out, which is the only time it may be melded.

Bonuses:

Natural canasta

500

Seven cards, no wild ones

Mixed canasta

300

Seven with wild cards

Going out

100

The hand ends

Going out concealed

200

Nothing melded earlier in the hand

Each red three

100

Or 800 for all four

A canasta's bonus is on top of the value of its cards. Going out concealed — the whole hand melded in one turn, canasta included, nothing laid down before — scores 200 in place of the 100. Red threes count against a side that has made no meld by the end of the hand.

Your first meld of a hand has to reach a minimum that rises with your score: 50 below 1,500, 90 from 1,500, and 120 from 3,000. A side whose score is below zero needs only 15. The score that counts is your side's total at the start of the hand.

A worked hand

Alice and Cara began the hand on 1,600, so their first meld had to count 90: they opened with three aces and two eights with a two, 60 and 40. Alice goes out; Cara is left holding four cards.

Natural canasta of kings

70 + 500 = 570

Seven kings, no wild cards

Mixed canasta of sevens

95 + 300 = 395

Five sevens, a joker and a two

Three aces

60

Natural cards

Two eights and a two

40

The two is wild

Two red threes

200

100 each

Going out

100

Alice melded her last card

Cara's hand

−30

A queen, a nine, a four and a black three

Alice and Cara

1,335

The hand

The melds come to 1,065, the red threes and going out lift it to 1,365, and Cara's leftovers take it back to 1,335. Ben and Dev count their side the same way and each total goes on the board. Alice and Cara now stand on 2,935, so their next first meld still needs 90; sixty-five more and it would need 120.

Ending

First side to 5,000 wins: the hand is played out and scored in full, and if both sides cross the line, the higher total wins. On SquareScores the host sets 5,000 as the target and the app closes the match at the line.

The pile is the game

Whoever takes a big discard pile usually wins the hand, so play the pile before your hand. Never discard a rank the other side has melded or shown interest in. When the pile is large and you cannot take it, freeze it with a wild card; a frozen pile often sits until the side holding pairs collects it. When it is small and you hold pairs, let it grow.

Wild cards

A wild card is worth 20 or 50 in a meld and far more as a tool. Hold it to freeze the pile at the right moment or to turn six cards into a canasta, rather than spending it early on a first-meld minimum. Keep a meld that could become a natural canasta free of them: the difference is 200 points.

The first meld

An opening of 120 is hard to find from eleven cards, so do not rush it. Melding early tells the other side what you hold and lets them discard safely. Meld when it lets you take a pile, or when the opponents are close to going out and your red threes would otherwise count against you.

Playing as a pair

Read your partner's melds as a list of what to keep, and feed their sixth card its seventh. Ask before going out when your partner may be holding a hand full of points they have not yet been able to meld; the question is the only signal the rules allow.

Going out

Going out is worth 100 and a canasta 300 or 500, so do not end a hand while your side is one card short of another canasta. Watch the opponents' hands: a side holding many cards is losing points every turn, and a side down to two or three cards is about to go out on you. Go out when your side has more canastas than theirs and their hands are still full.

Two-handed Canasta

Fifteen cards each, and on every turn you draw two cards from the stock and discard one. A player needs two canastas to go out. Otherwise unchanged.

Three-handed Canasta

Thirteen cards each, everyone for themselves, with one canasta needed to go out.

Samba

Three decks with six jokers, 162 cards, fifteen each, drawing two and discarding one. Sequences of three or more in one suit are melds, and a seven-card sequence is a samba, worth 1,500. Two canastas are needed to go out and the game is played to 10,000.

Hand and Foot

Each player is dealt two hands, the hand and the foot, and picks up the foot once the hand is played out. Melds are sorted into clean piles with no wild cards and dirty piles with them; the bonuses vary from house to house.

More natural than wild

A stricter rule for wild cards: a meld must always hold more natural cards than wild ones, so three cards may carry one wild card, five may carry two, and a seven-card canasta may carry three. Under the classic rule above, a meld may hold up to three wild cards as long as two cards are natural, whatever its size. The two disagree only over small melds; agree which before the first deal.

Modern American Canasta

The version most American clubs play: the game runs to 8,500, the first-meld minimums are higher, and a canasta may be made of wild cards alone. The two games differ enough that they should not be mixed at one table.

How many cards are dealt in Canasta?

Eleven each in the partnership game, thirteen for three players and fifteen for two, always from two packs with four jokers.

Can you take the discard pile in Canasta?

Yes, and you must take all of it. You have to meld its top card at once, with two natural cards of that rank from your hand, with one natural card and a wild card, or onto a meld your side already has down. Frozen, only a natural pair from your hand will do.

What does a frozen discard pile mean?

A frozen pile can only be taken with two natural cards of the top card's rank held in your hand; a meld on the table does not count. It happens when the first card turned is a wild card or a red three, and whenever somebody discards a wild card onto the pile.

How much is a canasta worth?

A natural canasta, seven or more cards of a rank with no wild ones, scores 500 on top of its cards' values. A mixed canasta, one holding wild cards, scores 300 on top.

What do red threes do in Canasta?

They are bonus cards, never melded. Lay one down as soon as you get it and draw a replacement. Each scores 100, or 800 for all four, but against you if your side has made no meld by the end of the hand.

Do sequences count as melds in Canasta?

Not in classic Canasta: a meld is three or more cards of the same rank, and a run in a suit is worth nothing. Samba allows them.

How many points do you need to win Canasta?

Five thousand in the classic game. The hand in which a side reaches it is played out in full, and if both sides pass the line the higher total wins. Modern American Canasta plays to 8,500.