Canasta

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Melds
4. Setup
5. Playing a turn
6. Going out
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Canasta is a partnership game from the rummy family: you collect cards of the same rank and lay them out on the table in scoring groups called melds. The big prize is a meld of seven cards, a canasta. A hand ends when a player gets rid of all their cards; then both sides score what they have laid out. The first side to reach 5000 points over several hands wins.

• Players: 4, in two partnerships of two; partners sit opposite each other. Everything laid out belongs to the whole side: partners share their melds and their score. (Versions for 2 and 3 players are under Variants.)
• You need: two standard 52-card decks and 4 jokers (108 cards), shuffled together, and paper and pencil for scoring.

The cards

• Wild cards (jokers and 2s) can stand in for any natural card in a meld.
• Natural cards are all the cards from 4 up to Ace.
• The 3s have special rules (below).
• Suits don't matter in Canasta, only ranks.

Melds

A meld is a group of at least three cards of the same rank, laid face up on the table in front of your side – e.g. Q Q Q or five 9s. Its point value is the sum of its cards. Wild cards may be used, but every meld must contain at least two natural cards and at most three wild cards. So 8 8 2 is fine, 8 2 Joker is not.

Once a meld is on the table, you and your partner can add more cards of that rank (or wild cards) on later turns. You may never add cards to the opponents' melds. Your side can have only one meld of each rank: cards of a rank you already have go onto that meld.

A meld of seven or more cards is a canasta. Square it up into a pile:

• a natural (pure) canasta has no wild cards – put a red card on top; bonus 500;
• a mixed canasta has one to three wild cards – put a black card on top; bonus 300.

You may keep adding cards to a canasta. Adding a wild card to a natural canasta turns it into a mixed one.

Setup

1. Choose a dealer; the deal then passes to the left after each hand.
2. The dealer deals 11 cards to each player, face down, one at a time.
3. The rest is placed face down as the stock (draw pile). Its top card is turned face up next to it to start the discard pile. If that card is a wild card or a red 3, lay it crosswise and turn another card on top, until a different card shows – the pile is then frozen (see below).
4. Red 3s: everyone immediately lays any red 3s they were dealt face up in front of their side and draws the same number of replacement cards from the stock.

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's left starts; play goes clockwise. On your turn:

1. Draw: take the top card of the stock – or take the whole discard pile (see below).
2. Meld (optional): lay out new melds and/or add cards to your side's melds.
3. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile.

If you draw a red 3, lay it face up in front of your side at once and draw another card.

Your side's first meld

The first time your side lays anything out in a hand, the cards put down in that turn must be worth at least a minimum, which depends on your side's score so far:

Only card values count – not bonuses for red 3s or canastas. Several melds together may make up the minimum. After that, your side may meld freely for the rest of the hand.

Example: At the start of the game you need 50. K K Joker (10 + 10 + 50 = 70) is enough; A A 2 (60) is also enough. 7 7 7 (15) is not.

Taking the discard pile

Instead of drawing from the stock, you may take the whole discard pile. You must use its top card straight away:

1. lay out cards from your hand that form a meld with the top card (or add it to one of your side's melds, if the pile isn't frozen – see below),
2. then take all the other cards of the pile into your hand,
3. meld more if you like, and discard as usual.

When taking the pile for your side's first meld, the top card counts towards the minimum, but the other cards of the pile do not.

You can never take the pile if its top card is a wild card or a black 3.

The frozen pile

The discard pile is frozen – against everyone – as soon as it contains a wild card (lay discarded wild cards crosswise so they stay visible). It is also frozen against your side as long as your side has not yet made its first meld.

• Frozen: you may only take it with two natural cards of the same rank as the top card from your hand.
• Not frozen: you may also take it with one natural and one wild card, or by adding the top card to a meld your side already has.

The pile unfreezes when someone takes it.

Example: Your side has three 9s on the table and the pile contains no wild card. The top card is a 9: you may add it to your 9s and take the pile. If a 2 were buried in the pile, you would need two natural 9s from your hand.

The 3s

• Red 3s never stay in your hand: lay each one out at once and draw a replacement (a red 3 found in a pile you take is laid out without replacement). Each is worth 100, all four together 800 – but only if your side has melded something in this hand. If not, they count minus 100 each (all four: −800).
• Black 3s are stop cards: the next player can't take the pile when a black 3 is on top. They can only be melded (three or four of them, no wild cards) in the turn you go out.

Going out

You go out when you have no cards left – either by melding all of them, or by melding all but one and discarding it. The hand then ends. You may only go out if your side has at least one canasta on the table (or completes one in that turn).

Before going out, you may ask "Partner, may I go out?" – right after drawing and before melding. You must obey the answer. You may also go out without asking.

Going out concealed: if you meld your whole hand in one turn – including a complete canasta (two with two players) – without having melded anything before and without adding to your partner's melds, you get 200 instead of 100 for going out. If your side has not melded yet and you drew from the stock, the minimum for the first meld does not apply.

Stock runs out: play continues as long as each player takes the discard pile; you must take it if it isn't frozen and its top card matches one of your side's melds. As soon as a player would have to draw from the empty stock, the hand ends – nobody gets the going-out bonus. If the last card of the stock is a red 3, the hand ends at once.

Scoring

When the hand ends, each side scores:

• plus the value of all cards in its melds,
• minus the value of all cards still in its players' hands,
• plus bonuses:

Example: Anna goes out. Her side has a natural canasta of Kings (70), a mixed canasta of five 8s, a 2 and a joker (120), three Aces (60) and two red 3s. Her partner still holds a 7 and a 5 (10). Score: 250 − 10 + 500 + 300 + 100 (going out) + 200 (red 3s) = 1340. The other side has 6 6 6 2 (35), four Queens (40) and one red 3; they hold a joker, A, 9, 4, 4 (90). Score: 75 − 90 + 100 = 85.

Winning the game

Add each hand's scores to a running total (it can go below zero). The first side to reach 5000 or more at the end of a hand wins. If both sides pass 5000 in the same hand, the higher total wins.

Tips for beginners

• The pile is the key. Taking a big discard pile often decides the hand – keep natural pairs in hand to be ready for it.
• Freeze the pile with a wild card when the opponents are about to take it.
• Don't feed the opponents: avoid discarding ranks they have on the table; a black 3 is the safest discard.
• Make the first meld early – until you do, the pile is frozen against your side.
• Count the canastas: once your side has one, watch for the moment to go out before the opponents catch up.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Two players: deal 15 cards each; draw two cards from the stock and discard one. You need two canastas to go out. If only one card is left in the stock, it counts as a full draw.
• Three players: deal 13 cards each (some deal 11); draw two cards and discard one. The first player to take the discard pile plays alone; the other two become partners for that hand. Partners combine their melds, but each scores their own red 3s; each player keeps their own total, and the game is to 7500.
• Tranca (Brazil): a Buraco-like relative, as described by the card maker Copag. Two decks without jokers; the 2s are the only wild cards. Deal 11 cards each and two face-down spare hands of 11 (the morto, one per side). Melds may be sets or runs of one suit (from 4 up; the Ace only above the King). Black 3s can't be melded, and discarding one locks (tranca) the pile for the next player. You may take the whole pile only by melding its top card at once with two cards from your hand (one may be a 2). A player who runs out of cards takes their side's morto and plays on; going out after that ends the hand (100). Every melded card scores 10 (a 2 scores 20), a natural canasta 200 and a mixed one 100; red 3s are laid out alone for +100 each with a canasta, otherwise −100; cards left in hand count minus, and a side that never took its morto loses 100. Play to 1500, 3000 or 5000.