Playing Canasta online with other people, step by step: the code, the seats, the table rules, and what happens when somebody drops out.
Canasta here is the classic four-handed game: two partnerships, two decks with four jokers, eleven cards each. The host opens the table, which needs a free account, and shares the code or the link from "Copy link". The others choose a name and join as guests.
The host chooses the target — 3,000 for a shorter game or 5,000 for the full one — and everyone sees the choice. The game starts when four are seated.
The order people sit down decides the partnerships: first and third against second and fourth, and the lobby lists players in that order. Partners sit opposite, so play goes you, opponent, partner, opponent.
To play with a particular partner, have them join third. To play with a friend against two bots, the host adds one bot before the friend joins and the other after. A bot can be removed and added again to send it to the end.
Melds belong to the partnership, not to the player who laid them down, so you can add to any meld your partner has made, and one canasta between you is what lets either of you go out. Your partner's hand, though, stays hidden from you, and there is no chat at the table.
Everybody sees all the melds, the red threes, the top of the discard pile and whether it is frozen. The minimum for a side's first meld of each hand depends on that side's score, and the table shows what yours is.
A hand ends when somebody goes out or the stock runs out. The table then shows each side's melds, canasta bonuses and what was caught in hands, and deals again once all four have pressed "Ready for the next hand".
Canasta hands are long, and a game to 5,000 is an evening. If your group has an hour, choose 3,000.
A player whose connection drops is waited for twenty-five seconds; after that a bot plays their hand until they come back and reclaim the seat. A player who presses Leave is replaced by a bot for good, and their partner plays on with it.
If the host leaves, hosting passes to whoever has been sitting longest. A table with no activity for six hours is cleared away.