Canasta rules

The great melding game of the 1950s, and still the best four-player game in the rummy family. Partnerships, two decks, and melds of seven.

The deck

Two 52-card decks with four jokers — 108 cards. Eleven cards each in the four-handed partnership game.

Wild cards

Jokers and all twos are wild. A meld may contain at most three wild cards, and never more wild cards than natural ones.

The red threes

These are not played. Whenever you get one, lay it face up at once and draw a replacement. Each is worth 100 points to your side — or minus 100 if your side has not melded at all by the end.

The melds

Three or more cards of the same rank. There are no runs in canasta. Melds belong to the partnership, not the player.

A canasta is a meld of seven or more. Natural, with no wild cards, it is worth 500. Mixed, with wilds, it is worth 300. Your side must have at least one canasta before anyone can go out.

The first meld

Your side's first melds of a hand have to come to a minimum, and it rises with your own score: 50 while your side is under 1500, 90 from there to 3000, and 120 above it. A side that has gone below zero opens for 15 — so the side that is ahead is the one that finds it hardest to get started.

The discard pile

The heart of the game. You may take the whole pile — not just the top card — if you can use the top card immediately, either by melding it with two matching cards from your hand or by adding it to a meld your side already has.

The pile is frozen when it contains a wild card or a red three, and while frozen you can only take it with a natural pair from your hand.

Going out

Meld or discard your last card once your side has a canasta. Ask your partner's permission first — it is the one piece of table talk the rules allow.

Game is 5000 points.

Canasta: an example game

One game of Canasta followed from the deal to the finish, move by move, with the reason for each choice.

The deal

Canasta is played by four in two partnerships with two decks and four jokers. You and Bo are partners against Ada and Cleo, and everyone gets eleven cards. Play goes you, Ada, Bo, Cleo.

Among your eleven cards is 3♥. Red threes are not played: it goes face up in front of you straight away and you draw a replacement, 9♣. It will be worth 100 to your side at the end of the hand, as long as your side has melded something.

Your first meld

You draw K♠. Your hand now holds K♠ K♥ K♣, 8♦ 8♠, 2♣, a joker, A♦, 6♥, 4♠, 9♣ and 7♣. Your side has no score yet, so your first melds of the hand must be worth at least 50 in card values.

Three kings are worth 30. Two eights with the 2♣ as a wild card are 10, 10 and 20 — another 40, and one wild card with two natural ones is allowed. That is 70, so you lay both melds down. You keep the joker for later and discard 4♠.

The pile freezes

Ada discards 3♠. A black three blocks the pile: Bo, next to play, cannot take it this turn. Bo draws, adds K♦ and K♠ to your side's kings — melds belong to the partnership, so either of you can add to them — and discards 5♥.

Cleo discards 2♦. A wild card in the discard pile freezes it: from now on it can only be taken by a player holding a natural pair that matches the top card.

Taking the pile

A few turns later the frozen pile holds ten cards and Ada throws 7♠ on top. You are holding 7♥ and 7♦, a natural pair, so you can take it. You meld 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ at once, as the rule requires, and pick up the other ten cards.

Among them is 7♣ — you add it and your joker to the sevens — and an eight, which goes on the eights. A big pile is where canasta hands are won: those ten cards are ten more chances to build.

A canasta and going out

Bo adds K♥ and a joker to the kings, which makes seven cards: a canasta. It has a wild card in it, so it is a mixed canasta worth 300, not the 500 of a natural one. Now that your side has a canasta, either of you may go out.

On his next turn Bo lays down A♠ A♣ A♥, which leaves him one card. He discards it, his hand is empty, and the hand is over. You are caught holding 9♣ and A♦.

The count

Your side gets 100 for going out, 300 for the mixed canasta and 100 for the red three: 500 in bonuses. The cards in your melds add up to 290 — the kings with a joker 110, the eights 50, the sevens with a joker 70, the aces 60 — and the 30 you were caught holding comes off. Your side scores 760.

Ada and Cleo had melded 65 in sixes and queens, but they were caught holding 105 between them, so they score minus 40. Next hand your side still needs 50 to open, since you are below 1,500, and theirs needs only 15 because they are below zero.