How to play Canasta

Canasta is played by four people in two teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other and play together.

During the game you collect cards of the same rank, for example 8s. The suit doesn’t matter, and runs like 6-7-8 don’t count. Once you have three 8s, you can lay them face up on the table in front of your team. This is called melding, and the cards on the table are a meld. Only your team’s first meld of each hand has to reach a minimum score (step 5).

Over the next turns, you and your partner add more 8s to it. Once the meld has seven cards, it’s a canasta. You can keep adding 8s to it after that.

Canastas are what the game is about. Each one earns your team a big bonus. Going out means getting rid of all your cards, which ends the current round, called a hand. Nobody in your team can go out until you have at least one canasta. You play several hands and add up the points. The first team to reach 5,000 points wins.

Natural and wild cards: all cards from 4 to ace are natural cards. Jokers and 2s are wild cards: they can stand in for any natural card in a meld. Every meld needs at least two natural cards and may contain no more than three wild cards. A natural canasta has no wild cards and earns a 500-point bonus. A mixed canasta contains one to three wild cards and earns 300. Stack a finished canasta neatly into one pile, with a red card on top if it’s natural and a black card on top if it’s mixed. The 3s are special cards (step 4).

1. Sit in two teams, with partners opposite each other.
2. Shuffle two standard 52-card decks with four jokers, 108 cards in total. The dealer deals 11 cards to each player, one at a time and clockwise.
3. Put the rest face down in the middle as the stock and turn its top card face up beside it. This card starts the discard pile. If it’s a joker, a 2 or a red 3, lay it crosswise and keep turning up cards until you get a card that isn’t one of these. The pile is then frozen, which makes it harder to take (step 6).
4. Red 3s never stay in your hand. If you were dealt any, lay them face up in front of your team and draw a replacement from the stock for each one. Do this straight after the deal, or at the latest on your first turn.
5. The player to the dealer’s left starts, then play goes clockwise.

The two piles: you normally draw from the face-down stock. The face-up discard pile is where everyone puts one card at the end of their turn. Under certain conditions you can take the whole discard pile instead of drawing (step 6).

Every turn has the same three parts:

1. Draw the top card of the stock.
2. Meld if you can and want to: lay out a new meld or add cards to your team’s melds.
3. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile. Then it’s the next player’s turn.

Example: your team already has three 8s on the table. You draw the 8 of clubs and add it to your 8s. You also hold two jacks and a 2, so you lay them out as a new meld: two jacks with the 2 as a wild card. Finally you discard a 5 you don’t need.

Melding is optional. Even if you could meld, you may keep the cards in your hand for later. On many turns, especially at the start, you’ll just draw and discard.

Two more rules for melding:

• Partners share their melds, and each team may have only one meld of each rank. All your team’s 8s go on the same meld.
• You may never add cards to the other team’s melds.

Card values matter twice: for your team’s first meld (step 5) and when you count the points at the end of a hand (step 8).

• Red 3s are bonus cards worth 100 points each and are never part of a meld. Lay out every red 3 you draw during the game straight away and draw a replacement. If there’s a red 3 in a discard pile you take, lay it out too, but without a replacement.
• Black 3s can only be melded when you go out, as three or four black 3s without wild cards. If you discard a black 3, the next player can’t take the discard pile.

In every hand, your team’s first meld must be worth a minimum number of points. To check, add up the card values from step 4.

How many points you need depends on your team’s total on the score sheet, from the hands you’ve already played. Points from the current hand don’t count yet. The further ahead your team is, the more you need:

Example for the first hand: at the start of the game every team has 0 points, so in the first hand you always need 50. You hold three kings (30 points). That isn’t enough on its own. If you also hold three queens (30 points), that makes 60, so you lay out both melds in the same turn.

Example for a later hand: your team finished the first hand with −40 points because you still had lots of cards in your hands. Your total is now below 0, so in the second hand you only need 15. Three 5s are enough.

• The minimum applies only to your team’s first meld in each hand. As soon as one of you has made it, both partners can meld freely for the rest of the hand, even small melds.
• Only card values count, not bonuses for red 3s or canastas.
• If you take the discard pile for your first meld, only its top card counts towards the minimum, together with the cards from your hand.
• If you go out concealed after drawing from the stock (step 7), you don’t need the minimum.

The discard pile grows with every turn. Instead of drawing one card from the stock, you can take the whole discard pile, and with it lots of cards for your melds. You may only do this if you can meld its top card straight away:

• with two natural cards of that rank from your hand, or
• with one natural card of that rank and one wild card from your hand, or
• by adding it to one of your team’s melds.

Example: your team has already made its first meld. A queen is on top of the discard pile and you hold two queens. You lay out the three queens as a meld, then pick up the rest of the pile and add it to your hand. After that you carry on as usual: meld more if you like and discard one card.

You can never take the pile when a wild card or a black 3 is on top. And if you have only one card left in your hand, you can’t take a discard pile that consists of a single card.

Frozen pile: sometimes the pile is frozen. Then a stricter rule applies: you can only take it with two natural cards from your hand that match the top card. Wild cards and your team’s melds don’t help. The pile is frozen for everyone as soon as a wild card lies in it. Whoever discards a wild card lays it crosswise, so everyone can see the pile is frozen. A red 3 turned up at the start freezes it too. And for your team, the pile stays frozen until you’ve made your first meld. The stricter rule protects a large pile. That’s why players sometimes discard a wild card on purpose, so the other team can’t take the pile easily.

When you go out, the hand ends for everyone.

1. You may only go out if your team has at least one canasta. It can also be completed in the turn you go out.
2. To go out, meld all your cards, or meld all but one and discard the last one.
3. As long as your team has no canasta, you must always keep at least one card in your hand.
4. Before you meld anything in that turn, you may ask your partner, “May I go out?” If they say yes, you must go out. If they say no, you can’t go out on this turn.

Example: your team has a canasta of kings, and you hold two 6s and a 9. You draw another 6, lay out the three 6s and discard the 9. Your hand is empty, so you’re out and the hand is over.

Going out concealed: if you meld your whole hand in one turn, including a canasta, without having melded before in that hand and without adding to your partner’s melds, your team gets 200 points for going out instead of 100.

When the stock runs out: play continues only while players take the discard pile. You must take it if its top card fits one of your team’s melds and the pile isn’t frozen. As soon as someone would have to draw from the empty stock, the hand ends. If the last card of the stock is a red 3, the player who draws it lays it out and the hand ends at once, without melding or discarding.

At the end of each hand, both teams count their points. There are four kinds:

• Card points for every card in your team’s melds, with the values from step 4.
• Canasta bonuses for each canasta, more for a natural one than for a mixed one.
• Bonuses for going out and for red 3s.
• Minus points for every card still in your hand or your partner’s hand.

All bonuses are listed under Who gets what.

Example: your partner went out. Your team has a mixed canasta of five kings and two 2s, a meld of three 8s and one red 3. You still hold a 5 and a jack.

If your team hasn’t melded anything by the end of the hand, your red 3s count as minus points instead.

Write both totals down and start the next hand, with the deal passing to the left. The first team to reach 5,000 points wins. If both teams reach 5,000 in the same hand, the team with the higher total wins.

Everything above describes the classic game for four players in two teams. With fewer players, a few rules change:

• Two players: each player gets 15 cards. On each turn you draw two cards from the stock and discard one. You need two canastas to go out.
• Three players: each player gets 13 cards, draws two cards from the stock on each turn and discards one. The first player to take the discard pile plays alone for that hand, and the other two play together against them. Both partners add the team’s points to their own score, but red 3s count only for the player who laid them out. If nobody takes the pile, the player who goes out plays alone. If the stock runs out instead, everyone scores separately. Once someone has 7,500 points or more at the end of a hand, the player with the most points wins.