Rules for Canasta

Canasta is a set-collection game from the rummy family for 2 to 6 players. It works best with four people split into two partnerships sitting across from each other. The name is Spanish for basket, and the game came out of Uruguay in the 1940s.

The aim is to collect cards of the same rank into melds on the table. A meld of seven cards is a canasta, and the whole game revolves around building them. You play several hands and keep a running score. The first partnership to reach 5000 points wins.

You need:

• Two standard decks shuffled together, including all four jokers. That is 108 cards.
• Four players in two partnerships is the usual setup, but Canasta plays fine with anywhere from 2 to 6.
• Pen and paper to keep score.

Jokers and twos are wild cards. They can stand in for ordinary cards when you lay down melds. Every other card is called a natural card.

Suit (♠️♦️♣️♥️) means nothing in Canasta, only the rank of the card. When a hand ends, each card counts as follows:

Values count both ways: cards your partnership has melded on the table score plus points, while cards still in your hand when the hand ends score minus points.

The first dealer is picked at random, and after that the deal passes clockwise. Each player is dealt 11 cards. The rest go face down in a stock pile in the middle of the table. The top card of the stock is turned face up beside it to start the discard pile.

If you are dealt a red three, place it face up in front of you straight away and draw a fresh card from the stock instead. Red threes are bonus cards, explained further down.

A meld is at least three cards of the same rank, such as three kings or five sevens. Melds are built from ranks four up to ace. Threes have their own rules and are not melded in the normal way.

You lay your melds on the table in front of your partnership, and you and your partner share all of them. You may build on each other's melds, but never add cards to an opponent's meld.

Wild cards (jokers and twos) can stand in for ordinary cards. Every meld must contain at least two natural cards, and no more than three wild cards. ♣️8 ♠️8 ♦️8 is a valid meld, and so is ♥️K ♠️K together with a joker.

Once a meld reaches seven cards it becomes a canasta. If it holds only natural cards it is a natural canasta, worth a 500 point bonus. If it includes one or more wild cards it is a mixed canasta, worth 300. You can keep adding natural cards to a finished canasta, but never more than three wild cards in total.

The player to the dealer's left starts, and play goes clockwise. On your turn you do the following in order:

1. Either draw the top card from the stock, or take the whole discard pile.
2. You may lay down new melds or build on your partnership's melds. This is optional, except when you take the discard pile.
3. End your turn by placing one card on top of the discard pile.

You can always choose to draw from the stock. To take the discard pile instead, you must be able to use its top card right away, together with cards from your hand:

• If your partnership has not melded yet, you need two natural cards in hand matching the top card of the pile. Those two cards and the top card form a meld.
• If your partnership has already melded, it is enough that you can use the top card in a meld, whether a new one or one you already have.

Once you are allowed to use the top card, you pick up the rest of the discard pile and can keep melding. A discard pile that contains a wild card is frozen. Then you need two matching natural cards in hand to take it, whether or not your partnership has melded.

Threes play a role of their own, and the two colours behave very differently.

Red threes are pure bonus cards. When you draw one, place it face up in front of your partnership and draw a replacement card. Each red three is worth 100 points as long as your partnership has at least one meld on the table. Hold all four and they are worth 800 points together. If your partnership has melded nothing when the hand ends, those same points are subtracted instead.

Black threes are stop cards. Discarding a black three stops the next player from taking the discard pile. The effect only lasts until another card covers the three. Black threes can be melded only as you go out, and never together with wild cards.

Opening means laying down your partnership's first meld. That first meld must be worth a minimum number of points, and the requirement rises as your partnership's running score grows:

You add up the value of the cards you lay down to reach the requirement, and you may put down several melds at once. Red threes do not count towards it.

Going out means getting rid of every card in your hand. Your partnership must have at least one canasta before anyone can go out. You go out by melding all your cards, or all but one which you discard last. Without a canasta, you must always keep at least one card after discarding. If you are unsure, you may ask your partner whether to go out, and the answer is binding.

A hand ends when a player goes out, or when the stock runs empty. Each partnership then adds up:

• Bonus points for canastas and for going out.
• Plus the value of all the cards the partnership has melded.
• Minus the value of the cards still in hand.

The bonuses are:

Going out concealed means laying your whole hand down in one turn, with at least one canasta, without having melded anything earlier. Once the scores are written down, the cards are shuffled and a new hand is played. The first partnership to reach 5000 points wins the game.

A few common variants:

• Two players: Deal 15 cards each, draw two cards at a time from the stock, and discard one as usual. You need two canastas to go out.
• Three players: Everyone plays for themselves, and then a single canasta is enough to go out.
• Modern American Canasta: A stricter version with higher meld requirements and its own scoring for threes. It is regarded as more demanding than the classic game.

Agree on which rules you are using before you start.