Canasta
Canasta is a rummy-style card game for 2 to 4 players. Everyone races to
5,000 points by melding sets of same-rank cards and completing Canastas
— melds of seven or more cards.
•
4 players — a partnership game: two fixed teams of partners sitting
across the table.
•
Team 1 — Player 1 and Player 3
•
Team 2 — Player 2 and Player 4
•
Partners share their melds: anything one partner lays on the table can be
extended by the other.
•
2 or 3 players — every player for themselves. Each player is their own
"team": you keep your own melds and are scored on your own hand.
Wherever these rules say "your team", read it as "you and your partner" in the
four-player game, or simply "you" in the two- and three-player games.
Players & setup at a glance
Canastas needed for the go-out bonus
Everything else — the deck, wild cards, melding, taking the discard pile, red/
black 3s, Canasta bonuses and scoring — is the same for every player count.
The deck
Canasta uses 108 cards: two standard 52-card decks shuffled together plus
four Jokers.
•
Wild cards — Jokers and all 2s.
•
Natural cards — every other rank (Aces through 4s, plus the 3s).
Card point values
Objective
Score the most points across a series of hands and be the first team (a
partnership with four players, or a single player otherwise) to reach 5,000.
A hand ends when one player "goes out" (empties their hand) or the stock pile
runs out.
Setup
•
Each player is dealt 11 cards with four players, 13 with three
players, or 15 with two players.
•
The rest form the face-down stock.
•
One card is turned face-up to start the discard pile.
•
Any red 3s dealt to a player are placed face-up in front of their team for
a bonus and replaced with a fresh card from the stock.
A turn
Each turn has three parts:
1.
Draw — take the top card of the stock, or pick up the entire discard
pile (see below). In the two-player game you draw the top two cards of
the stock (you still discard only one).
2.
Meld (optional) — lay down or extend melds, add wild cards, or place a
red 3.
3.
Discard — end your turn by placing one card on the discard pile.
Emptying your hand this way (or by melding your last card) is "going out".
Melding
•
A meld is three or more cards of the same rank (you cannot meld runs).
•
A meld may include wild cards, but must keep at least two natural cards and
never more than three wild cards.
•
Partners build on the same melds — there is one meld per rank per team.
•
Laying off adds matching cards from your hand to a meld your team already
has on the table.
Red 3s and black 3s
•
Red 3s are bonus cards worth 100 points each (all four are worth
800). Place them face-up as soon as you draw them and take a replacement
card.
•
Black 3s are "stop" cards: after a black 3 is discarded, the next player
cannot take the discard pile. They are not melded in normal play.
Taking the discard pile
Instead of drawing from the stock you may pick up the whole discard pile if
the top card is a natural card and you can immediately use it — that is, you hold
two matching natural cards, or your team already has a meld of that rank. The
top card is not a black 3 (stop card).
Canastas
A Canasta is a meld of seven or more cards.
•
Natural (red) Canasta — seven naturals, no wilds: 500-point bonus.
•
Mixed (black) Canasta — contains a wild: 300-point bonus.
Your team must complete at least one Canasta (in the two-player game,
two Canastas) before going out earns the 100-point go-out bonus.
Scoring a hand
When the hand ends, each team totals:
•
+ the face value of every card it has melded,
•
+ Canasta bonuses (500 / 300),
•
+ red 3 bonuses (100 each, 800 for all four),
•
+ 100 for going out (only if the team met its Canasta requirement — one
Canasta, or two in the two-player game),
•
− the face value of all cards left in the hands of everyone on the team
(just your own hand when playing individually).
Deal again until a team reaches 5,000 points.
How this implementation differs from tournament Canasta
This boardlang version keeps the flavour and scoring of Canasta while
simplifying a few of the fiddlier rules so the game stays approachable and
always has a legal move:
•
Taking the pile always requires two matching naturals (or an existing
meld) and moves the whole pile into your hand; the "must immediately meld the
top card" and separate frozen/unfrozen pickup conditions are folded into this
single rule.
•
Going out is allowed by emptying your hand at any time; the 100-point
go-out bonus is only awarded if your team has met its Canasta requirement (one
Canasta, or two in the two-player game). The official two-player rule that you
cannot go out at all without two Canastas is relaxed to this bonus gate, and
there is no "may I go out?" partner request.
•
The initial-meld minimum-point requirement (which scales with your score) is
not enforced.
•
Melding lays down every natural of the chosen rank at once, and wild cards are
added to an existing team meld one at a time.