Canasta

Canasta is most often played by four, in two partnerships sitting opposite each other. Each side lays down in front of it melds of cards of the same rank (three 8s, four Kings…), which it builds up turn after turn. A meld of seven cards is a canasta, which earns a big bonus. You also score the value of the cards laid down. The first side to 5,000 points wins.

Two 52-card decks and their four jokers, shuffled together: 108 cards. A score sheet or Marquoir is essential.

• Joker: 50 points.
• Ace and 2: 20 points.
• 8 to King: 10 points.
• 4 to 7, and black 3s: 5 points.
• Red 3s are not played: they are bonuses (see below).

Jokers and 2s are wild cards: they can stand in for any natural card, 4 to Ace, in a meld.

1. 1Deal eleven cards to each player, one at a time.
2. 2Put the rest face down: this is the stock. Turn up its top card to start the discard pile. If it is a wild card or a red 3, turn up another on top of it, until an ordinary card appears: the discard pile is then frozen (see below).
3. 3A player holding a red 3 lays it down at once in front of their side and draws a card to replace it. They do the same every time they draw one. A red 3 found when taking the discard pile is laid down too, but with no replacement card.

Each turn has three stages:

1. 1Take: either the top card of the stock, or the whole discard pile (see below).
2. 2Meld, if you wish: new melds, or cards added to your side's melds.
3. 3Discard one card, face up, onto the discard pile. Play passes to the player on the left.

• A meld has at least three cards of the same rank: three 9s, five Queens. Suits do not matter.
• It must contain at least two natural cards, and no more than three wild cards.
• You never make a meld of 3s: red 3s are bonuses, and black 3s can only be laid down, as three or four and without wild cards, when going out.
• Melds belong to the side: either partner can add to them, and a side never has two melds of the same rank.
• A meld of seven cards becomes a canasta, which is squared up into a pile. With no wild card it is a natural canasta (500 points); with at least one, a mixed canasta (300 points).

The first time a side melds in a deal, the cards laid down by that player, in that turn, must total a minimum number of points, which depends on the side's score at the start of the deal:

• negative score: 15 points;
• 0 to 1,495: 50 points;
• 1,500 to 2,995: 90 points;
• 3,000 and over: 120 points.

Only the value of the cards counts, not the bonuses: even a complete canasta is not enough if its cards fall short of the minimum. If you take the discard pile for this initial meld, its top card counts, but not the rest of the pile. The only exception: a player who has drawn from the stock and can lay down their whole hand at once, canasta included, goes out without having to meet this minimum.

The discard pile can be worth a great deal. To take it, you must meld its top card at once:

• either with two natural cards of the same rank from your hand;
• or with one natural card of the same rank and one wild card;
• or by adding it to a meld your side has already laid down.

The discard pile is frozen for a side that has not laid anything down yet, and for everyone as soon as it contains a wild card, or the red 3 turned up at the start: you then must have a natural pair. And you can never take it when a black 3 or a wild card is on top.

A player goes out by getting rid of all their cards (their last card may be discarded or melded). Their side must have made at least one canasta, or complete it on that turn. Before going out, they may ask their partner "May I go out?", and must follow the answer. Going out earns a 100-point bonus; going out concealed earns 200: you lay down your whole hand at once, canasta included, without having melded anything before or added to your partner's melds. The deal ends at once. It also ends when the stock runs out: play goes on as long as each player takes the discard pile (you even have to if it is not frozen and its top card fits one of your side’s melds), then the deal is scored, with no going-out bonus. If the last card of the stock is a red 3, you lay it down and the deal ends on the spot, with no meld or discard.

For each side:

1. 1The bonuses: canastas (500 or 300), red 3s (100 each, 800 for all four), going out (100 or 200).
2. 2Plus the value of all the cards laid down, canastas included.
3. 3Minus the value of the cards left in hand, in both partners' hands.

A side that has laid nothing down in the deal counts its red 3s as minus points. In Marquoir, enter this total for each side.

Deals follow one after another. The game ends at the end of the deal in which a side reaches or exceeds 5,000 points; if both get there in the same deal, the higher score wins. The Marquoir counter stops by itself.

• Two players: fifteen cards each; you draw two cards and discard only one; you need two canastas to go out. Game to 5,000 points.
• Three players: thirteen cards each (some deal eleven), and each player keeps their own score. In Pagat's version, you draw two cards, the first player to take the discard pile plays alone against the other two, who are partners for the deal, and the game is played to 7,500 points.
• Five players: two teams, one of two players, the other of three.
• Six players: three decks and six jokers, thirteen cards each, two canastas to go out; four red 3s are only worth 400 points, five are worth 1,000 and all six 1,200. Three partnerships of two play to 7,500 points, two teams of three to 10,000; in the latter case, according to Pagat, a team on 7,000 points or more needs at least 150 points for its initial meld.

In Marquoir, choose the format and the target when you start.

• Aim for a canasta early: without one, nobody can go out, and the game drags on.
• The discard pile is often the best draw in the game; do not discard a card your opponents have melded.
• Keep a black 3 to block the discard pile when it gets big.