Canasta Rules: How to Play the Classic Card Game

These are the classic canasta rules for the partnership game, the version that swept card tables across the Americas in the middle of the last century and is still a family favorite. Canasta is a rummy-style game: you draw, meld sets of cards of the same rank and discard. The twist is the canasta itself, a meld of seven cards, and the discard pile, which can grow large and swing the game when someone picks it up. Below you will find how to play canasta for four players, the changes for two and three players, and a full scoring table.

Quick rules

• Play with 108 cards: two decks plus four jokers. Four players sit as two partnerships.
• Deal 11 cards each. On your turn, draw one card from the stock (or take the whole discard pile if you can use its top card), meld if you can, then discard one card.
• A meld is three or more cards of the same rank. Jokers and 2s are wild, but every meld needs at least two natural cards and no more than three wild cards.
• A meld of seven cards is a canasta, worth a big bonus.
• Red 3s are bonus cards laid down at once. Black 3s block the discard pile.
• A side goes out when it has at least one canasta and a player plays or discards all their cards.
• The first side to reach 5,000 points wins.

What you need

• Two standard 52-card decks and four jokers, shuffled together into 108 cards.
• Pencil and paper, or the scorekeeper, as scores run into the thousands.
• A card holder for younger players, since hands can grow large.

Setup

Partners sit opposite each other. Draw cards to pick the first dealer. The player to the dealer's left cuts. Deal 11 cards to each player, one at a time, clockwise. Place the rest face down as the stock and turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile. If that card is a joker, a 2 or a red 3, turn another card on top of it; a wild card turned up this way freezes the pile.

Card values

How to play

Your turn

1. Draw the top card of the stock, or take the entire discard pile (see below).
2. If you drew a red 3, place it face up in front of you and draw a replacement. If you were dealt red 3s, lay them down on your first turn and draw replacements.
3. Meld any cards you like: start new melds or add to your side's existing melds. Your side owns all melds together, and only your side may add to them.
4. Finish by discarding one card face up on the discard pile.

The first meld of each hand

Your side's first meld in each hand must reach a minimum point value, counted from the card values above. It depends on your side's total score so far:

You may put down several melds at once to reach the minimum. Bonuses for red 3s or canastas do not count toward it.

Taking the discard pile

1. To take the pile you must use its top card in a meld straight away, either with cards from your hand or by adding it to one of your side's melds.
2. When the pile is not frozen, you can take it with a natural pair of the top card's rank, with one natural card plus a wild card, or by adding the top card to an existing meld.
3. When the pile is frozen, you can only take it with a natural pair from your hand that matches the top card.
4. Once you have melded the top card, the rest of the pile goes into your hand and you can meld more before discarding.

Freezing the pile

• The pile is frozen for any side that has not yet made its first meld.
• Discarding a wild card freezes the pile for everyone. The wild card is placed sideways so all can see. It stays frozen until someone takes the pile.
• A black 3 on top of the pile stops only the next player from taking it. Black 3s can be melded only when going out, in a meld of three or four black 3s with no wild cards.

Canastas and going out

A canasta is a meld of seven or more cards. Square it up into a pile with a red card on top for a natural canasta (no wild cards) or a black card on top for a mixed canasta. You may keep adding cards to it. You cannot go out until your side has at least one canasta. Before going out you may ask your partner, "May I go out?", and you must follow the answer. Going out in one turn without having melded before, called going out concealed, earns an extra bonus.

If the stock runs out, play continues as long as each player can take the discard when it matches one of their side's melds. When a player cannot or will not, the hand ends.

Scoring

At the end of each hand each side adds bonuses plus the value of all its melded cards, then subtracts the value of cards still held in its players' hands.

Red 3s count against your side if your side has not melded by the end of the hand.

How to win

Keep playing hands until one side reaches 5,000 points. The side with the higher total at that point wins.

Variations

• Two players: deal 15 cards each. A common rule is to draw two cards from the stock and discard one, and to require two canastas to go out.
• Three players: each plays alone with 13 cards.
• Six players: two teams of three, sitting alternately, usually with three decks plus six jokers and 13 cards each. Some groups keep two decks and deal 11 cards each.
• Samba: uses three decks, allows sequence melds of three or more cards in the same suit, and ends at 10,000 points.
• Modern American canasta: a separate set of rules with 13-card hands and different minimum melds. If you enjoy it, try Hand and Foot, a close cousin.

Tips and strategy

• Hold pairs of natural cards. They let you take the pile even when it is frozen.
• Freeze the pile with a wild card when your opponents look ready to grab a big pile.
• Save black 3s for moments when the pile is large and the next player wants it.
• Watch what opponents pick up, then avoid discarding those ranks.
• Keep a wild card or two to finish a canasta, but do not hoard them: a joker left in your hand when someone goes out costs your side 50 points.

House rules to agree first

• Whether you may ask your partner before going out, and whether the answer is binding.
• The number of canastas needed to go out in two-player games.
• Whether the top card of the pile can count toward the minimum first meld (it can in standard rules).

Love melding games? Try Rummy 500, gin rummy or the classic rummy rules.