in the 1950s to 1980s.Ī: A Canasta game ends when the first player or team gets reaches 5000 points. Q: How many decks of cards are used in a Canasta game?Ī: Two decks of cards, including four jokers for a total of 108 cards.Ī: It’s popular right now with many card playing families around the world. One Canasta is the requirement for 3 player card games.Ī: Your meld are the cards you’ve laid in front of you. And if you’re not interested in that, you can have fun playing the game anyway, without implementing all the advanced nuances.Ī: Two Canastas are needed to go out for 2 or 4 player games (straights count towards your total). One great thing I love about playing Canasta is that there are more advanced strategies, so you can continually improve over time if you want to, no matter how long you’ve played. Although it can seem complex on the surface, it’s a fairly simple game to learn if you follow the steps below. The rules and strategies below are based off the game as it’s primarily played in the United States, with American Canasta Rules.Ĭanasta is a great strategy game that teaches you to think a few steps ahead. There are several variations of the game that we’ve run across over the years such as Brazilian, British, Italian, Cuba, Boat, and even one called Hand and Foot Canasta. It gets its name because in the card game, you try to get a basket-full (or 7) cards of the same rank in order to obtain points for a canasta. The word Canasta means “basket” in Spanish.

It was invented in Uruguay in 1939 and first spread to South America before becoming popular in the United States in the 1950s. All in all, an extra 100 points is not a large amount, so be sure to make sure that you're not melding out just to get the jump on your opponent- the first trick of canasta is knowing the best time to play your last cards.Canasta, the card game, is a variant of Rummy. The cards remaining in the hand of the player(s) who have not melded out will be subtracted from their total at the end of the hand, and the player(s) who meld out will gain an extra 100 points. In addition to the points from red threes and melds, there are two other scoring points worth mentioning. Cards that are melded but not in canastas have the following values: black threes and cards 4-7 are worth 5 points each, 8-K are worth 10 points each, 2s and As are worth 20 each, and Jokers are worth 50 points each. Each natural canasta is worth 500 points, and each mixed canasta is worth 300. Mixed canastas are made up of a blend of the card and wild cards (twos and jacks), with the card in question outnumbering the wild cards. Mixed canastas are far more common, as there are only eight of any one type of card in the canasta deck. A natural canasta of queens, for instance, would be made up of seven queens. Natural melds are made up only of the card itself, with no wilds. There are two kinds of canastas- natural melds and mixed melds. Scoring melds in canasta is fairly simple, as melds are scored either by the value of the card or as canastas (a meld of seven or more of the same kind of card). Be warned, however, that if you haven't made any melds when the other person or team melds out, you will be penalized for the red threes that you have (any points that you would have earned from the red threes will be subtracted from your score instead). This is a particularly useful tactic if you're neck and neck in terms of points from melds. The added bonus from having all four red threes is substantial, and if your opponent has yet to find any red threes, you would do well to keep playing in hopes of finding the remainder and getting the bonus. Each red three is worth 100 points, and if you have all four, their value is doubled (for 800 points for all four). Because a Canasta deck is typically comprised of two decks of cards with jokers, there are four red threes. The first step in understanding Canasta scoring is knowing how the red threes work. In Canasta, the game is over when you meld out, but you want to make sure that you never do so while your opponent is ahead in points, so paying close attention to the scoring as you go is crucial to securing a win in this game. The details of scoring are straight-forward, but novice players may overlook several things that could be played to their advantage.

Canasta is a complex game while the rules are simple enough, there is a great deal of strategy involved in becoming a solid player.

Ponytail canasta card game rules