Modern American Canasta rules

How to play canasta the way most North American clubs and classes teach it, with the points where tables differ.

Players, cards and the goal

Four players in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite. You need two standard decks plus four jokers: 108 cards. Twos and jokers are wild. Each hand, both teams lay down melds of one rank and try to complete canastas (melds of seven cards), which carry big bonuses. Scores run from hand to hand; the common target is 8,500.

Card values

The deal and a turn

1. Deal 13 cards to each player, one at a time. The rest is the face-down stock. No card is turned up: the discard pile starts empty.
2. The turn card. Count eight cards up from the bottom of the stock and turn the ninth sideways. When someone draws it, everyone knows eight cards are left.
3. Each turn: draw the top card of the stock (or take the whole discard pile, if allowed); meld if you want; then discard one card. Play goes clockwise, starting left of the dealer.
4. Threes go straight out. Lay any three face up in front of your team and draw a replacement at once.
5. Keep a card. Unless you are going out, you may not meld down to a single card. (The player who makes the team's initial meld before the turn card is drawn is the exception, because bonus cards are coming.)

Melds, wild cards and canastas

• A meld is three to seven cards of one rank (fours up to aces). Never more than seven.
• It needs at least two natural cards and may hold at most two wild cards.
• The rule of five: a new meld may include wild cards only as part of the team's initial meld. After that, wild cards may join a meld only once it holds five natural cards.
• A team keeps one meld per rank. The other team may meld the same rank.
• Seven cards make a canasta: natural with no wild cards, mixed with one or two.
• Dead cards: once either team closes a natural canasta, that rank is closed to both teams.

The initial meld

Bonus cards: while the turn card is still in the stock, the player who makes the initial meld (and does not go out) draws extra cards after discarding: four if theirs is the first team to meld this hand, three if the other team already has. Try the initial meld checker on your own cards.

Taking the discard pile

• You may take the whole pile only with a natural pair matching the top card: meld the three, then pick up the rest. Wild cards never help.
• If your team's meld of that rank has three or four cards, the three new cards join it. With five or more, you cannot take that card: the meld would pass seven.
• A dead card, a three or a wild card on top can never be taken.
• Before your team has melded, the whole initial meld must already be complete in your hand and laid down first; the top card and the pile never count towards the minimum.

Discarding

• Threes can never be discarded.
• Wild cards may be discarded only as your final card when going out, or when you hold nothing but wild cards.
• On an empty pile, avoid a seven, wild card, ace or dead card unless you have no choice. Players remember it as SWAD.

Threes

Threes are never melded. Lay each one out as it arrives and replace it from the stock. At the end of the hand, look up the red threes and the black threes separately in this table and add the two:

Two red and three black threes are 300 + 500 = 800: +800 with two canastas, 0 with one, −800 with none. While your team has not melded you may keep one three in hand towards a straight (a special hand). A three left in a hand at the end counts 5 against you.

Sevens and aces

• Sevens can never be melded with wild cards. A canasta of sevens scores 2,500; an unfinished meld of sevens costs 2,500.
• Aces may include wild cards only if the ace meld is part of the team's initial meld (it is then an ordinary mixed meld, 300 when complete, no penalty). A natural ace canasta scores 2,500; an unfinished natural ace meld costs 2,500.
• Caught holding them: when the hand ends, each player with three or more aces costs the team 1,500, and the same again for three or more sevens.

Wild canastas

A team may meld three to seven wild cards on their own. Complete, they score 3,000 for seven twos, 2,500 for four jokers with three twos, and 2,000 for any other mix. While a wild meld is unfinished, no other meld of the team may take wild cards. An unfinished wild meld at the end costs 2,000 (2,500 if it holds all four jokers).

Special hands

A special hand is 14 cards declared by a player whose team has not melded: after drawing, lay the whole hand down without discarding. The hand ends; that team scores only the special hand, and the other team scores as usual. Public sources agree on these four; many groups play more.

Going out and the end of a hand

1. Your team needs two canastas (any kind), counting any completed this turn.
2. You must meld all but one card and discard the last (face down; it may be wild). You cannot go out by melding every card, except with a special hand.
3. You may ask your partner "May I go out?" once a hand. A yes obliges you to go out; a no forbids it this turn.
4. If the stock runs out, players may keep taking the pile under the usual rule; the first who cannot or will not ends the hand. Nobody scores for going out.

Scoring a hand

Score each team in the same order every time. Most arguments come from skipping step 2.

1. Special hand? If the team went out with one, it scores that value and nothing else.
2. Count the team's canastas: none, one, or two or more. This decides the signs below.
3. Bonuses (only with at least one canasta): each canasta's bonus, plus 100 for going out.
4. Penalties for each unfinished meld of natural aces, of sevens, or of wild cards.
5. Threes: look up the red and the black threes separately and add. Against the team with no canasta, nothing with one, for it with two or more.
6. Melded cards: add their values, or subtract them if the team has no canasta.
7. Cards left in hands: subtract their values, plus 1,500 for each player holding three or more aces, and again for three or more sevens.

Add each hand to the running totals. Once a hand ends with either team at 8,500 or more, the higher total wins. The canasta scorekeeper follows these steps for you.

Where tables differ

Modern American Canasta has changed over the years, so check these with a new group:

• Wild cards: some tables use the older rule (no rule of five; up to two wild cards in any meld except sevens).
• Initial meld condition: some require a natural three every time (a wild meld alone does not qualify); others ask only for a meld with three natural cards, or only the count.
• Initial meld minimums and the target score vary between groups.
• Special hands: some lists have ten hands, with garbage at 3,000; some score pairs and garbage at 3,500.
• The pile in the initial-meld turn: some groups never allow it.
• Threes in hand: some allow keeping threes freely (5 each against at the end).
• A splash with other melds: sources do not say whether melds laid with it need the minimum; here they do not.

Classic Canasta

The older game, standardized around 1950, is still played by many families: 11 cards each, melds of any length with up to three wild cards, no wild melds, one canasta to go out, red threes 100 each, and game to 5,000. Read the Classic Canasta rules.

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