Canasta

How to play Canasta

1. The cards: two packs and four jokers, 108 cards in all. Jokers and 2s are wild: they can stand in for other cards in a meld.
2. The deal: each player gets 15 cards. The rest form the stock, and one card is turned up to start the discard pile. If that card is a wild card or a red 3, another is turned up on top of it, and the pile starts frozen.
3. Red 3s never stay in your hand. Each one is laid out in front of you at once and replaced from the stock. They are worth 100 points each (800 for all four), but count against you if you haven't melded anything by the end of the hand.
4. Your turn: draw two cards from the stock, or take the whole discard pile (see below). Then meld if you want to, and end your turn by discarding one card.
5. Melds are three or more cards of the same rank: aces, kings and so on down to 4s. A meld needs at least two natural cards and may hold three wild cards at most. You can add cards to your melds on later turns. Black 3s can only be melded as you go out, and never with wild cards.
6. Your first meld of each hand must add up to a minimum: 50 points while your score is under 1,500, 90 from 1,500, 120 from 3,000, and 15 if your score is below zero. Cards are worth: jokers 50, aces and 2s 20, kings down to 8s 10, and 7s down to 4s and black 3s 5. You can put down several melds at once to reach the minimum.
7. Canastas: a meld of seven or more cards is a canasta. A natural canasta, with no wild cards, scores a 500 bonus; a mixed one scores 300.
8. Taking the pile: you take the whole pile, but you must meld its top card straight away: with two natural cards of its rank from your hand, or, if the pile isn't frozen, with one natural card and a wild card, or by adding it to your own meld of that rank. You can't take the pile when a wild card or a black 3 is on top.
9. A frozen pile: a wild card thrown onto the pile freezes it. Then it can only be taken with a natural pair from your hand that matches the top card. Until you have made your first meld, the pile is frozen for you as well.
10. Going out: once you have two canastas, you may go out by melding all your cards, with or without a last discard. Until then, you must always keep at least one card. Going out scores 100, or 200 if you meld your whole hand in one turn without having melded before (going out concealed).
11. The end of a hand: a hand ends when someone goes out. It also ends when the stock runs out and the player to draw can't (or won't) take the pile, or when a red 3 is the last card of the stock.
12. Scoring: each player adds up the cards in their melds, their canasta bonuses, their red 3s and the bonus for going out, then takes off the value of every card left in their hand. The first to 5,000 points wins (or 2,500 for a shorter game). If both of you pass it in the same hand, the higher total wins.

Controls

• Draw: tap the stock to draw two cards.
• Take the pile: tap it. If you can take it, the game melds the top card with the right cards from your hand (two natural cards if you have them). For your first meld, it adds more melds from your hand until you reach the minimum.
• Meld: tap cards in your hand to pick them (they rise), then press Meld. Several ranks of natural cards can go down together; with wild cards, meld one rank at a time. To add cards to a meld you already have, pick them and tap that meld.
• Your first meld: melds wait on the table with a dashed outline until they reach the minimum, then go down. Press Clear, or discard before reaching the minimum, and the cards go back to your hand.
• Discard: pick one card and press Discard, or tap the pile.
• Keyboard: ← and → move along your cards and Enter picks one. S draws from the stock, P takes the pile, M melds and D discards the card you picked.

Your hand is sorted by rank, with the wild cards at the end. Each meld shows its cards with a count, and a canasta gets a ribbon: red for natural, dark for mixed. A frozen pile has a blue edge. With 2 Players, a cover screen hides the hands while you pass the device.

Computer levels

The computer never sees your hand or the order of the stock. It knows its own cards, everything on the table, how many cards you hold and what you did in the open. Like any player, it saw every card that went onto the discard pile.

Tips to win

• Draw two rather than take a small pile. In the two-player game, the stock gives you two cards; a pile of one or two cards often isn't worth your pair. When we tested the computer players, the ones that left small piles alone won far more games.
• Keep natural pairs. A pair in your hand lets you take the pile even when it's frozen. Don't rush to meld every pair with a wild card.
• Use wild cards to finish canastas. You need two canastas to go out. A meld of five or six cards plus one or two wild cards makes a canasta, and its bonus.
• Mind what you throw. Don't discard a card your rival can add to one of their melds while the pile is open: they take the whole pile. Black 3s are safe: nobody can take the pile with one on top.
• Freeze a big pile. Throwing a wild card freezes the pile, so your rival needs a natural pair to take it.
• Go out when you're ahead. Every card left in your rival's hand counts against them. Going out early catches them holding cards.

About Canasta

Canasta comes from Uruguay, where it was devised in the late 1930s, and it became a craze in the United States around 1950. Its name is the Spanish word for basket. The best-known form is for four players in two partnerships; this game uses the classic rules for two players, in which each player draws two cards a turn and needs two canastas to go out. Many families play with house rules of their own, such as dealing 11 or 13 cards, needing only one canasta, or changing the minimums, so the rules above may differ a little from the ones you know.

Questions

Updated 10 November 2026