Canasta is a very strategic game, meaning it has very little luck compared to other card
games.
Two and four player canasta is played with two decks of cards,
including jokers. Six player canasta is played with three
decks of cards, including jokers. The winner is the person with the most points from groups of melded cards on his/her table. The main idea of the game is to try to take the
discard pile to help you create as many melded groups as possible.
A "game" in Canasta is where you play many
"hands", adding the scores together, until a player or a
team reaches 5000 points.
You start each turn by drawing a card from the deck or by taking
the discard pile. You end each turn by
discarding a card.
When you have at least three cards in your hand which are the same
rank, you can meld them to create a group on the table that gives you points.
Cards which stay in your hand will not give you any points, but
will take points away at the end of the hand if still in your
hand. The smallest melded group you can have is three cards.
You must have seven cards melded of the same value to have a
canasta.
Wildcards (any two or joker) may be melded with any meld. This
means that if you only have two cards which are the same rank, you can meld a wild to have the minimum of 3 cards.
You may have up to three wild cards in each meld group, but no
more than three. There is one bad thing about using a wildcard, canastas with wildcards are called "wild canastas" (with wild cards in them) and are not worth as many points as "natural canastas" which have no wildcards. .
A red three is a bonus card. Red threes are melded automatically
and cards are taken from the draw pile to replace them. Each
red three is worth one hundred points, while having all four red
threes gives you 800 points.
Every card you have melded at the end of the game gives the following number of points:
CARD VALUE POINTS
3-7= 5 points
8-King= 10 points
Deuce= 20 points
(regardless of where melded)
Ace= 20 points
Joker= 50 points (regardless of where melded)
Bonus points are given for the following:
EVENT BONUS POINTS
Each red 3= 100 points
Having 4 Red 3's= 800 points
Natural Canastas= 500 points
Wild Canastas= 300 points
Ending The Game= 100 points
Concealed Ending Game= 200 points
The ending the game bonus for ending the game is given to the player who first empties his hand. The extra bonus for concealed ending game is given if you meld all of your cards in one turn (e.g. no cards melded at the start of your turn).
If you meld a group of at least 2 cards which have the same rank as the last card used on the discard pile (top card), you can take the ENTIRE discard pile. You only need 2 cards in a group because the top card itself will become the third card you need for a normal melded group. Because the discard pile can get very big, it can give you a lot of points.
You must choose to take one card from the deck or take the discard pile, you can not do both in one turn.
The discard pile can be frozen by game options, or it can be frozen
by discarding a wild card. When the discard pile is frozen,
you will not be able to take the pile unless you have a natural pair
that matches the top card in the discard pile.
The game ends when a player has no more cards in his hand (they are all melded).
You can end the game either by discarding your last card, or by
melding your last card. All melded groups must be legal (at least 3 cards) and a card must have already been taken from the deck or discard pile. When the game ends, all cards on your table will give you points and all cards in your hand will take away points.
Melding: To get points for groups of cards, you must put them down onto the table. Putting a card on the table is called "melding" a card. Everyone can see the cards you have melded on your table. A melded group has many cards of the same value (3 kings, 5 jacks) all on the table.
Discard Pile: There are 2 piles of cards in Canasta. The deck is where you take a card from at the start of each turn, and the discard pile is where you put a card at the end of each turn. The discard pile keeps on getting bigger and bigger every turn. The discard pile is like a prize because there is a way to take all of the cards in the discard pile (discussed later).
Deck: There are 2 piles of cards in Canasta. The deck is where you take a card from at the start of each turn, and the discard pile is where you put a card at the end of each turn. The deck keeps on getting smaller and smaller every turn.
Rank : A king, a ten, an ace, are all
ranks. So 2 kings are both the same rank. 2 aces are the same rank. A king and an ace are NOT the same
rank.
Natural Card: Natural cards are any cards which are not wildcards. So queens are natural cards, but jokers are not.
Old Cards: All cards which were melded onto the table during past turns are old cards. So if you are on your third turn, any cards you melded during your first and second turns are now old cards.
Fresh Cards: All cards which were melded onto the table during your current turn are fresh cards. So if you meld 3 queens, they are fresh until the end of my turn. On your next turn, they become old cards.
