Canasta

Connecting to the card room…

A seat for every kind of player

Let’s play Canasta.

Build seven-card melds with your partner. Take the discard pile and make a canasta.

Free to play. No sign-up. Private tables can mix friends and computers.

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The player’s handbook

How to play Canasta

Two decks and four jokers make 108 cards. Deal eleven each to four players in opposite partnerships. Red threes are displayed and replaced automatically.

Draw one stock card or take the whole discard pile by immediately melding its top. A frozen pile needs two matching natural cards from your hand. Wild cards freeze the pile; a top black three blocks it.

Meld equal ranks in groups of at least three, with at least two naturals, more naturals than wilds, and at most three wilds. Twos and jokers are wild. Select several sets together to meet an opening minimum: 15 below zero, 50 below 1500, 90 below 3000, otherwise 120.

A canasta has at least seven cards. You need one to go out. Your partner must approve going out; a refusal is binding for that turn. Black threes can only be melded as a final group of three or four.

Natural canastas score 500, mixed 300; red threes score 100 each with 400 extra for all four. Going out scores 100, or 200 with a concealed opening. Add melded card values and subtract cards held. Reach 5000 to win, or lose at −2000.

Rules reference

Good cards. Great company.

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Leaving an active game gives your seat to a computer. An offline player has two minutes to reconnect before another player can replace their seat.

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