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Canasta

Regular Canasta (Basic Game)

Players: 4 in two partnerships.

Decks: 2

Cards

Two Decks, including all four jokers, making at total of 108 cards.

Deal

Each player receives eleven cards, dealt one at a time. The remaining cards become a stock with one turned up next to it to begin the discard pile.

Play

Each player plays in turn going left of the dealer. Each turn, the player will:

1. Draw one card from the stock or from the discard pile (See Taking The Pile).
2. The player may meld if able and willing to do so. (See Melding).
3. Discard one card face up on the discard pile, except the player does not have to discard when going out. Note that discarding ends the player's turn, thus no more melding is posssible until it is that player's turn again.

Play continues until a player "goes out". Prior to going out a player is entitled to ask his partner "May I go out?" and the partner may answer "Yes" or "No". Note that there is a 100 point penalty for asking this question when unable to go out, but may be problematic to prove.

Melding

Minimum Meld

The first meld of a given hand by a partnership must meet a minimum point requirement. If the players are unable to meet the minimum point requirement the cannot meld until they are able to meld enough points to meet the requirement. The requirement changes as the game progresses:

If a player takes the discard pile during the initial meld, he is entitled to count only the top card of the discard pile toward his requirement. An initial meld by either partner of a partnership releases both players to meld cards normally.

Melding consists of playing cards to the table in sets of three or more cards of the same rank. There must be at least two natural cards in a set and there cannot be more than three wild (unnatural) cards in a set. A partnership cannot meld more than one group of the same rank, instead the partners must "lay off" on the existing set, regardless of which partner has the set. A player cannot "lay off" on sets of the opposing partnership. Twos, Threes, and Jokers are not played normally:

• Jokers: The four jokers are "wild" and can be played with any rank.
• Twos: All the cards of rank two are considered "wild" and can be played with any rank.
• Red Threes: The 3 and the 3 are considered bonus cards. If dealt a red three, the player on his first turn must lay the card on the table and draw another to replace it. If a player draws a red three, he immediately lays it on the table and draws another. A red three obtained by taking the pile is played on the table also, but it is not replaced. A red three does not count towards a partnership's meld. After the hand has ended and if the partnership has melded, each red three scores 100 points, or 200 if a partnership has all four. If the partnership has not melded they are penalized 100 points for each red three. In the event that a player has a red three in his hand when another player has "gone out", that partnership will be penalized 500 points.
• Black Threes: Black threes can either be used to "stop" the discard pile (See Taking The Discard Pile) or be melded onlywhen the player is going out.

The point values of the cards in melds are as follows:

Taking The Discard Pile

A player may pick up the discard pile only if the following conditions are met:

• The player can meld the top card.
• The discard pile is not "stopped".

  The pile is stopped for the player if a black three, red three (if the deal turns one up), or wild card is on top of the pile. Therefore the player can only draw from the stock pile.

• The discard pile is not "frozen".

  The pile is frozen against both partnerships if there is a red three (turned up by the dealer) or wild card (played as a stop by one of the players) in the pile. The pile is also automatically frozen against a partnership that has not melded any cards yet.

  If the pile is frozen for that player, he can only pick up the pile by having a natural pair of the same rank as the top card to form a new "set", although once the pile has been picked up, the new set can be "layed off" on an existing set.

Canastas

A canasta is a set of seven cards of the same rank either composed of all "natural" cards or a mix of "natural" cards and wild cards. A set containing wild cards can only have up to three wild cards. Canastas without wild cards are call "natural", "clean", or "red" canastas while canastas with wild cards are called "black" or "dirty" canastas. A red canasta is worth 500 points at the end of the hand and a black canasta is worth 300 points at the end of the hand.

Going Out