CANASTA CARDS

• Introduction
• Game objective
• The Deal
• The Play
• Melding
• The First Meld
• Wild Cards
• Frozen Discard Pile
• Taking the discard pile
• End of a hand
• Cards Score
• Minimum points required for first meld
• Bonus
• Scoring
• End of the game

Introduction

The game of Canasta is believed to have been first played in 1940 in Montevideo, Uruguay. From that time on, it started to be played in Argentina, the United States and the rest of the world. It soon became one of the most popular games, being played in every café and at every meeting.

Canasta is played with two card packs of 52 cards each and 4 jokers which are mixed altogether to make up a single pack of a total of 108 cards.

Although there are many different kinds of Canasta games, players in many countries still stick to the original version.

Links
Rummy-style games, including Gin, Canasta, Mah Jong, and games called
Rummy are described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummy
A Small Canasta Strategy Guide, http://www.helsinki.fi/~korppi/canasta.html
Albany Canasta, http://www.webcom.com/duane/txt/canasta.txt

Objective

The object of the game is to earn 3,000 or 5,000 points depending on game options chosen. Points result from adding up the value of identical cards melded to the bonus you get for forming such melds.

The Deal

Each player is dealt 15 cards and the remaining cards are placed face-down in a pile called the stock.
The first card of the stock is placed face-up beside it. The discard pile is formed out of this first card, which, if a joker or a red three, will require that another card be drawn from the stock until the top card of the discard pile is neither a joker nor a red three.
Each player, in turn, will have to lay the red threes it may have been dealt face up on the table in the place specially assigned for that purpose and will have to draw from the stock the number of cards necessary to replace each of the red threes, if any.

1) Cards in Hand
2) Stock
3) Discard Pile
4) Melds
5) Canastas
6) Red Threes

The Play

The white player starts the game in the first hand. Then the black layer will begin the second hand followed by the white player who will start the next one, and so on. Turns will be taken in a like manner.

A player begins its turn by drawing the card on top of the stock (or the two cards on top of the stock depending on game options chosen) or by drawing all cards from the discard pile. Then, the player may lay a meld on the table; if it has drawn the discard pile, melding is mandatory. Turns finish by placing a card face up on the discard pile.

Melding

Before any player makes a canasta, it will first have to lay down melds, which consist of three or more cards of a like value (for example, 4 kings, 6 fives), two of which, at least, must be natural cards.

A canasta is a set of seven or more cards of identical value, some of which may be wild cards (though no more than 3 wild cards are allowed).

In its turn, a player may add natural or wild cards to the melds already down on the table. Players may keep melds instead of putting them down, but they should be aware of the fact that only melds which have been played on the table before a hand ends will earn it points.

After drawing a card from the stock (or two cards depending on game options chosen), a player may play down on the table a new meld formed with the cards already in its hands, or add cards to already played melds. A player is not allowed to have two identical separate melds. All same-number cards played on the table will be automatically placed in a single meld.

The First Meld

The first meld a player lays down must meet a minimum points requirement. Points result from adding up the value of each card of the meld.

Points obtained from red threes and canastas and any additional points that may be earned will not be taken into consideration until the minimum points requirement has been satisfied. In addition, even if a player has already formed a canasta in its hand, it will not be able to play it down if it has not yet met the minimum requirement.

There is only one exception to the minimum points requirement according to which either player may lay down all its cards, even a canasta (or two canastas depending on game options chosen), to bring the hand to an end, regardless of whether the minimum requirement is satisfied, and as long as it has melded no cards before but has already drawn cards from the stock.

Special Cards

All jokers and twos are wild cards and may be used as cards of any value when melding.
Cards other than wild cards are called natural cards.
No meld may contain more than three wild cards or more wild than natural cards.

A puremeld is one which is formed out of natural cards only, using no wild cards. A pure canasta is a pure meld composed of seven or more cards. A meld comprising wild cards is called a mixed meld. If a wild card is added to a pure canasta, it becomes a mixed canasta.

A pure canasta will be marked by placing a red card (a diamond or heart) on top of it, while a mixed canasta will be identified by a black card (a spade or club).
The red threes are cards which carry points. Whenever a player gets a red three, it will have to place that card face up beside the Melds sector and draw another card from the stock to replace the red three. Although red threes carry points, they will not be taken into account in first meldings. Thus, even if a player has red threes, it will still have to meet the minimum points requirement to lay down its first meld.

The only way there may be a red three in the discard pile is the case where such card has been turned up when cards were dealt and then covered with a new card. If this is the case, when the discard pile is taken, the player taking it will have to place the red three face up, but will not have to draw any cards to replace them.

Black threes are stop cards. If a black three is discarded, a player will thus prevent the other from taking the discard pile. Black threes cannot be used to make melds or canastas, unless a player is melding and makes a meld out of three or four black threes to end the hand. Such black threes meld may not contain wild cards.

Frozen Discard Pile

The discard pile will be considered to be frozen against any player who has not yet laid down its first meld, or against both players if it contains a wild card or a red three, either because any of those cards was the first card turned or because a wild card has been discarded. Red threes and wild cards are placed beside the discard pile so that it is clear that it is frozen, even if other cards have been played on top of it.

Taking the discard pile

To take the discard pile, it is required that:

• The first card not be a black three or a wild card.
• A valid meld be formed with the first card drawn from the discard pile without using any other cards from the pile (although other cards from the discard pile may be used later to be added to melds or kept by a player).
• The first card be added to a meld, as long as the discard pile is not frozen.
• If it has not yet melded, the player taking the pile use two natural cards from his hand to form one or more melds together with the first card drawn from the discard pile and meet the minimum points requirement.
• If the discard pile is frozen, only the player holding two natural cards identical to that on top of the discard pile be allowed to take it. The player will have to meld those cards, either as a new meld or as a set of cards identical to other set already melded, in which case both melds will be merged. For instance, suppose that the discard pile is frozen and that player A has already laid down a meld of four sevens. If player B discards a seven, player A will be prevented from taking the pile, unless it has two sevens more in its hand, in which case it may put those sevens together with the one discarded by B to make a canasta and take the pile.

End of a hand

Once a canasta is formed (or two canastas depending on game options chosen), the player making it may go out or bring the hand to an end by melding all its cards, or leaving just one card unmelded to discard it.

No player may go out or meld all its cards if it has not yet melded a canasta (or two canastas depending on game options chosen). Also, players have to play so that they have a card left in their hands after having discarded another.

Once a player has gone out, the hand ends and points are scored. The game will then continue until either player reaches the number of points required to win.

Each card has a stated number of points which are earned when cards are melded. The points which result from adding up the value of the cards which remain in a player's hand are substracted from that player's total score.

A hand may also end whenever there are no cards left in the stock.

If neither player goes out before there are no cards left in the stock, the hand ends when the turn of the player who took the last card from the stock is over. Points for that hand are scored, but no player will score the going out bonus.

If the last card taken from the stock by a player is a red three, this card will be placed as usual. The game will immediately end because it is not possible to replace the red three and the player taking that card will not be allowed to meld or discard.

A hand may also end if there is only one card left in the stock and players have chosen to play by taking two cards from the stock in each turn.

Cards Score

Jokers- 50 points each
Aces and Twos- 20 points each
K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 – 10 points each
7, 6, 5, 4 and black threes- 5 points each

The minimum points requirement to be met to lay down the first meld varies according to the total number of points scored during previous hands, as explained below:

Minimum points required for first meld

Hand score Minimum points required for first meld
Negative score 15 points
0-1495 points 50 points
1500-2995 points 90 points
3000 or more points 120 points

To meet the minimum points requirement, players may lay down melds of three or more cards or more than one meld.
Additional points for red threes, canastas and other bonuses do not count to satisfy the minimum points requirement.

Bonus

Besides the points from melded cards, the following bonuses will count when scoring at the end of a hand:

• 100 points for going out unconcealed
• 200 points for going out concealed
• 500 points for each pure canasta (no wild cards)
• 300 points for each mixed canasta (wild cards included)
• 100 points for each red three if the player has melded at least once
• 800 points for the four red threes if the player has melded at least once

Scoring

The total number of points which results from melded cards will be added to the bonuses referred to above, and the value of cards which remain in each player's hand (unmelded) will be substracted. If either player has not melded even once, each red three it may have will cause
100 points to be substracted from its score. If that player has the four red threes and has not ever melded, 800 points will be substracted for those cards.

Going out concealed means going out after laying down at once all melds formed during a hand. If a player has already melded during the hand, it will only be able to go out unconcealed

End of the game

When either or both players reach 3,000, 5,000 or more points, depending on game options chosen, the game ends.
Once a hand has finished, the player with the highest score wins. The difference between both players' scores constitutes the margin of victory.