Throughout your turn, you can form as many melds or canastas as possible, before ending your turn by placing one card from your hand on the discard pile. The red three will give you bonus points at the end of the game.Īfter you either pick up the discard pile or draw two cards from the deck, your turn begins. If you draw a red three from the deck, the player will put the card on the table in front of them and draw another card to replace it. The third and final way you are permitted to pick up the discard pile is if the top card can be used in addition to an existing meld or canasta on the table.Īnother pivotal feature of the game is the importance of a red three. Alternatively, if the top card was a nine and you had one nine and a deuce or a Joker, you could also pick up the discard pile and form a meld of three nines. However, players can only pick up the discard pile when the top card will assist in forming a meld.įor example, if the top card is a five and you have two fives in your hand, you can pick up the discard pile to form a meld of fives, with the remaining cards added to your hand. The player must choose between drawing two cards from the top of the deck, or picking up the entire discard pile when it is their turn and adding it to their hand. The game starts by each person drawing a card, with the highest denomination being the first to play.Īfter the cards are dealt, one card is left face-up in the centre of the table, known as the discard pile, while the remaining cards are left face down in a stack known as the deck. For three players, they each receive 13, while four or more players see each person dealt 11 cards. In a game of two, players are dealt 15 cards each. Importantly, twos (deuces) and jokers can be used to form an initial meld or to increase its size.Ī canasta is a meld which contains seven or more cards of the same type, and can also include deuces and jokers. Points are accumulated by creating ‘melds’ and ‘canastas’.Ī meld is formed by combining at least three cards of the same type, for example three Jacks or five eights. The aim of Canasta is simple: beat your opponent by scoring more points. The game is played using two decks, including Jokers, which play a special part in the game. The game was a big hit, spreading across Uruguay and into Argentina and even into the United States of America following World War II, peaking in the 1950s at which point it had grown to become the world’s most popular card game. Santos had a liking of the game bridge, but upon realising he had become addicted, switched to another card game, Rummy.Īfter a while, Santos came to the realisation that Rummy was a game based too much on luck, so with the help of his friend, Alberto Serrato, the pair devised a new game and named it Canasta. The word canasta is Spanish for basket and was created by a lawyer named Segunto Santos in Uruguay in 1939.
To help you out, we have outlined the basic rules and how to play in this article. While it is fun and addictive, Canasta can be a tricky game to get your head around at first. The game itself is rummy-like, but it does include some bold differences which set it apart from any other card-game variation. Canasta is a card game which was invented in the 1930s and remains popular for many players in both land-based and online casinos around the world.