Canasta Rules: How to Play Canasta, Step by Step

What you need

• Two standard 52-card decks plus four jokers: 108 cards in all, shuffled together.
• Four players in two partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other. Canasta also works well for two players.
• Paper and pencil, or our canasta score sheet. Scores run into the thousands.

The goal

You and your partner work together to lay down melds, groups of cards of the same rank, and to grow them into canastas of seven cards. Canastas are worth big bonuses. Every card you meld scores its points; every card stuck in your hand when someone goes out counts against you. Hands add up, and the first side to 5,000 points wins.

Card values

Each card has a point value. It counts for you when it is melded and against you when it is left in your hand.

Wild cards

The four jokers and the eight twos are wild. A wild card can stand in for any rank in a meld. There are two limits:

• Every meld needs at least two natural cards (not wild). You can't meld three jokers on their own.
• A meld may hold no more than three wild cards, however long it gets.

Red threes

Red threes are bonus cards. You never keep them in your hand and never meld them.

• If you are dealt a red three, lay it face up in front of you on your first turn and draw a card from the stock to replace it.
• If you draw a red three from the stock, lay it down at once and draw again.
• Each red three is worth 100 points. If your side has all four, they are worth 800.
• If your side has made no meld at all when the hand ends, your red threes count minus instead.

Black threes

Black threes are stop cards. When you discard a black three, the next player can't take the discard pile; they must draw from the stock. You can only meld black threes in the turn you go out: three or four of them, with no wild cards. A black three left in your hand counts 5 points against you.

The deal and the first upcard

1. The dealer deals 11 cards to each player, one at a time.
2. The rest of the cards go face down as the stock. The top card is turned face up next to it to start the discard pile. That card is the upcard.
3. If the upcard is a wild card or a red three, turn another card on top of it. The pile is now frozen (see the frozen pile). Keep turning until a different card shows.
4. The player to the dealer's left goes first, and play moves clockwise.

Your turn

1. Draw: take the top card of the stock, or take the whole discard pile if you are allowed to (see taking the discard pile).
2. Meld (if you want): lay down new melds or add cards to your side's melds.
3. Discard one card face up on the discard pile.

You may add cards to your partner's melds, but never to the other side's melds.

Melds

A meld is three or more cards of the same rank, such as three 8s or five Queens. Suits don't matter, and there are no runs in canasta.

• Your side may have only one meld of each rank. If your partner has melded Kings, add your Kings to that meld.
• The other side may have its own meld of the same rank.
• Melds stay on the table for the rest of the hand and keep growing.

The first meld: minimum points

The first time your side lays down cards in a hand, the cards must add up to a minimum count. You may lay down more than one meld at once to reach it. The minimum depends on your side's score at the start of the hand:

• Only card points count. Red threes and canasta bonuses don't.
• If you take the discard pile for your first meld, the top card counts toward the minimum, but the rest of the pile doesn't.
• After your side's first meld, either partner may meld any amount.

In that hand, the three Kings are only 30 points. Add the two or the joker to reach 50. At 3,000 points you need 120: the Kings with the joker and the 8s with the two get you there. The lone ace can't be used, because a meld needs two natural cards.

Taking the discard pile

Taking the discard pile is the big move in canasta: you get every card in it. You may take it only if you can meld its top card at once, and then you take the rest of the pile into your hand.

When the pile is not frozen, you may take it if:

• you have two natural cards of the same rank as the top card, or
• you have one natural card and one wild card to meld with it, or
• the top card can be added to a meld your side already has.

You can never take the pile while a wild card or a black three is on top.

The frozen pile

A frozen pile can be taken only with a natural pair from your hand that matches the top card. Wild cards don't help, and adding to an existing meld doesn't count. The pile is frozen:

• when it holds a wild card: discarding a two or a joker freezes it. The card is placed sideways so everyone can see it;
• when the first upcard was a wild card or a red three;
• for your side, until your side has made its first meld.

Once someone takes the pile, the new pile starts unfrozen.

Canastas

A meld of seven or more cards is a canasta. Square it up into a pile with a card on top to show what kind it is:

• Natural canasta (also called clean or red): no wild cards. Worth 500 points, with a red card on top.
• Mixed canasta (also called dirty or black): has one to three wild cards. Worth 300 points, with a black card on top.

You can keep adding cards to a canasta. Adding a wild card to a natural canasta turns it into a mixed one.

Going out

You go out when you get rid of the last card in your hand, by melding it or discarding it. That ends the hand.

• Your side needs at least one canasta first (two in the two-player game). You may finish it in the same turn.
• Going out scores a bonus of 100 points.
• Going out concealed, melding your whole hand in one turn including a canasta, when you had melded nothing before, scores 100 extra (200 in all).
• Before you go out you may ask your partner, “May I go out?” If you ask, you must do what they say.

On this site: your partner is the computer, and it always says yes. So there is no point asking: if you can go out, go out.

When the stock runs out

If someone draws the last card of the stock and it is a red three, they lay it down and the hand ends at once, with no meld and no discard. Otherwise play goes on with no stock: each player must take the discard if it fits one of their side's melds and the pile isn't frozen. The hand ends as soon as a player can't, or doesn't, take the discard. Nobody gets the going-out bonus.

Canasta scoring rules

At the end of each hand, each side adds up its score in two parts: bonuses, then cards.

Scoring a hand, step by step

Your side went out. You have a natural canasta of seven Kings, a mixed canasta of Queens (five Queens, a two and a joker), three Aces and two red threes. The other side has a mixed canasta of 7s (five 7s and two twos), three 9s and one red three, and still holds a joker, an ace, a King and a 6.

Your cards melded: seven Kings (70), the Queen canasta (120) and three Aces (60), 250 in all. The other side's leftover joker, ace, King and 6 cost them 85.

And if a side has red threes but made no meld? Two red threes would then score −200.

Keep score with our canasta score sheet: print it, or use the online scorekeeper that adds it all up for you. Every scoring rule with a hand calculator: canasta scoring rules, with a calculator.

Winning the game

Keep a running total for each side. When a side reaches 5,000 points at the end of a hand, the game is over and the side with the higher total wins. Scores can go below zero, and the minimum for your first meld goes up as your score climbs.

Canasta for 2 players

Two-player canasta uses the same rules with three changes:

• Deal 15 cards to each player.
• When you draw from the stock, take 2 cards, but still discard only one.
• You need 2 canastas to go out.

Everything else, from the minimum first meld to scoring and playing to 5,000, stays the same. A real two-player deal, turn by turn: 2 player canasta rules.

The rules in our game: Classic Canasta as written above, for four players with a computer partner or two players head to head. The game counts every hand for you and explains each point. Want a canasta game with a hand and a foot? See the Hand and Foot rules. Prefer something quicker for two? Try gin rummy.