Thereafter, the turn to play rotates clockwise (to the left). This is done starting with the player on the dealer s left and then clockwise to the dealer who is last.ĥ The Play The player to left of the dealer plays first. The first act after the deal is for each player, to identify, set down their red threes, and draw replacements. In either case (starting with a wild card or red three) the pile is considered frozen. If it is a red three an additional card must be turned upon it until a card that is not a red three appears. This is to allow a player to take the card if they wish to attempt a canasta of wild cards. If it is a wild card the card is left sideways and the play begins. If the upcard is a joker, deuce or a red three, the card is played sideways. The undealt remainder of the pack is placed face down in the center of the table, becoming the stock, and the top card is turned face up beside it. In the deal, the dealer may need to skip dealing into the cutting player s hand until the number of their cards are equal to those of the other players. The Deal The dealer gives 11 cards face down to each player, one at a time, clockwise, beginning with the opponent on the left and ending with the dealer. If the player even accidentally looks at the next card without taking the bottom card. NOTE: the cutting player may NOT look at more than one card from the bottom of the remaining deck, or fan the cards in any way. If the player wants to keep that card, they may, and then they may look at the next card, etc. Additionally, the cutting player may look at the bottom card of the remaining deck. If the dealer deals out without any cards extra or having to take cards from the remaining deck, the cutting player s team gets 100 points.
This player may attempt, without counting cards, to leave the dealer exactly the number cards equal to the deal (e.g.: 44 cards in 4 player game, 66 in a 6 player game). After the shuffle, the deck is cut by the player to the dealer's right. Any players who wish may shuffle the deck, and the dealer has the right to shuffle last. Thereafter the turn to deal rotates clockwise. (Sequences are not valid melds).Ĥ The Shuffle and Cut The first hand is dealt by the player who drew the highest card. Object of the Game The principal object of play is to form melds - combinations of three or more cards of the same rank - with or without the help of wild cards. After the black three is covered by another card, it has no further effect, and the pile can be taken in the usual way. However, black threes do not freeze the pile. By discarding a black three a player prevents the next player from taking the discard pile. Black Threes Black threes are stop cards. The value of the red threes is credited to a side that has made a canasta, or debited against a side that has made no canasta, when the hand ends. Each red three has a bonus value of 100 points, but if one side has all four red threes, they count 200 each, or 800 in all. Although red threes score bonus points they do not count as meld, and do not help to satisfy the minimum count requirement for an initial meld. They then draw a replacement card from the face-down stock.
Red Threes When a player draws a red three, they must immediately be place it faceup on the table with their partnership's melds (or where the melds will be, if they have not melded yet). Wild cards may be melded together to form a canasta of wild cards, with certain restrictions and penalties discussed below. A wild card is melded with natural cards and then becomes a card of that same rank. The threes have special functions and values discussed below.ģ Wild Cards Jokers and deuces are wild. With some restrictions, wild cards can be used during the game as substitutes for a natural card of any rank. All of the deuces (2 s) and jokers are wild cards. They have standard point values as follows: CARD Value Joker 50 A, 2 20 K, Q, J, 10, 9,, 6, 5, 4 5 The cards A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 are called natural cards.
The Cards Each deck in canasta is a standard 52 card packs plus two jokers. The person with the highest card also is the first dealer, and is responsible for the shuffle.
The player drawing the highest card is paired with the lowest card, and so on. One different ranked card equal to the number of players is sorted out and dealt to each player. The Draw Partnerships may be determined by drawing cards from the deck. The more partners at a table the less influence each pair has over the outcome of the game. 4 players: 2 decks 6 players: 3 decks 8 players: 4 decks Note: it is generally preferred, if possible, to play two tables of 4 rather than one table of 8. 2 CANASTA RULES: The Decks Canasta is played with one deck for each partnered pair.