Canasta (; Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 rum.Carlisle, Rodney P. (2009). Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society, Volume 1, p. 615. Sage. . "Canasta developed from 500 Rum."Morehead, Albert Hodges and Hoyle, Edmond; eds. (1991). The New Complete Hoyle, Revised: The Authoritative Guide to the Official Rules of All Popular Games of Skill and Chance, p. 70. Doubleday. . "This [500 Rummy] is also called Pinochle Rummy, and its family includes the popular games of Canasta, Samba, Persian Rummy, Michigan Rum, and Oklahoma."Spadaccini, Stephanie (2005). The Big Book of Rules, unpaginated. Penguin. . "500 Rum: A direct descendant of basic rummy, and an ancestor of Canasta."Root, William S. (2016). Fun With Games of Rummy, unpaginated. . "500 Rum: From this popular form of Rummy have developed the new games of Canasta and Oklahoma; also Persian Rummy."Morehead, Albert H.; Mott-Smith, Geoffrey; and Morehead, Philip D. (2001). Hoyle's Rules of Games. Penguin. . "Canasta is the culmination of many minor features tacked onto Five Hundred Rum." One direction of conquain variations, "emphasize melding, leading to Five Hundred Rum, Canasta, Samba, etc." Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and "go out" by playing all cards in their hands.
History The game of Canasta was devised by attorney Segundo Sánchez Santos and his Bridge partner, architect Alberto Serrato in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939,American Heritage Dictionary Spanish Word Histories and Mysteries: English Words That Come from Spanish, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2007), in an attempt to design a time-efficient game that was as engaging as Bridge."History of Rummy" in They tried different formulas before combining Bridge, Rummy and Conquan into a game , and then inviting Arturo Gómez Hartley and Ricardo Sanguinetti to test their game.
After a positive reception of Canasta at their local bridge club, the Jockey Club, in the 1940s the game quickly spread north throughout South America in myriad variations to Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, where its rules were further refined.John Scarne, Scarne on Card Games, p. 127, Dover Publications (2004), It was introduced to the United States in 1949 by Josefina Artayeta de Viel (New York), where it was then referred to as the Argentine Rummy game by Ottilie H. Reilly in 1949 and Michael Scully of Coronet magazine in 1953.John Griswold, Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations And Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories, p. 228, AuthorHouse (2006), In 1949/51 the New York Regency ClubWebsite Regency Whist Club wrote the Official Canasta Laws, which were published together with game experts from South America by the National Canasta Laws Commissions of the US and Argentina.Official Canasta Laws, adopted by the Regency Club and the National Canasta Laws Commission as the official Canasta Laws. The John C. Winston Company Philadelphia. Toronto 1951 (third printing)
Canasta became rapidly popular in the United States in the 1950sNikki Katz, The Everything Card Games Book, p. 52, Adams Media (2004), with many card sets, card trays and books being produced.Life Magazine, Life, 19 December (1949) Interest in the game began to wane there during the 1960s, but the game still enjoys some popularity today, with Canasta leagues and clubs still existing in several parts of the United States.
The name canasta likely is named for the tray (basket) originally placed in the center of the table for the stack of undealt cards and discards. The game was also called Samba and Bolivia.Santos and Serrato never patented the game rules, and thus never received royalties from the later Canasta boom.
Canasta is "the most recent card game to have achieved worldwide status as a classic".
Rules for classic Canasta
Cards and deal The classic game is for four players in two partnerships of two. Variations exist for two and three player games wherein each plays alone, and also for a six-player game in two partnerships of three. If partners are chosen, they must sit opposite each other. Canasta usually uses two complete decks of 52 French-suited playing cards with two or three Jokers per deck, making a total of 108 or 110 cards. (The number of Jokers varies depending on the deck.)
+ Card functions Card Value 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A Natural melding cards Deuce (2), Joker Wild melding cards Red Trey (3) Bonus points Black Trey (3) Safe discard (may be melded when going out)
The initial dealer is chosen by any common method, although in Canasta there is no privilege or advantage to being the dealer. The deal then rotates clockwise after every hand. The dealer shuffles the pack, the player to the dealer's right cuts, and the dealer deals out a hand of 11 cards to each player. The remaining cards are left in a stack in the center of the table. One card is taken from the top of the stack and placed face up to start the discard pile. If that card is wild or a red three, the card is rotated 90 degrees and another card is turned and placed on top of it. That continues until a natural card or a black three is turned up. The rotating of the wild card freezes the deck (see picking up the discard pile, below).
* If a player was dealt red threes, they must instantly play them face up in front of them and draw the same number of replacement cards.
Play The player to the dealer's left has the first turn, and then play proceeds clockwise. A turn begins either by drawing the first card from the stock into the player's hand or by picking up the entire discard pile. However, there are restrictions on when one can pick up the discard pile. (See Picking up the discard pile, below). If the card drawn from the stock is a red three, the player must table it immediately, as one would if melding, and draw another card.
Players may then make as many legal melds as they wish from the cards in their hands. A turn ends when the player discards one card from the hand to the top of the discard pile. No player may "undo" a meld or laid card, or change their mind after drawing a card from the deck.
Melds and canastas Each player/team keeps separate melds of the various ranks of cards. A player may never play to an opponent's meld. A legal meld consists of at least three cards of the same rank, and there is no limit on how large it can grow. Suits are irrelevant except that black threes are treated differently from red threes. Wild cards can be used as any rank except for threes. Threes may never be melded in ordinary play, although three or more black threes may be melded in the final turn of a player going out.
A meld must consist of at least two natural cards, and can never have more than three wild cards. Examples: and are legal melds. is not a legal meld; it contains only one natural card. is not legal; it contains more than three wild cards. One team/player cannot have two separate melds of the same rank. If more cards of the same rank are melded, they are automatically merged into the preexisting meld.
A canasta is a meld of at least seven cards, whether natural or mixed. A natural canasta is one that comprises only cards of the same rank. A mixed canasta (or; dirty, unnatural, or black canasta) is one that comprises both natural and wild cards. Once a canasta is assembled, the cards are stacked, or "squared," up, and one of the natural cards forming it is placed on top – a red one to indicate a natural canasta or a black one to indicate a mixed canasta.
Initial melds Each card has a specific value that determines both the score and the minimum points players need before laying down their first melds:
+ Point values towards minimum meld Card Value 4, 5, 6, 7 5 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K 10 2, A 20 Joker 50
During each hand the first time a team lays cards on the table, the cards of the combined melds must equal a minimum meld requirement based on the values of each of the cards. At the beginning of a game, both teams have an initial meld requirement of 50 points. The count towards the requirement cannot include the value of any cards a player could possibly pick up within the discard pile except for the exposed top card of that discard pile. If the combined value does not meet the minimum requirement, they cannot play the cards on the table nor pick up the discard pile. After the first hand, the minimum meld requirement for subsequent hands is based on that team's accumulated score before the hand starts.
Team score Minimum initial meld Negative 15 0–1495 50 1500–2995 90 3000 and above 120
Example: If a player/team has a score of 1,600 and has not yet made any melds in a hand, an initial meld of , cannot be made. It scores only 65 points and the requirement is 90. A meld of , would score 95 points and can be played. Note that both initial melds can be played if the team's total score is below 1500, and that neither can be played if the team's total score is 3000 or higher. The minimum meld requirement for a team which has a negative score is 15. Because any three cards are always worth at least 15 points, it effectively means any meld is sufficient for laying down the first meld(s). Once a teammate has laid down cards on the table to meet the team's minimum opening meld, the partner at their turn is free to meld whatever cards are legally allowed.
Picking up the discard pile The discard pile should be kept squared up, so only the top card is visible. A player cannot look through the discard pile.
At the beginning of the turn, a player may pick up the entire discard pile instead of drawing a card from the stock. They may only pick up the discard pile if they can use the top card, either in an existing meld or by making a new meld along with at least two other cards from the hand (which can include wild cards). Only the top card is relevant for the player/team to pick up the rest of the discard pile. In addition, if the player/team has not yet melded, they must meet the initial meld requirement using the top card of the discard pile in order to pick up the pile. In this case the points of the top card are included to meet the initial meld requirement.
Discarding a wild card freezes the pile. The card should be placed at right angles to the pile, so that it is still visible to indicate a frozen pile after more cards have been discarded. A frozen pile may only be picked up (unfrozen) if a player can meld the top card with two natural cards of the same rank from the player's hand.
If a wild card or a black three is on top of the discard pile, it may not be picked up. Playing a black three does not freeze the pile; it just acts as a stop card, preventing the other player from picking up the pile. The card discarded after a black three allows the pile to be picked up again (unless it is a wild card or another black three).
The discard pile is also frozen against a player/team that has not yet melded at all this hand, though at the same time it will not be frozen for another player/team that has melded.
Going out and ending a hand