🃏 How to play

Canasta rules

Build seven-card canastas with your partner and race to 5,000.

The goal

Be the first partnership to 5,000 points.

1
Deal
Two decks plus four Jokers (108 cards). Four players in two partnerships get 11 cards each. Jokers and 2s are wild.
2
Draw two, discard one
Each turn, draw two cards from the stock — or take the whole discard pile if you can meld its top card with two naturals from your hand — then discard one.
3
Meld
Melds are 3+ cards of the same rank (no runs), with at least two naturals and no more than three wilds. Your team's first meld must reach a minimum count based on your score.
4
Canastas
A meld of 7+ cards is a canasta. Your team needs at least one canasta before anyone can go out.
5
Red threes
Red 3s are laid down right away for a bonus and replaced with a new card.

Melded cards count for you, cards left in hand count against you. A team with a negative score needs only 15 for its first meld.

1.Leo and Mia went out (100) with one natural canasta (500) and two red 3s (200).
2.Their melded cards total 340.
3.Hand score: 1,140, minus any cards still in Mia's hand.

A frozen discard pile (with a wild in it) is hard to take — freeze it when you're behind.
Natural canastas are worth much more than mixed.
Don't go out before your partner can unload high cards.

Canasta scorekeeping is on the way. Until then, you can score it with a Custom Card Game — or pick from the games ready to play now.