Printable Canasta rules

Canasta in one page

4 players in 2 teams · 2 decks + 4 jokers · pencil and paper

Four players in two partnerships use two decks plus four jokers, and each player is dealt 11 cards. On your turn you draw from the stock, or take the whole discard pile if you can meld its top card. Then you meld cards of the same rank with your partner and discard one. Jokers and 2s are wild, and a meld of seven cards is a canasta. A partnership needs at least one canasta to go out, and the first side to reach 5,000 points wins.

In brief

• Deal 11 each; 2s and jokers wild
• Turn: draw 1 or take the pile, meld, discard 1
• Meld: 3+ same rank, 2+ natural, max 3 wild
• First meld minimum: under 0 = 15, 0+ = 50, 1,500+ = 90, 3,000+ = 120
• Canasta = 7 cards: natural 500, mixed 300
• Red 3: 100 each, all four 800, minus 100 each if no meld
• Pile frozen (wild in it or no meld yet): need a natural pair
• Never take the pile with a black 3 or wild on top
• Go out needs 1 canasta: 100, concealed 200
• Cards: joker 50, A and 2 20, K–8 10, 7–4 and black 3 5
• Game to 5,000

Setup

1. Shuffle two standard decks together with 4 jokers, 108 cards in all. Partners sit across from each other.
2. Jokers and 2s are wild. Red 3s are bonus cards and never go in melds. Black 3s are stop cards that block the discard pile.
3. Deal 11 cards to each player, one at a time, clockwise. Place the rest face down as the stock.
4. Turn the top card of the stock face up to start the discard pile. If it is a wild card or a red 3, turn another card on top of it and keep going until a natural card that is not a red 3 shows. A wild card buried in the pile leaves it frozen.
5. Before or on your first turn, place any red 3s you were dealt face up with your partnership's melds and draw a replacement card from the stock for each one.
6. The player to the dealer's left takes the first turn, and play continues clockwise.

On your turn

1. Draw the top card of the stock, or take the entire discard pile (see the rules for taking the pile below). If you draw a red 3, put it face up with your side's melds at once and draw again.
2. Meld if you can and want to. A meld is 3 or more cards of the same rank, with at least 2 natural cards and no more than 3 wild cards. You may add to any meld your partnership already has, but never to the other side's melds.
3. Your partnership's first meld of the hand must reach a minimum point count based on your score: 15 if your score is negative, 50 from 0 to 1,495, 90 from 1,500 to 2,995, and 120 at 3,000 or more. You can use several melds in the same turn to reach it.
4. To take the discard pile, you must be able to meld its top card right away, either with two cards from your hand or by adding it to one of your side's melds. You then take the whole pile into your hand.
5. The pile is frozen when it contains a wild card, and it is frozen for your side until you have made your first meld. A frozen pile can only be taken with a natural pair matching the top card. No one can ever take the pile when the top card is a black 3 or a wild card.
6. End your turn by discarding one card face up. Discarding a wild card freezes the pile; discarding a black 3 blocks only the next player.

Scoring

Winning

Keep a running total for each partnership. When one or both sides reach 5,000 or more at the end of a hand, the game ends and the side with the higher total wins. Since the hand always finishes before anyone checks the scores, a side sitting at 4,900 can still lose if the other side has a bigger final hand.