Welcome to the play rummy online tutorial for Canasta. Canasta is a game in the rummy family that can be played with many variants of its own. It is often played as a four player game, but the online game is adapted to streamline it medium.
This version of Canasta is a two player game played with two standard decks of 52 playing cards, plus four jokers. Taking both jokers form each deck and both decks creates 108 cards to play with.
The Objective:
The winner of the game is the first to hit or exceed the target score(Quick Tourney) or the player with the highest score at the end of the game (Round Tourney)
Wild Cards:
2s and Jokers are wild cards that can take the place of natural cards or freeze the discard pile if discarded.
Black Threes – Stop Cards:
When a player discards a black three it prevents their opponent from picking up the discard pile on the next turn.
Red Threes – Bonus Cards:
If a player is dealt a red three, or happens to pick one up, it is automatically placed face up on the table. At the end of the game the player will receive additional bonus points for each red three they have, or a negative bonus if they failed to make their initial meld.
Natural Cards:
The rest of the cards in the deck are called natural cards.
Melds in Canasta:
Players may meld their cards into sets only. Each meld can be made up of three or more cards, with a minimum of two natural cards. Suits may be repeated.
The Canasta Meld:
A canasta is a 7 card long meld, or longer. It is required a player to meld at least two canasta meld before they can go out.
The number of natural cards in a Canasta is unlimited, while the maximum of wild cards in a Canasta is limited to three. If a player has no wild cards in the meld it is called a ‘clean canasta’, if it has a wild or more it is called ‘dirty Canasta”