The Canasta Game

By Author: Rummy
Total Articles: 25
Comment this article

One of the most popular premier card games at one time, Canasta Rummy is still a favorite of rummy lovers around the world. The people who like Canasta are more towards the intricacies of card games, rather than just the simple fun which other relatively simpler form of rummy provide.

A typical Canasta game can be played between 2,3 or players. However, a game between 4 players, playing in teams is considered to be the best. The game is played with two standard decks of 52 cards and 4 additional jokers. All the cards have value in points. The jokers are rated the highest with 50 points each, A and 2 have 20 points each, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 have 10 points each and 7, 6, 5, 4 are the lowest cards with 5 points each. All the two's and the jokers are said to be wild cards and in most cases, can be used as substitutes for other cards of any rank.

The game starts with the dealing of cards, in which each player is dealt a fixed number of cards. The remaining cards are put face down in the centre of the table as common cards. The ...
... player positioned to the immediate left of the dealers starts the game by picking the first card. This card can be replaced by a card from the player's hand, in case the cad to be replaced does not seem to be useful to the player.

The player discards one card and in the same fashion, other players too, pick and discard cards and the game progresses. In this process, players can also throw face up cards on the table. These cards, which are placed face up on the table are called melds. The game is supposed to continue until one player goes out. Going out is the technical term for disposing all the cards in the hand and thus the game ends when one of the players goes out. But going out can only be attempted, once your team has fulfilled some conditions. Majority of these conditions depend of the type of Canasta being played by the players, but the presence of a 7 card meld is necessary.

Once you have achieved the condition of possessing 7 card meld you can meld out all your cards except one. Thus the game ends when a player has disposed off all the cards of his hand. In case none of the players is in a position to dispose his/her cards, then the game continues till the commons cards in the middle are finished. The winner in such a case is decided by calculating the total scores of players.

In some games, players can draw the entire stock of discarded cards but they can do this only they are in a position to meld the top discarded card without the need of any other card.

Now, that we know that the main motive of the game is to make melds lets have a look at the various types of melds that are valid in this game. A meld in canasta should consist of 3 or more cards which are of the same rank. For instance, you can have a meld of K,K,K or 6,6,6,6,6 etc. All the melds than are made by players are kept face up in front of their team partners. A player ca also adds cards to the meld of his partner. However, adding cards to the meld of an opponent is prohibited.

The cards ranked 3, are not to be used in normal melds, but are very useful for a variety of other purposes. This kind of usage depends on the conditions of the Canasta game form being played. The best meld to make in Canasta is a meld consisting of 7 cards. In case such a meld in also composed of wild cards, the meld is said to be pure and instead, it is called dirty.

Overall, as I said before, Canasta game is not just a game for Rummy lovers. This is a game for people who are looking for something more other than the usual stuff of traditional Rummy.

Play Canasta online for fun or for real money at Rummyroyal.com. Play free online rummy games like Gin Rummy, Kalooki, Oklahoma and many more.