Click Deal to start the game. You are using a very old browser, that is no longer supported by this site. We recommend that you upgrade to one of the following browsers: Download Mozilla Firefox Download Google Chrome You're trying to discard , but it could be laid off on the meld . Are you sure you want to discard the card? Bill can go out this turn, and is asking for your permission. If you say yes they will meld the rest of their cards and end the round. If you refuse, they cannot go out this turn and play continues. Can they go out? Click a table to join a multiplayer game. Leave table The code for the table is: Give that code to whoever you want to play with, they can use it to join. Or send the link below to them, if they click it they'll join automatically: Please enter the code for the table: What do you want to say to your opponent? Sorry, it looks like you have cookies disabled for our site. The Multiplayer mode doesn't work without cookies enabled 🙁. 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Hi. This game is currently not ready for playing, it's in beta testing right now, we'll announce when it's ready. If you've been given a beta-testing code by CardGames.io please enter it below and click the Enter button. We've created a new CardGames.io app for your tabletphone! All the games from the website, in fullscreen mode, with more characters! Would you like to get the app? Welcome to the Matrix. root@cardgames.io: Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you! Don't like Star Wars? Click here to turn the theme off. Or come on over to our Facebook community group and tell us all about it. Canasta, as with most of the games we have, exists in multiple variations. However, the variation on this site is Classic Canasta, a four-handed partnership Canasta played with two standard 52 card decks and four jokers: a total of 108 cards. We briefly considered implementing Modern American Canasta, but felt this one was simpler and seemed to be more commonly played casually. The rules we referenced during development can be found at the excellent overviews at pagat.com, and Gather Together Games. Canasta is played between four people in two-person partnerships, which sit opposite of the table from each other. Two standard 52 card decks, along with the jokers, are merged to form a single 108 card deck. Deal each player 11 cards, and place the remaining cards face-down at the center of the table to form the stock. Flip the top card of the stock over to form the discard pile. If the top card of the stock is a wild card or red three turn the card horizontal to indicate the pile is frozen (see below), and keep flipping over cards until you get a card that is neither wild nor a red three. Typically at this point each player should place all red threes they have in their hand face up in front of them and draw an equal amount of cards to replace them, but on this site we delay it until it's that players turn to keep things clear and simple The person to the left of the dealer starts. At the start of your turn either draw the top card of the deck, or pick up the entire discard pile. You may always pick up the top card from the deck, but you can only pick up the pile if you can meld or lay off the top card of the pile instantly. If you pick up the pile you must lay out the promised meld containing the top pile card before you are allowed to take the remaining pile or make any other melds. In physical play you'd simply present the two other cards of the meld from your hand, or move the pile card to the meld on the table you're laying off on. If you're making the initial meld (see below) you may not pick up the pile until you've presented a combination of melds that suffices for the initial meld minimum. Only then can you take the remaining pile. In addition to the above limitations in taking the pile, further restrictions are placed on taking it when it is "frozen" or "blocked". The following restrictions exist: The pile is frozen in two ways: If the pile contains (but the top card is not) a red three or wild card the pile is "frozen". A frozen pile can only be taken if you can make a natural meld (a meld with no wild cards) with the top card and cards from your hand. You must make that meld the same turn you pick up the pile. The frozen pile is indicated by turning the wild or three sideways, so that it sticks out of the pile at an angle. Likewise, the pile is frozen against a team if that team has not made their initial meld yet. Bill wants to take the pile. He holds in his hand C6 C6 H7 D8, and the top card of the pile is D6. He presents his two sixes, and melds them with the six from the pile. He then takes the remaining pile and continues with his turn. Mike wants to take the pile, but it is frozen. He holds in his hand H5 D2 D2 S12 D12, and the top card of the pile is S5. Normally, he'd be able to make the meld H5 S5 D2, but since the pile is frozen he must be able to present a pair of fives from his hand in order to take the pile. He instead draws from the deck. Lisa wants to take the pile. The top card of the pile is H13. She cannot meld kings from her hand, but her team has melded D13 D13 C13 H2. She may thus simply add the pile card to the existing meld, and collects what remains from the pile. Bill wants to take the pile, but it is frozen. The top card of the pile is H13. His team does have a king meld on the table, but because he does not have a pair of kings in his own hand he cannot lay off the top card, and must thus draw from the deck. Once a player has drawn from the deck or pile, they may make melds or lay off their cards. A meld consists of at least three cards, and up to 11. It must contain at least two natural cards of the same rank, and can contain up to three wild cards. There must always be more natural cards than wild cards, and all natural cards must be of the same rank. As an example three fives are a valid meld, but two jokers and a five is not valid. Likewise six fours is a valid meld, but six fours and four wilds are not. This makes the largest meld you can form 11 cards: all eight cards of a single rank, plus three wilds. Laying off cards to an existing meld simply involves placing the laid off card(s) from your hand onto the meld already on the table. You can lay off as many or few cards at once as you wish, but the final combined meld on the table must remain valid. Black threes cannot be melded except as the last meld before the player goes out and ends the round, and they cannot be melded with wild cards. Once the player has melded all the cards they wish to meld that round, the player ends their turn by discarding one card from their hand to the discard pile. The player on their left then takes the next turn. You and your partner share melds, and thus you may lay off your cards on their melds as if they were your own. Likewise, if you make a meld consisting of cards in a rank already present on the table the two melds will merge to form a single meld: if you or your partner at one point melded h10 d10 d10 and either one of you later melds s10 s10 c10 d2 the two melds will be placed together on the table to form the meld h10 d10 d10 s10 s10 c10 d2. The first meld a team makes each round must be worth a minimum number of points to be valid, depending on how many points that team has in total. A red three is not counted as a meld for this purpose. The threshold can be met over any number of melds, as long as you play all the melds in the same turn. The game will prevent you from making any melds until it detects you have a valid combination of melds in your hand that meets the criteria. Once you've laid out the first meld the game will prevent you from ending your turn until you've melded all the melds that are required to meet the threshold. The game will prevent you from melding cards if doing so causes you to be unable to meld past the threshold with the remainder of your hand. In the case that you use the top card of the pile to make the initial meld, you may not pick up the remainder of the pile until you've melded enough cards from your hand to cross the threshold. In essence, if you cannot make the initial meld using the cards in your hand and the top card of the pile then you may not pick the pile up at all, and must draw from the deck instead. The thresholds and associated first-meld limits can be found in the following table. Your current total this game is 1100 points. You thus need to meld 50 points total for the first meld. You have in your hand h1 c1 d2 c5 h6 h7 c8 c4 c4 d4 c11 d13. The only meld you can make that crosses the threshold is h1 c1 d2 worth 60 points. However, once you have melded that there is nothing stopping you from melding c4 c4 d4, albeit you're not obligated to. You however cannot meld just the fours and the deuce, as that puts you only at 35 - a bit short of the 50. Your current total this game is 1500 points. You thus need to meld 90 points total for the first meld. You have in your hand h1 c1 d2 c5 h6 h7 c8 c9 c9 d9 h9 d13. This time, melding just the aces is not enough. However, you could meld both h1 c1 d2, c9 c9 d9 for a combined value of 90. Your current total this game is 3000 points. You thus need to meld 120 points total for the first meld. You have in your hand h1 c1 d2 h2 c5 h6 h7 c8 c4 c4 d4 h4 d13. Unfortunately, there is no valid combination of melds that get you across the finish line, and so you cannot meld yet (but maybe your partner can meld and get you out of the pickle). Your current total this game is 1800 points. You thus need to meld 90 points total for the first meld. You have in your hand h5 h5 h5 h5 d9 d9 d9 h13 d13 d13 c13 s3. While the combined melds of h5 h5 h5 h5 d9 d9 d9 h13 d13 d13 c13 would get you exactly to 90, it would also illegally leave you with one card. You need a Canasta to go out, and thus you cannot make the initial meld. Once either team has a meld consisting of seven or more cards, known as a Canasta, that team may go out. A player goes out by ending the turn with no cards in their hand, either because they melded all cards they had, or they melded all but one card from their hand and discarded the left over card. If your team does not have a Canasta on the table you may not go out, and you may not end the turn with no cards in your hand. The game will enforce this by preventing you from laying down the last meld of your hand if doing so would illegally leave you with zero or one cards. Additionally, a player may choose to go out concealed for an extra 100 points. In order to go out concealed the following conditions must be met: While you must be careful when attempting to go out concealed, the game does offer a bit of leniency: it will make note of all the cards you meld or lay off the turn you make your initial meld, and if it detects that the conditions are met and the melds are all valid even if your partner's melds were removed it will award you the bonus even if you technically laid off on an existing meld in the process. Once a player goes out the round is over. The teams count up their scores, apply any relevant bonuses, and add to their total tally. If one team has won the game ends there. Otherwise, the deck is reshuffled and redealt for the next round. The round also ends when the last card has been drawn from the stock. In regular play, you technically would keep playing until one player either cannot or refuses to take the pile, but to keep things simple in this game if a player ends their turn and there is no card left in the stock the game ends, regardless if a team went out or not. Because cards in your hand count against you at the end of the game, it may not be advisable to go out as soon as you can - your partner might be holding a lot of wild cards. Due to this after drawing your card but before you meld or lay off anything you may ask your partner if you may go out. The partner may then reply "yes" or "no", and the answer is binding. If the partner accepts, you must go out. If your partner refuses, you cannot go out. In this game there is a button to ask "May I go out?", which gets enabled whenever the game detects you can go out and you've not made any melds that turn. Pressing the button will prompt your partner for an answer to the question. The game will then enforce the outcome. However, you do not have to ask: it is perfectly legal to unilaterally decide to go out without asking permission - just try to use your best judgement when that is appropriate. At the end of the round each player tallies up their points according to the list below, and adds that to the total they had from previous rounds. If a team has no melds by the time the opposing team goes out, the red threes are deducted from their score instead of getting added. The game ends when either player ends the round with 5000 or more points total. The team that has a higher score at that point wins the game. However, if the two teams are tied above 5000 the game keeps going until one team stands victorious. In the initial version of this game we allowed players to meld wild cards with Black Threes as part of the last meld. It was pointed out to us that this is strictly not a valid move under the variation we are running, and so we have set it so that you can only lay off black threes naturally - sans all wild cards. Back to game This online version of the classic card game Canasta is the 43rd game we make here on Cardgames.io, and was made by Magnús in 2024. Canasta is easily amongst the games that have been requested the most over the years, and it had been brought up as a potential contender numerous times. We mainly avoided it due to it being fairly complex and we weren't always sure we could do it justice, but we felt that it was an injustice in itself that a cardgame website didn't have one of the most popular card games on the catalogue. It's also good to have a few more games from the rummy family, as we're a bit whist-heavy on this site. If you have any comments on it do get in touch and we'll see if adjustments need to be made. Any comments, complaints, bug reports, questions, or anything else should be sent to support@cardgames.io. We can't respond to everyone, but we try to respond to as many as we can. If you just have a quick question make sure it isn't covered in our FAQ. You can also often get help from other users on our Facebook community group, where many of our users congregate. Pop in and say hello! You can also find us on any of the following sites: Back to game This is version 1.59.2 of Canasta. This website uses cookies to store game data, your preferences, and for analytical and advertising purposes. Read more in our Privacy Policy. Cookie Settings. Cardgames.io is owned and operated by Rauðás Games ehf. All rights reserved. The primary script that runs our games seems to not have loaded, somehow. This is in despite of the fact other scripts seem to have loaded up just fine. 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