Practice Canasta: play with a partner, with a coach

New to Canasta? Start with How Canasta works in the Coach. Read the full rules · All practice games

The Canasta table

The practice game needs JavaScript. The rules page explains how to play Canasta with a real pair of decks.

Coach

Goal: with your partner, put down groups of cards of the same rank, build canastas (groups of seven or more cards), and score points. The first team to reach 5,000 points wins.

What just happened

Tips and the other players’ moves appear here, newest first.

Your progress

Remember my progress on this device

Off by default. When it is on, the numbers in the table above are saved in this browser only and never sent anywhere. The game you are playing is not saved: if you reload the page, a new game starts at 0 to 0. The This visit column counts only since you opened this page. Once this is on, a second column called All time appears and keeps the numbers between visits. Reset progress sets the numbers in the table back to 0. It does not change the score of the game you are playing. Turning this off deletes what was saved.

About this practice game

Play Canasta the classic way: you and a computer partner against two computer players, with 11 cards each. Each turn you take a card and put down groups of cards of the same rank, such as three kings. A group of seven or more cards is a canasta, which earns a bonus. The first team to reach 5,000 points wins. This practice game plays the four-player version with two teams, one deal at a time. Never seen it played? Press Watch a narrated deal to see the computer play all four seats with every card face up, and why it makes each move.

Keep going

Affiliate disclosure · Privacy · SelectACard home

How Canasta works

The goal. You and North (your partner, played by the computer) are one team. West and East are the other team. A game is played over several deals. A deal is one dealing of the cards and everything played with it. In each deal your team scores points by putting down groups of cards and by making canastas. The first team whose total reaches 5,000 points wins.

The cards. Two decks and four jokers, 108 cards in all. Everyone is dealt 11. The rest are the draw pile, face down, and one card is turned face up to start the discard pile.

Natural cards are the cards from 4 up to ace.
Wild cards are the 2s and the jokers. A wild card can stand in for a natural card of any rank.
Red threes (3♥, 3♦) are bonus cards. When you are dealt or draw one, it goes on the table at once and you draw another card. Each one is worth 100 points to your team (800 if your team gets all four). If your team has put down no groups at all when the deal ends, red threes count against it instead.
Black threes (3♠, 3♣) cannot go in groups, except when you go out. Throw one away to stop the next player from taking the discard pile.

A turn has three steps:

Draw the top card of the draw pile, or take the whole discard pile (the rules are below).
Put down groups, and add cards to your team’s groups, if you can. You may also put down nothing.
Discard one card, face up, on the discard pile. That ends your turn.

Groups. A group is three or more cards of the same rank, such as 9♥ 9♠ 9♦. It needs at least two natural cards, and it can have at most three wild cards. Your team has one group for each rank. When you or your partner put down more cards of that rank, they are added to it. You can never add to the other team’s groups. Each card in a group scores its points: aces and 2s are 20, jokers are 50, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen and king are 10, and 4, 5, 6 and 7 are 5.

Taking the discard pile. Instead of drawing, you may take the whole pile, but only if you can use the top card right away. Either put it in a group with two cards from your hand that match it (two natural cards, or one natural card and one wild card), or add it to a group your team already has. The rest of the pile then joins your hand. You can never take the pile when its top card is a wild card or a black three.

The frozen pile. The discard pile is frozen when it has a wild card in it (or a red three that was turned up to start it). It is also frozen against your team until your team has put down its first groups. To take a frozen pile you need two natural cards in your hand that match the top card. Wild cards do not count, and a group of that rank on the table is not enough. The pile stays frozen until someone takes it.

Your first groups. The first groups your team puts down in a deal must be worth at least 50 points together. Only the points on the cards count, not bonuses. The minimum is 50 until your team’s total reaches 1,500, then 90, then 120 from 3,000. A team with a total below 0 needs only 15. When you take the pile to put down your first groups, the top card counts, but the other cards in the pile do not.

Canastas. A group of seven or more cards is a canasta. A canasta with no wild cards is a natural canasta, with a bonus of 500 points. One with wild cards is a mixed canasta, with a bonus of 300 points. You can keep adding cards to a canasta. A wild card added to a natural canasta turns it into a mixed one.

Going out. You go out when you use up all your cards. Your team must have a canasta first. You may put down all your cards, or put down all but one and discard it. Until your team has a canasta, you must always keep at least one card after you discard. Going out earns 100 points. If you put down your whole hand in a single turn, including a canasta, without having put down anything earlier and without adding to your partner’s groups, you earn 100 more. The deal also ends when the draw pile is empty and the player to move cannot, or does not want to, take the discard pile.

Scoring a deal. Each team adds up the points on its groups, plus its bonuses (canastas, red threes, going out), and subtracts the points on the cards still in both partners’ hands. The result is added to the team’s total, and it can be below zero.

How to use this page

Want to see a deal before you play one? Press Watch a narrated deal, above the board. The computer plays all four seats with every card face up, and each move is explained in words. Press Next and Back to step through it, Play to let it run by itself, or pick a part of the deal from Jump to. Back to playing returns to your own game, which watching does not change.
The line at the top of the board always tells you what to do next.
Your hand is one column for each rank, so cards that go together sit together. Click a card to select it (it lifts up and gets a gold outline), and click it again to unselect it.
To draw, press Draw a card or click the face-down draw pile.
To take the discard pile, press Take the discard pile or click the top card. Select the cards from your hand that go with the top card first (usually a pair). If you select nothing, the game uses the cheapest way it can, such as adding the top card to a group you already have. The game tells you why when a pile cannot be taken.
To put down groups, select the cards, then press Put down selected cards. The game sorts them into groups by rank, and gives each wild card to a group that needs one. You can put down several groups at once, which you need for your first groups.
To add cards to a group on the table (for example a lone wild card), select the cards and click the group, the small tile on your team’s side of the table. Each tile shows its rank, how many cards it has, how many are wild, and whether it is a canasta.
To discard, select one card and press Discard selected card.
Not sure what to do? Press Hint. New deal throws away the deal you are playing and deals again. Your team’s total stays the same.

Rule details

Cards: two 52-card decks and four jokers. Each player is dealt 11. If a card turned up to start the discard pile is a wild card or a red three, another card is turned on top of it, and the pile is frozen.
Card values: joker 50. Ace and 2: 20 each. King, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8: 10 each. 7, 6, 5, 4: 5 each. A black three left in a hand: 5. Red threes are bonus cards and are not counted this way.
Bonuses: natural canasta 500, mixed canasta 300, going out 100, going out in one turn 100 more, each red three 100 (all four: 800).
Your first groups: at least 15 points for a team with a total below 0, 50 from 0 to 1,495, 90 from 1,500 to 2,995, and 120 from 3,000. Your team’s total at the start of the deal decides.
Going out in one turn needs no minimum if you draw from the draw pile, put down your whole hand and a canasta at once, and your team has put down nothing before.
Black threes can be put down only as a group of three or four, as your very last cards, when your team has a canasta and you are going out.
When the draw pile is empty, play goes on only while players take the discard pile. A player must take it when the pile is not frozen against their team and the top card goes on a group their team already has. Otherwise taking it is a choice, and the deal ends when a player cannot or does not. If the last card of the draw pile is a red three, the red three goes on the table and the deal ends at once.
The game ends when a team reaches 5,000 points at the end of a deal. The higher total wins. If the totals are exactly equal, another deal is played.
What this practice game leaves out: asking your partner “may I go out?”, and the other numbers of players (two, three or six). Neither the computer players nor you can use them. The rules page lists where books and clubs differ.

Common beginner mistakes

Throwing away a card the next player can use. If the other team has a group of 9s and the pile is not frozen, any 9 you throw lets them take the whole pile. Look at the other team’s groups before you discard. A black three or a wild card is always safe to throw: nobody can take the pile while one is on top.
Adding a wild card to a natural canasta. It turns the canasta into a mixed one, and its bonus drops from 500 to 300.
Forgetting the minimum. Your first groups must be worth at least 50 points (at the start of a game). The Coach tells you what you have when you try with too little.
Taking a tiny pile and giving up a wild card for it. A pile of two or three cards gains little. Big piles are where the points are.
Keeping groups in your hand. Cards in your hand count against your team when the deal ends. Cards on the table score for it.
Going out when your partner holds many cards. They count against your team.

Simple strategy

Put down your first groups early. It unfreezes the pile for your team, so a single matching card is enough to take it.
Take the discard pile when it is big and you can use the top card. It is the best way to get cards.
Keep pairs in your hand: two cards of one rank let you take the pile when its top card matches.
Keep wild cards for finishing canastas. A natural canasta (500) is worth more than a mixed one (300), but a finished mixed canasta beats an unfinished natural one.
Discard a black three when the pile is big, to protect it.
Watch the other team’s groups and the red threes: a team with no groups loses points for its red threes.

The full rules page →

Coach ↓