Rules

How to play Canasta

Updated October 2026 · 4 players in 2 teams (versions for 2, 3 and 6) · About 1 hour

Canasta is a card game for four players in two teams. You and your partner put down groups of cards of the same rank, such as three kings, and try to build a group of seven or more cards, called a canasta. Every turn you take a card, put down what you can, and discard one card. The first team to reach 5,000 points wins. It began in Uruguay in 1939 and was one of the most popular card games in the United States in the early 1950s.

What you are trying to do

Your team scores by putting cards on the table in groups. A group is three or more cards of the same rank, such as three kings or five 8s. Suits do not matter. Each card on the table is worth points, and a group of seven or more cards, a canasta, earns a large bonus on top. Cards still in your hands when the deal ends count against your team. A deal is one dealing of the cards and everything played with it. A game is played over several deals, and the team whose total reaches 5,000 points first wins.

You never score alone. Your team has one set of groups on the table, and you and your partner both add to it. You can never add cards to the other team’s groups.

The cards

You need two standard 52-card decks and four jokers, shuffled together as one: 108 cards. With two decks, every card exists twice, so two cards can look exactly alike, such as two 9 of hearts. The cards fall into four kinds:

• Natural cards are the cards from 4 up to ace (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace). Groups are built from them.
• Wild cards are the 2s and the jokers: twelve cards in all. A wild card stands in for a natural card of any rank, with limits (see “A turn”).
• Red threes (3♥ and 3♦) are bonus cards. They are not played in groups. When you are dealt or draw one, you put it face up on the table in front of your team at once and draw another card in its place. Each one is worth 100 points to your team, and all four are worth 800. But if your team has put down no groups at all when the deal ends, its red threes count against it instead.
• Black threes (3♠ and 3♣) cannot go in groups, except in one case when you go out. They are for discarding: a black three on top of the discard pile stops the next player from taking the pile.

Every card has a point value, which is what it scores in a group and what it costs you if it is left in your hand:

How a deal starts

Choose the first dealer any fair way. After each deal, the dealing passes to the left. Partners sit across from each other, so the four players are in two teams.

1. Deal 11 cards to each player, one at a time.
2. Put the rest face down in the middle as the draw pile. Turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile.
3. If that card is a wild card or a red three, turn another card on top of it, and keep going until the top card is neither. The wild card or red three stays in the pile and freezes it (see “The discard pile”). A black three may stay on top.
4. Everyone puts any red threes in their hand face up in front of their team, and takes the same number of cards from the draw pile in their place. If a replacement is a red three too, do the same again.

The player to the dealer’s left goes first, and play goes clockwise. At a real table the discard pile is kept in a neat stack, so only the top card shows.

A turn

On your turn you do three things, in this order.

1. Take a card. Draw the top card of the draw pile, or take the whole discard pile (the rules are in the next section). If you draw a red three, put it on the table and draw again.
2. Put down groups, and add cards to your team’s groups, if you can. You may put down as many as you like, in any order, or none. Once cards are on the table they stay there until the deal ends. The first time your team puts cards down in a deal, they must be worth a minimum number of points (see “Your first groups”).
3. Discard one card from your hand, face up on top of the discard pile. That ends your turn.

What counts as a group

• A group is three or more cards of the same rank, such as 9♥ 9♠ 9♦. There is no limit on how big it can grow.
• It must have at least two natural cards. Wild cards cannot make a group on their own.
• It can have at most three wild cards. Once a group has three, no more can be added to it.
• Your team has one group for each rank. If you put down more cards of a rank your team already has, they are added to that group. The other team can have its own group of the same rank.
• Threes are not natural cards and cannot be put in a group, except black threes when going out.

The discard pile

Instead of drawing, you may take the whole discard pile, but only if you can use the top card right away. This is the heart of the game, because a big pile is a lot of cards.

When the pile is not frozen

You can take it in either of two ways:

• Put the top card in a new group with two cards from your hand that match it: two natural cards of that rank, or one natural card and one wild card.
• Add the top card to a group your team already has. You need nothing from your hand.

Show the cards from your hand first and put the group on the table. Then pick up the rest of the pile and add it to your hand. You can now put down more groups or add cards, using the cards from the pile too, and then you discard as usual. The discard pile is now empty, and your discard starts a new one.

You can never take the pile when the top card is a wild card or a black three. A black three on top blocks the next player only. It does not freeze the pile: once another card is put on top of it, the pile can be taken again.

When the pile is frozen

A pile is frozen in three cases:

• It has a wild card in it. A player who discards a wild card turns it sideways, so it stays visible after more cards cover it.
• A red three was turned up to start the pile.
• Your team has not yet put down its first groups. This freezes the pile against your team only. Against the other team it may be open.

When the pile is frozen against you, you can take it only if you hold two natural cards of the same rank as the top card and put them down with it as a group. Wild cards do not count. A group of that rank on your team’s table does not help you: you still need the two natural cards in your hand. A pile stays frozen until someone takes it. A red three that started the pile goes on the table when the pile is taken, and you do not draw a replacement for it.

Your first groups

The first time your team puts cards on the table in a deal, the groups you put down together must be worth a minimum number of points. These are your team’s first groups. The minimum depends on your team’s game total at the start of the deal:

• Only the points on the cards count. Bonuses, such as red threes and canastas, do not. Wild cards count their own points.
• You may put down several groups at once to reach the number.
• After you or your partner have put down the first groups, both of you may put down any valid group, with no minimum.
• The other team has to do the same, so each team’s first groups are worth at least its own minimum.
• If you take the discard pile to put down your first groups, the top card counts toward the minimum, but the other cards in the pile do not. They can still be put down after you have taken the pile.
• One exception: if you draw from the draw pile and can put down your whole hand, including a canasta, you may do it with no minimum, and you go out. See “Going out”.

Canastas

A group of seven or more cards is a canasta. Because a group needs at least two natural cards and can have at most three wild cards, a canasta has at least four natural cards. There are two kinds:

• A natural canasta has no wild cards. It earns a bonus of 500 points.
• A mixed canasta has one to three wild cards. It earns a bonus of 300 points.

You can keep adding cards to a canasta. Natural cards add their points and change nothing else. A wild card added to a natural canasta turns it into a mixed one, so its bonus drops from 500 to 300. The card values of the cards in a canasta count as well as the bonus: a natural canasta of seven kings is worth 500 for the bonus and 70 for the kings, 570 in all.

Going out

You go out when you get rid of all your cards. The deal ends the moment someone does. The rules:

• Your team needs a canasta, either put down earlier or finished on the same turn.
• You may put down all your cards, or put down all but one and discard it. If you put down everything, you do not need to discard.
• Until your team has a canasta, you must keep at least one card in your hand after your discard. You may not put down your whole hand, or all but one card.
• Black threes can be put down in one case: as a group of three or four, as your last cards, on a turn when you go out. They count 5 points each, and no wild card may be in the group.
• Going out earns 100 points.
• Going out in one turn earns 100 more (200 in all). You earn it when your whole hand goes down in one turn, including a canasta, and you had put down nothing earlier and add nothing to your partner’s groups. If you draw from the draw pile, you do not need the minimum for your first groups. If you take the discard pile, you do.
• Before going out, you may ask your partner “May I go out?” This is optional, and the answer, yes or no, binds you. Ask right after you take your card (or the pile), before you put anything else down. Going out may not be best if your partner still holds many cards, because the cards left in your partner’s hand count against your team.

When the draw pile runs out. The deal can also end without anyone going out. If a player draws the last card and it is a red three, it goes on the table, and the deal ends at once: that player may not put down or discard anything. Otherwise play goes on with no draw pile, as long as each player in turn takes 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. As soon as a player cannot take the pile, or chooses not to, the deal ends, and nobody gets the going-out bonus.

Scoring

When the deal ends, each team adds up its score for the deal:

• Add the points on every card your team put down, including the cards in canastas.
• Add the bonuses.
• Subtract the points on all the cards still in both partners’ hands. The team that went out is not spared: its partner’s cards count too.
• If your team put down no groups at all, each red three counts minus 100 instead (minus 800 for all four).

Winning the game

Each team’s deal score is added to its total. A total can go below zero. When a team’s total reaches 5,000 at the end of a deal, the game is over, and the team with the higher total wins. If both teams pass 5,000 in the same deal, the higher total wins even if it is the team that was behind. If the totals are exactly equal, play another deal. The margin of victory is the difference between the totals.

Practice a game of Canasta

Canasta has more rules than most card games, and most of them are easy to read and hard to use: when is a pile worth taking, which card is safe to throw, when to put down your first groups. The practice game puts you at the table with a computer partner against two computer players, one deal at a time, with a running total, a coach that explains each idea before you meet it, and a Hint button. Or watch a narrated deal first, with every hand face up and each move explained.

The practice game follows these rules, with these differences:

• It is the four-player game only.
• You cannot ask your partner “May I go out?” The computer players do not ask either.
• The game puts your selected cards into groups for you, and refuses a move that breaks a rule, telling you why.
• It shows the discard pile as its top card and a count of how many cards are under it, as a squared-up pile would at a real table.

Three things beginners get wrong

Throwing away a card the next player can use

If the other team has a group of 9s and the discard pile is not frozen, any 9 you throw lets the next player add it to that group and take the whole pile. Before you discard, look at the other team’s groups. Black threes and wild cards are always safe to throw, because nobody can take the pile while one is on top. A wild card also freezes the pile, but it is a card worth keeping, so use it as a discard only when it protects a big pile.

Adding a wild card to a natural canasta

A natural canasta is worth 500 points, and a mixed one 300. If you add a wild card to a natural canasta, you lose 200 points of bonus. Keep your wild cards for finishing groups that need them. A natural canasta is the better prize, but a finished mixed canasta is worth more than a natural one you never complete.

Keeping cards in your hand

Cards in your hand count against your team when the deal ends, and the other team can go out at any time. Put down groups and add to your team’s groups when you can. Keep a pair or two, though: with two cards of a rank, you can take the pile when that rank is on top.

Questions people ask

Can I add cards to the other team’s groups?

No. You can only add to your own team’s groups. Both teams may have a group of the same rank.

Do suits matter?

No, except that threes are red or black. A group is any cards of the same rank.

Why can’t I take the discard pile?

Check these in order. Is the top card a wild card or a black three? Then nobody can take it. Is the pile frozen against your team (a wild card in it, a red three that started it, or your team has not put down its first groups)? Then you need two natural cards of the top card’s rank in your hand. Otherwise you need a group of that rank on your team’s table, or two natural cards, or one natural card and one wild card, in your hand. And if your team has not put down its first groups, the cards you put down with the top card must reach the minimum.

Can I look through the discard pile?

Not at a real table: it is kept in a neat stack, so only the top card shows. (The Bicycle rule book lets a player look through it once, on their first turn.) Good players remember what was thrown.

Is Canasta the same as Rummy?

It is in the same family: you collect matching cards and take the discard pile. But Canasta groups are always of one rank, never runs in one suit, and the wild cards, the frozen pile and the canasta bonus make it a different game. If you like it, see Rummy 500 or Gin Rummy.

Other versions, and where the rule books differ

This page gives the classic game as written in the Bicycle rule book, on Pagat.com and on Wikipedia. Those three agree on almost everything. Where they differ, or where a popular version differs, this is what you may meet:

Modern American Canasta, played in many clubs in the United States, also has no starting card for the discard pile, a group never holds more than seven cards, sevens and aces have special rules, and a team that puts down its first groups takes extra cards. If you are joining a club, ask which version it plays.

The numbers of players in the classic game:

With two players, you draw two cards on each turn (but still discard one), and you need two canastas to go out. With three, you also draw two cards, and the first player to take the discard pile plays alone against the other two. Six players use three decks, two canastas are needed to go out, and there are two teams of three or three teams of two.

• Black threes — Pagat.com and Wikipedia say a black three only blocks the next player. The Bicycle rule book also says a black three freezes the pile. This page and the practice game follow Pagat.com and Wikipedia.
• The first card of the discard pile — Pagat.com and Wikipedia cover a wild card or a red three with another card, and leave a black three. The Bicycle rule book covers any three too. This page follows Pagat.com.
• Taking the pile when the draw pile is empty — Pagat.com and Bicycle say you must take it only if the top card goes on a group your team has and the pile is not frozen. Wikipedia says a player must take it whenever that is allowed. This page follows Pagat.com and Bicycle.
• One card in hand — the Bicycle rule book does not let a player with one card take a pile of one card. Pagat.com has no such rule, and neither does this page.
• When red threes go down — Pagat.com and Wikipedia say at once, and the Bicycle rule book says on your first turn. It makes no difference to play.
• Extras some groups add — groups made only of wild cards, runs of cards in one suit (a game called Samba), a penalty for asking “May I go out?” and then being unable to, a rule that a group may never hold more wild cards than natural cards (used in some of Hoyle’s rule sets and in Viennese Canasta), and a rule that a pile may only be taken with a natural pair. Agree on such rules before you start.

If you like taking the discard pile, try Rummy 500, or practice a game of Rummy 500 against the computer.