
If one of these bonus cards was a wild card, it freezes the discard pile until that discard pile containing the wild card has been legitimately taken into a player's hand. If this first turned card is a red or black three, or a wild card, additional cards from the stock are turned over to the top of the discard pile until the top card of the discard pile is neither a three nor a wild card. The top card from the stock is turned over to form the discard pile. The remaining cards are left in a stock in the center of the table.


The dealer shuffles the pack, the player to the dealer's right cuts, and the dealer deals out 11 cards to each player. The deal then rotates clockwise after every hand.

Rather the true privilege is of first play and access by that player to any chance bonus card which might have been turned up, and subsequently covered, at the conclusion of the deal (e.g., if a red three or wild card had been turned up at the end of the deal, it must and would have been covered by a legitimate play card which itself could then be used by that first player in making the initial meld and taking the discard pile and thus giving that first player those bonus cards). The initial dealer is chosen by any common method, although it should be remembered that in Canasta there is no privilege or advantage to being the dealer. Canasta uses two complete decks of 52 playing cards (French Deck) plus the four Jokers. If partners are chosen they must sit opposite each other. Variations exist for two and three player games wherein each plays alone, and also for a six player game in two partnerships of three. The classic game is for four players in two partnerships. Rules for original Canasta Cards and deal The game quickly became a card-craze boom in the 1950s providing a sales avalanche of card sets, card trays and books about the subject. Reilly in 1949 and Michael Scully of Coronet magazine in 1953. In the 1940s the game quickly spread in myriad variations to Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, where its rules were further refined before being introduced to the United States in 1948, where it was then referred to as the Argentine Rummy game by Ottilie H. The game of Canasta was devised by Segundo Santos and Alberto Serrato in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939. It is the only partnership member of the family of Rummy games to achieve the status of a classic.

Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and "go out" by playing all cards in their hand. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Red-3 Joker 2 A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 Black-3Ĭanasta ( Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum.
