The game of canasta originated in Uruguay in they year 1939 and from there it spread to Latin America and other parts of the world. Over the years canasta has been modified and changed, often given other names too and now remains among the popular card games in and around the American subcontinent. The objective of the game is to score a target number of points, by melding. Melding is to form sets of cards which are either in ascending series or have the same number sequence. A meld formed using 7 cards is called a canasta. Though canasta is meant to be a 4 player game, it can be played with 2, 3 or 6 players with some variations.
Canasta can be played in pairs as well, with two people from the same group sitting opposite to each other. One needs 2 packs of cards along with 4 jokers to play the game. The jokers and 2’s are termed wild cards and all the other cards are known as natural cards. In canasta, where the melds usually contain 3 cards should not be formed using more than one wild card. To understand the intricacies and allowable melds in canasta, one needs to play the game and pick up the skills over time.
In canasta, the joker is worth 50 points, followed by the 2’s and the ace, each worth 20 points. Cards from king to 8 are worth 10 points each and those from 7 to 4 are worth 5 points. The black 3’s are worth 5 points while the red 3’s are additional cards in the game. They add an extra 100 points each if a meld is made or subtract 100 each from your score if a meld is not made. The canasta can be formed using all natural cards which is called pure or natural canasta, or it can be formed using one or two wild cards and called dirty or mixed canasta.
In canasta, each player is given a hand of cards and the remaining cards are split into two sets, one faced down on the table called stock and the other with a face-up called the discard pile. In the game of canasta, the player to the left of the dealer starts by picking a card from the stock and drop a called the discard pile. A player exits from the game when he has made the canasta with all the cards he has or makes the canasta from all but one card which he discards. Another way to finish a game is when the stack is depleted of cards and then score is calculated based on the cards in each player’s hand.
Other popular versions of canasta are classic canasta, American canasta, Italian canasta and so on. The modern American canasta is the most common form among all these and is what is played in most casinos till date. Canasta can be played online or downloaded from the web, to try out your hand at it before ones goes professional.
This article was written by Rupal.
Tags: canasta, Card games, Card Games Online, Online, online casino