You can order canasta equipment
from amazon.com.

Bicycle Canasta Playing Cards

Canasta score sheet is a document used to track score of both competitors. At the end of game the score sheet helps judges to find out a winner. If you are also a canasta lover and need to create canasta score sheet yourself on personal computer, then you are here at best place. Apr 11, 2020 Useful tips for creating Canasta score sheet: As a player, your key goal is to defeat the opponents by making as many points as you can. As the score keeper, you will enter the score of each opponent at various points of the game. Canasta Playing Cards Game Set That Includes 2 Deck of Canasta Cards with Point Values, a Revolving Tray Holder, and 50 Sheet Score Pad by All7s 4.6 out of 5 stars 480 $23.94 $ 23. CANASTAS: a CANASTA IS A MELDED SET OF 7 OR MORE CARDS. It is natural when it is wholly formed of all natural cards A mixed canasta consist of any canasta containing wild cards, which cannot exceed 3 wild cards. The object of the game is to make the most canastas possible thereby scoring the highest points. Mar 29, 2019 Points of both game contestants are recorded in canasta score sheet to determine the right winner of game at the end without any confusion. As the player of canasta, your major concern is to score more points to beat your opponent. Each player has 15 cards in hand to kick off the game. They score points by making melds.

A range of Card Trays is also available.

General Terminology: Cards; Deal and Play; Melds and Canastas
Classic Canasta: Deal; Melds; Initial Meld; Play; Threes; Frozen Discard Pile; End of the hand; Scoring; Strategy; Variations
Modern American Canasta: Deal; Melds; Play; Threes; Initial Meld; End of the Play; Special Hands; Scoring; Variations / Table Rules

Introduction

The game of Canasta is said to have originated in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1939 (see for example this archive copy of Philip E Orbanes' article The Canasta Story). From there it spread to Argentina, the USA and throughout the world. It was extremely fashionable in the 1950's, threatening for a while to displace Contract Bridge as the premier card game.

The rules were standardised in North America around 1950, and it was this version of the game, which will be called Classic Canasta on this page, that gained worldwide popularity. In many countries, Classic Canasta is still played in more or less its original form, sometimes alongside a number of variations. In North America, however, some players have continued to develop the game, and these groups now favour a different version, called Modern American Canasta on this page.

Canasta is generally agreed to be best for four players, playing in partnerships. However, there are playable versions for two and three players, which are given later on this page.

General Rules and Terminology

To avoid repetition, this section describes the terms and processes that are common to most or all versions of Canasta.

The Cards

Canasta is normally played with two standard 52 card packs plus four jokers (two from each pack), making 108 cards in all. They have standard point values as follows:

Jokers	. . .	50 points each
A, 2	. . .	20 points each
K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8	. . .	10 points each
7, 6, 5, 4	. . .	5 points each

The cards A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 are called natural cards. All of the deuces (twos) and jokers are wild cards. With some restrictions, wild cards can be used during the game as substitutes for a natural card of any rank.

The threes have special functions and values, depending on which variation of Canasta is being played.

The Deal and Play

Each player is dealt a hand of cards, and in the centre of the table is a face-down pile of cards called the stock and a face-up pile of cards called the discard pile. The player to the left of the dealer plays first, and then the turn to play passes clockwise. A basic turn consists of drawing the top card of the stock, adding it to your hand without showing it to the other players, and discarding one card from your hand face up on top of the discard pile.

After drawing, but before discarding, you may sometimes be able to play some cards from your hand face up on the table. To play cards to the table in this way is known as melding, and the sets of cards so played are melds. These melded cards remain face up on the table until the end of the play.

The play ends when a player goes out, i.e. disposes of all the cards in his or her hand. You are only allowed to go out after your team has fulfilled certain conditions, which vary according to the type of canasta played but always include completing at least one seven-card meld or 'canasta' (see below). Having achieved this, you can go out by melding all but one of the cards in your hand and discarding this last card. In many versions of Canasta you can also go out by melding your whole hand, leaving no discard. The game can also end if the stock pile runs out of cards: if a player who wishes to draw from the stock is unable to do so, because there are no cards left there, the play ends immediately and the hand is scored.

Under certain conditions, instead of drawing from the stock, you are permitted to take the whole of the discard pile. In order to do this, you must be able to meld the top discard, without needing any of the other cards in the discard pile to make your meld valid. The procedure in this case is:

Place the necessary cards from your hand face up on the table, and add the top card of the discard pile to them to form a valid meld or melds.
Take all the remaining cards of the discard pile and add them to your hand.
If you wish, make further melds from the cards you now have in your hand.
Discard one card face up on the discard pile to end your turn.

Melds and Canastas

The object of the game is to score points by melding cards. A valid meld consists of three or more cards of the same natural rank (any rank from four up to ace), such as three kings, six fives, etc. When playing with partners, melds belong to a partnership, not to an individual player. They are kept face up in front of one of the partners. Typically, a partnership will have several melds, each of a different rank. You can add further cards of the appropriate rank to any of your side's melds, whether begun by yourself or by your partner, but you can never add cards to an opponent's meld.

Wild cards (jokers and twos) can normally be used in melds as substitutes for cards of the appropriate rank. For example Q-Q-Q-2 or 8-8-8-8-8-2-joker would be valid melds. There are, however, restrictions on using wild cards, which vary according to the type of Canasta being played.

Threes cannot be melded in the normal way. They have special functions, which are different depending on whether you play classic or modern American canasta.

A meld of seven cards is called a canasta. If all of the cards in it are natural, it is called a natural or pure or clean or red canasta; the cards are squared up and a red card is placed on top. If it includes one or more wild cards it is called a mixed or dirty or black canasta; it is squared up with a natural black card on top, or one of the wild cards in it is placed at right-angles, to show that it is mixed.

In some versions of Canasta you may create a meld of more than seven cards, simply by continuing to add more cards of the same rank to an already complete canasta. If it is allowed, a meld of eight or more cards is still regarded as a canasta. If any wild cards are added to a previously pure (red) canasta, it thereby becomes mixed (black).

For each partnership, the first turn during a hand when they put down one or more melds is called their initial meld. When making the initial meld for your partnership, you must meet a certain minimum count requirement, in terms of the total value of cards that you put down. You are allowed to count several separate melds laid down at the same time in order to meet this requirement. In some versions (including Modern American), the initial meld must be made entirely from your hand; in others (including Classic) you are allowed to use the top card of the discard pile along with cards from your hand to satisfy the minimum count, before picking up the remainder of the pile.

The initial meld requirement applies to a partnership, not to an individual player. Therefore, after either you or your partner have made a meld that meets the requirement, both of you can meld freely

Canasta Points Sheet