Canasta

About Canasta

Canasta is the great partnership melding game of the last century, played here with Widow Hale across the table against the taproom’s pair: two decks and four jokers, melds built rank by rank, and the whole war fought over the discard pile. First side to three thousand takes the match. Play solo or live at the open tables — four chairs, gathered and cast-filled — free in your browser, no ads, no sign-up.

How to play

Draw a card or take the whole pile, meld what you will, and discard one. A meld is three or more of a rank — at least two natural, at most three wild — and your side’s first melds of a hand must arrive together worth fifty points (ninety once you hold fifteen hundred). Take the pile only by melding its top card at once; a wild discarded onto it freezes it for everyone, and frozen it yields only to a natural pair from the hand. Seven cards deep a meld becomes a canasta — five hundred natural, three hundred mixed — and your side needs one before anyone may go out. Red threes lay themselves for a hundred each; black threes guard the pile for a turn. When a hand ends, melds count for you and cards left in hands count against.

Controls

• Draw / Take the pileBegin your turn
• Tap the meld chipsLay your cards
• Tap a card, then DiscardEnd your turn

Tips

The pile is the game: feed it nothing your enemies have melded, and freeze it when it grows rich under their standing melds. Hold pairs — they take frozen piles and start melds without wilds. Do not race to go out with a thin hand; a closed canasta and a fat pile beat a hundred-point bonus every time.