Canasta FAQ

Canasta is a rummy-family card game played with two standard decks and four Jokers — 108 cards. Players draw and discard, lay down melds of three or more cards of the same rank, and try to build seven-card melds called canastas. Wild 2s and Jokers can stand in for other cards, and the discard pile can be taken as a whole, which makes the game as much about the pile as the hand.

Yes. playcanasta.app is completely free and runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to buy, download or install, and there are no premium tiers or paywalls. Open the page, press Play, and a hand is dealt against the computer.

No. The game is the website — a 100% browser-based build with no app-store download and no sign-up. Your stats and match position are saved locally in your browser, so there is no login to manage.

Canasta was invented in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939 and spread to Argentina and then the United States, where it became a national craze in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The name is Spanish for "basket", after the tray that held the discards. It belongs to the rummy family of games.

It follows the standard rules — 108 cards, wild 2s and Jokers, red threes, a frozen pile and canasta bonuses — but as a two-player game against the computer, so there is no partner and you draw two cards a turn. Black-three melds are left out to keep hands quick.

Each player gets 15 cards. On your turn draw two cards from the stock or take the discard pile, then meld sets of three or more cards of one rank if you want, and finish by discarding one card. Wild cards (2s and Jokers) can join melds as long as naturals outnumber them. A seven-card meld is a canasta and earns a bonus. Once you have a canasta you can go out to end the hand. Matches are played to 5,000 points.

A frozen pile is one you can only take with two natural cards of the top card’s rank from your hand — wilds and existing melds do not help. The pile freezes when a wild card is discarded onto it or turned up at the start, and it is always frozen for a side that has not yet made its first meld. Once someone takes the pile it thaws.

Twos and Jokers are wild. A meld can hold up to three wild cards, but it must always contain more natural cards than wild cards. A meld of seven or more cards with no wilds is a natural canasta; with wilds it is a mixed canasta. Wilds cannot be added to a finished canasta, and a meld of only wilds is not allowed.

A red three is set aside automatically as soon as you are dealt or draw it, you take a replacement card, and it scores 100 points (800 for all four) as long as your side has melded. A black three cannot be melded in this version; it is an ordinary discard that blocks the next player from taking the pile.

At the end of a hand you score the card values in your melds (Jokers 50, 2s and Aces 20, 8 to King 10, 4 to 7 five), plus 500 for each natural canasta and 300 for each mixed canasta, plus red-three points, plus 100 for going out (200 if concealed), minus the value of cards left in your hand. Scores accumulate across hands until someone reaches 5,000.

It depends on your total score: 50 points if you are between 0 and 1,495, 90 points from 1,500 to 2,995, 120 points from 3,000, and just 15 if your score is negative. Points are counted from card values only; bonuses do not count. You can lay down several melds in one turn to reach the minimum.

No. You must have at least one completed canasta before you can meld or discard your last card. The game will not let you leave yourself with fewer than two cards until you have one.

Tap cards to select them, then use Meld, Discard, Draw, Take pile and Undo. You can also tap the stock to draw and the discard pile to take it, or tap a meld chip to add the selected cards to it. On the keyboard: D draws, T takes the pile, F melds, X discards, U undoes, S sorts your hand and M toggles sound.

Two. This is a two-player game, so each turn you draw two cards from the stock (replacing any red three) or take the whole discard pile, and then discard one card.

A hand ends when a side goes out, or when the stock is empty and the next player cannot take the discard pile. Cards left in hands are then subtracted from each side’s score and the next hand is dealt, with the starting player alternating.

Undo takes back the melds you made this turn, and if you took the discard pile it puts the pile back so you can draw from the stock instead. It is the safe way to test whether a set of melds reaches the first-meld minimum. It cannot undo a discard.

Watch the pile. The computer takes it whenever it can use the top card and clear its first-meld minimum, so avoid discarding ranks it has melded. Save wild cards for canastas, keep pairs so more pile cards are takeable, and go out promptly once you are ahead so the computer cannot build.

A natural canasta is worth 500 against 300 for a mixed one, and it keeps your wild cards free for other melds. It is usually worth building slowly with naturals when the opponent is not close to going out, and worth finishing with a wild when they are.

The win streak counts consecutive matches won. Losing a match, or starting a new match before finishing the current one, resets it to zero. Your longest streak is kept as a separate best.

Your match score, hand number, matches won, best hand, canastas built and win streak are saved locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no account. A hand that is in progress is not saved if you close the tab; when you come back you continue the match from the start of that hand. A different device or cleared site data looks like a fresh start.

Yes. The layout is built for portrait phones: tap cards to select them, then tap Meld, Discard, Draw or Take pile. Your hand, melds and the piles fit on one screen and a new match starts instantly with no page reload.

The game needs a connection to load the page the first time. After that, some browsers may keep the tab playable without a network, but there is no dedicated offline app or installer.

Open the stats panel from the chart icon on the table and use Reset progress, then confirm with the second tap. That clears your match position, matches won, best scores, canastas built and streaks on this browser. It cannot be undone.

Any current browser with JavaScript: Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on desktop, plus their mobile versions. If cards do not respond, update the browser, allow scripts for this site, and reload.