Here are the specific rules that we play with.

Canasta requires 2 complete decks of cards plus 4 Jokers making 108 cards in all.

Jokers and Two’s are wild cards and can be used to represent any other card in the deck.

The cards have the following points value.

Jokers 50

Two’s and Aces 20

Kings to Eights 10

Seven to Fours and Black Threes 5

Red Threes 100

Canasta can be played by 2-4 players

2 and 3 players – each plays for himself. 13 cards dealt

4 play as teams. 11 cards dealt

Two people playing together can add to each others cards on the table.

If dealt a Red Three it is placed on the table and another card is taken from the pack.

The aim of the game is to make a canasta, which consists of 7 cards of which 4 must be natural cards (eg all 10’s)

A canasta made up with 1-3 wild cards is worth 300 points

A natural canasta is worth 500 points.

Each player takes a card from the pack and then discards one from his hand.

If the top card of the discard pack helps to make a meld (3 cards or more) he takes all the cards in the discard pack

The first meld to be put down on the table has to add up to 50 points,

When the score reaches 1500, then the first meld on the table has to add up to 90 points till the score reaches 3000, then 120 points is needed in the first meld.

The game finishes when the first person or team reach 5000