How To Play Canasta (4 Player)

There are different variations to the card game Canasta, this video will cover how to play with 4 players divided into 2 teams.

This video will start by teaching you the general concepts of Canasta, and is followed by the more detailed features of the game. The video concludes with an example involving all the lessons learned about Canasta. This tutorial is perfect for beginning players and experienced players that need a refresher.

After watching, you will know the basics on how to play the card game Canasta. All that is left to do is grab some friends and start playing!

This Canasta tutorial will cover the following topics:

- The deal

- The objective

- Game play

- Keeping score

- Rules Review

- An example round

Please leave a comment below if you need any additional information about the card game Canasta, if you have any questions about the game, or if any aspect of the game was not clear in the video.

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[greenspanwellnesscentertes]

I would play for hours and hours with my grandparents down in Ft. Lauderdale Florida in the 70s... find memories

[jvaughnduggan]

Finally! A clear and comprehensive explanation of how to play Canasta. Thank you!

[miweneia]

wish I had friends to play this with, looks like a fun time

[larsw.]

Me and the boys always used to play this in a Free-for-all, but with some slight variation. Your could meld a wild card canasta which was worth 1000 points, but it had to be melded into a canasta straight away (no stacking). And whenever you had a red 3, and you'd lose a round, the 100 points would be deducted from your score instead of added.
Also you weren't allowed to grab the discard pile until you already had placed a meld. Which would sometimes lead to this massive stack cards and everyone being scared shitless not to discard a card the next guy could meld.

[kd]

My parents played in the 70s with other couples. They had fun. I think I’ll give it a try.

[lorenchaidez]

Have always wanted to learn how to play - This is the clearest instructional video I've seen yet - thanks !

[spilhaus]

Excellent, fast tutorial. My Once-A-Month Cards group is looking for a new game. Now we've got one. Thank You!

[RigoSheen]

ziemlich gut erklärt, hab das als kind mal gekonnt aber 18 jahre nicht mehr gespielt. jetzt kann ich es endlich wieder

[backyard]

I'm Vietnamese, and I've played so many card games that build melds like Phỏm so this is easy to understand

[KhoiNguyenk-ksqk]

Variant: This game can play with 2 to 3 players
- The dealer deal 15 cards for each player (instead of 11 in team play) one card at a time.
- Play like the original rule but the different is you draw 2 card (instead of 1 in team play) from the deck on your turn.
- Each player will receive point base on their meld and hand.
Goal variant: You can play up to 15k (some canasta variant has shown their rule in South America).

[rjltrevisan]

It's very similar to two games we play a lot here in Brazil: Buraco and Tranca.

[fromprimroselane]

Great explanation. İ play slightly different rules where you need two melds to finish, eg 2 Clean or a Clean and a Dirty.

[tomripley]

Thanks for the upload. I now know how to play canasta in a good way. One of the best card games in my opinion.

[PalashBansal]

very nice explanation for such game with full of rules and exceptional cards. We play this game much different here in India.

[mattikaki]

Really interesting. The most amazing is that all the cards are visible on the table.

[mrbrains]

Nice tutorial. Having studied the classic rules, i would like to suggest a few improvements. First the rule about valid melds: the classis rule states that a meld must contain at least two natural cards and not more then three wildcards. So 9-9-2-2-2 is a valid meld (by the way the only kind of meld that may contain more wilds then naturals). Second: if a red three is flipped over as the first upcard, the discard pile is frozen. Third: if the first upcard is a black three, there is no obligation to flip over another card (this only applies to wildcards and red threes).

[carstenmuller]

Almost perfect. Only it was not well explained how to pick up from the frozen discard pile. I had to look another video for that ...

[HUNRockman]

Not bad, but there's some changes for Canasta:
-With 2-4 players, it also playable with 6 Jokers(not only with 4).
-With 5-6 players, needs 3 decks(plus with 6/9 Jokers.
--The amount of Jokers depends on the type of the decks(For example: If you use 2/3 USPC decks, it has 4/6 Jokers. If you use 2/3 Cartamundi or Piatnik decks, it has 6/9 Jokers).
-0:45 In some versions, it deals 12, 13, 14, or 15 cards to all players.

[janedoe-fdpd]

Is there a good app game of Canasta to learn with? as there seems to be a verity of ways to play.

[michaelalbrecht]

Thank you, this was an informative video.