Canasta
Canasta (from Spanish canasta : basket) is a card game for four people in two partnerships; there are also variants for two, three, five or six people.
According to Philip E. Orbanes' description in The Canasta Story , Canasta was developed in 1939 by the lawyer Segundo Santos and his bridge partner at the Jockey Club in Montevideo , the architect Alberto Serrato. It soon spread through Uruguay and Argentina in the early 1940s. Josefina Artayeta de Viel brought the game to New York, via the USA the game made it to Great Britain and the European continent. In the 1950s, Canasta was the most commonly played card game alongside bridge.
John R. Crawford and Oswald Jacoby , two excellent bridge and backgammon players, wrote widely read works on game strategy. To promote their books, they challenged the Great Canasta Challenge Match in 1950 , in which they defeated Sam Fry and Theodore Lightner.
Countless variants were created within a few years, the best-known variant is Samba-Canasta with three packages. The following description is based on the Official Canasta Laws , which the prestigious New York Regency Whist Club drafted together with game experts from South America in 1949/51 and published by the National Canasta Laws Commissions of the USA and Argentina.
Rules of the game according to the Official Canasta Laws of the Regency Whist Club New York
The goal
The aim of the game is to score as many points as possible by reporting cards of the same rank, especially so-called canasta . A game of Canasta is generally made up of several individual games and ends as soon as one party reaches 5,000 or more points. The party with the lower number of points pays the winning party the amount corresponding to the point difference.
The preparations
Before the start of a game, the partnerships are drawn; each player draws a card. The two high cards form a team against the two low cards.
Should draw two or more players of equal cards, the famous Bridge of her rank the true colors , so cross or club (♣) is considered the lowest color, followed by diamonds ( ♦ ), heart ( ♥ ) and spades (♠).
The player with the highest card is forehand in the first game; his partner sits opposite; his neighbor on the right shares the cards for the first game. Sharing changes clockwise after each game.
The dealer mixes, lets take off and gives; each player receives eleven cards. The remaining cards form the shock or Talon and face down in a stack in the center of the table. The top card of the talon is revealed and placed next to it. If this card is a joker, a two, a red or black three, another card is placed on top of it until a value from four to ace is available.
The red threesomes
If a player receives a red three while dividing or buying a pile, he places it face up in front of him and takes a replacement card from the pile. No replacement card will be drawn for a red three that is purchased with the package (see Buying the Package ) .
When a game is settled, each red threesome counts 100 credit points if the party has reported cards, or 100 minus points if the party was unable to make an initial report. If a party has all four red threesomes, these are rated with a total of 800 points (plus or minus, depending on). However, if someone keeps a red three in hand, 500 points will be deducted at the end of the game, provided that the player had at least one turn.
The cards and their evaluation
Canasta is played with 108 French playing cards (two 52 cards plus four jokers ). The cards are rated as follows:
| Real jokers | 50 points |
| Aces, twos | 20 points |
| Kings, queens, jacks, tens, nines, eights | 10 points |
| Sevens, sixes, fives, fours, black threes (♠ 3, ♣ 3) | 5 points |
The red threes ( ♥ 3, ♦ 3) are assessed separately ( see above ).
Jokers and twos are called wild cards, the red threes are bonus cards , black threes are called blocked cards , and cards with the values four to ace are called natural cards.
For the Canasta game there are also special cards with printed point values.
The game
When it is a player's turn, he begins his game by either picking up the top card from the pile or the top card of the discard pile, the so-called package , in Spanish Pozo (see Buying the package ). Then he may report cards (observing the rules below) and he ends his game by laying down a card, ie laying it face up on top of the package. NB : When you put it down, make sure that only the top card is visible.
The reporting
At Canasta only reports from cards of the same rank are allowed: A report must consist of at least three cards; it must contain at least two natural cards and a maximum of three wild cards.
A meld of seven cards of the same rank is called a canasta . If a canasta contains wild cards, it is a mixed canasta and is rated with 300 points. If the canasta consists of seven natural cards, it is a pure canasta that is awarded 500 points.
A player can add more cards to his own messages and those of his partner, but you cannot add cards to messages from the opposing party.
A registered card may no longer be taken back into the hand; it is also not permitted to move wild cards from one report to another.
The first message
The first time the cards are shown, they must reach a certain minimum value. This limit depends on the status of the game.
| Points of the party | Limit for the first report |
| below 0 points | 15 points |
| 0 to 1495 points | 50 points |
| 1500 to 2995 points | 90 points |
| 3000 to 4995 points | 120 points |
Reward points for red threesomes or canastas (see the settlement of a game ) do not count towards the limit for the first display.
Buying the package
If a player has two cards of the same value as the top card of the discard pile in his hand (a real pair ), he may report these together with the top card of the package and then add the remaining cards of the discard pile to his hand.
If his party has not yet made an initial report, the player may have to report further cards before he picks up the remaining cards in the package in order to reach the limit for the first display.
If his party has already made its first report and the package is not frozen (see Blocking and Freezing the Package ), a player may buy the package even if he has the top card together with a card of the same rank from his hand and a wild card Card reports ( fake pair ), or the top card can be attached to an existing report.
A player with only one card in hand may not buy the package if it contains only one card.
NB : It is not allowed to look through the discard pile and then decide whether or not to buy the package. As soon as a player touches the top card of the package or talon, his decision is irrevocable.
The locking and freezing of the package
If a player discards a black three or a wild card, the next player is not allowed to buy the package, it is blocked .
If the discard pile contains a wild card or a red threesome, which can happen when dividing, the package is frozen . To indicate that the package is frozen, the first wild card or a red threesome is placed across the package when sharing.
If the package is frozen, a player may only buy the discard pile if he has two natural cards of the rank of the top card of the package in his hand and reports these together with the top card of the package (see Buying the Package ).
Making out
If his party has already formed at least one canasta, a player may decide by reporting all cards still in hand. A player who matters may or may not discard a card.
If a player wants to go out, he can ask his partner: "May I go out?" The partner's answer is then binding.
Black threesomes may only be reported in the course of negotiating; however, you cannot combine them with wild cards.
The party concerned writes a bonus of 100 points for making it out.
The undercover act
If a player succeeds in forming a canasta in his hand and his hand completely in one move in his own reports, i. H. without prior notification, this will be rewarded with 200 points instead of 100 points for making out. In the case of hidden identification, the regulation regarding the limit for the first report does not apply.
If a player buys the package and turns it off in the same turn without having reported beforehand or having applied to his partner's reports, this is also considered to be undercover. If this is the first report, however, the regulation regarding the limit for the first report remains.
The covert make-out is sometimes called a hand canasta (see below ).
The last card of the talon
If a player buys the last card of the talon and discards a card without making out, so
- the next player must buy the package if he can apply the top card to a message ( forcing ), unless the package is frozen,
- he can buy the package, provided he is authorized to do so.
The game ends as soon as a player cannot or does not want to pick up the discard pile. If a game is ended due to a lack of cards, the bonus for making it out does not apply.
If a player buys the last card of the talon and it is a red three, the game ends immediately, since he cannot draw a replacement card: the player may neither report nor discard.
The settlement of a game
They count as plus points
- Rewards for red threesomes, if the party has made an initial report: 100 points for every red threesome, 800 points for all four red threesomes.
- Rewards for Canasta: 300 points for each mixed, 500 points for each pure Canasta
- Rewards for making out (100 points) or hidden making out (200 points)
- the point values of all reported cards (including the cards contained in the canasta).
The points for red three-pointers count as minus points if the party could not make an initial report, as well as all cards still held in hand at the end of the game.
The end of a game
The plus and minus points are added up after each game; the game ends with the end of the game in which one or possibly both parties reach 5,000 or more points.
The game for two or three people
Canasta can also be played by two or three people: In a two-player game, each player receives fifteen cards, and in a three-player game, each player receives thirteen cards. No partnerships are formed, each player plays for himself.
Viennese canasta
In Austria, slightly different from the rules of the Regency Whist Club, the following is played.
Most of these deviations, however, are not specifically Austrian playing styles, but rather can be found as rule variants in Oswald Jacoby's Revised Complete Canasta (see bibliography).
- Red threes only count as positive if the party concerned has at least one canasta, otherwise negative (a mere initial report is not sufficient).
- In a report the wild cards must never be in the plural, i.e. H. a message like KK-2-2-2 is not permitted.
- When a player places a card from that invest the following opponents to an already complete canasta could (!), It must not buy the package. Discarding such a card is therefore equivalent to discarding a black three.
- Covering out with a full canasta in hand, as described above, is called hand canasta and is awarded a bonus of 1,000 points (instead of 200). If a player checks out in the same way, but without reporting his own canasta from his hand, this is referred to as a face-down or straight-out picking up and is awarded 200 points. A player who buys the package and votes in the same turn will not receive an increased bonus.
- The rule that a player with only one card in hand cannot buy a package with only one card is removed.
Other variants
Canasta is played according to many different rules in the individual game rounds. The most common deviations from the Official Laws concern
- the number of card packs used: with Samba-Canasta three instead of two whist games with jokers are used.
- the number of real jokers: often six instead of the original four,
- the number of cards each player receives when dividing: sometimes thirteen instead of eleven,
- the limits for the initial report,
- Reports of exclusively wild cards, so-called joker canasta ,
- the report of a so-called blocking canasta : four black threes plus three jokers (or three black twos or three red twos), this is assessed with 1,500 points
- the conditions for picking up the discard pile,
- the possibility of adding to finished Canasta cards,
- the premiums for mixed canasta: sometimes depending on the number of wild cards included,
- the conditions for making out,
- the evaluation of the red threesomes,
- the number of points required to end the game
These questions should be clarified before starting a game.
literature
English-language literature
- 1950 Official Canasta Laws , Adopted by the Regency Club and the National Canasta Laws Commission as the Official Canasta Laws. The John C. Winston Company Philadelphia. Toronto 1950
- Official Canasta Laws , Adopted by the Regency Club and the National Canasta Laws Commission as the official Canasta Laws. The John C. Winston Company Philadelphia. Toronto Third printing 1951
- Josefina Artayeta de Viel, Ralph Michaels: Canasta The Official Rules and How to Play , Pellegrini & Cudahy, New York, 1949
- John R. Crawford : Canasta , JCS Associates, New York, 1950 and: Faber and Faber, London, 1951
- John R. Crawford: Samba Three Deck Canasta , Arrco Playing Card Co., Chicago, 1951
- Charles H. Goren: Goren's Canasta Up to Date , Permabooks, New York, 1951
- Oswald Jacoby : Oswald Jacoby's Complete Canasta , Doubleday & Co, Inc., 1st Edition, New York 1950,
- Oswald Jacoby: Oswald Jacoby's Revised Complete Canasta , Doubleday & Co, Inc., 1st Edition, New York 1951
- The United States Playing Card Company, Joli Quentin Kansil, Editor: Official Rules of Card Games , 90th Edition, 2004
- John McLeod: Canasta [1]
- Albert H. Morehead Richard L. Frey, Geoffrey Mott-Smith: The New Complete Hoyle Revised Doubleday, New York, 1991
- Albert H. Morehead, Geoffrey Mott-Smith: Hoyle's Rules of Games 2nd revised edition. A Signet Book, 1983
- Philip E. Orbanes : The Canasta Story [2]
- David Parlett : Oxford Dictionary of Card Games , Oxford University Press Oxford New York 1992/96
- David Parlett: The Oxford Guide to Card Games Oxford University Press Oxford New York 1990
- Ottilie H. Reilly: Canasta and Samba , 1951
- Alfred Sheinwold: 1951 Canasta - With Samba and the New International Laws , Wellington Associates, New York, 1951
German-language literature
The German-language sources are unfortunately very unreliable; many refer to the rules of the Regency Whist Club , but do not accurately reflect them.
- Fritz Babsch: International and Austrian card game rules . Piatnik Vienna 1983
- Johannes Bamberger: The most popular card games , Verlag Perlen-Reihe , Volume 648, 21st edition, Vienna 19 ??
- Adolf Grünberger: Canasta again differently - South American Art , Verlag Perlen-Reihe Volume 644, 6th edition, Vienna 1978
- Claus D. Grupp: Rummy and Canasta in all Variations , Falken-Verlag Niedernhausen / Ts, 1982 (this book contains a German translation of the Official Laws of the New York Regency Whist Club)
- Rudolf Heinrich [d. i. Rudolf Bretschneider]: We play Canasta , Verlag Perlen-Reihe, Volume 646, 2nd edition, Vienna 1952 and 11th edition, Vienna 1979
