Canasta variants
Other ways to play Canasta, each one ready to play here. Read how a variant changes the rules, then start a game with it chosen in the table setup.
Modern American Canasta
A stricter partnership canasta: thirteen-card hands, costly first melds, rationed wild cards, two canastas to go out and a game to 8,500 points.
Samba
Canasta with three packs and six jokers: fifteen-card hands, two cards drawn every turn, runs of one suit that grow into sambas and a game to 10,000 points.
Bolivia
A close relative of Samba: three packs, fifteen-card hands, seven-card runs called escaleras, canastas of wild cards called bolivias and a game to 15,000.
Hand and Foot
A canasta game where everyone is dealt two hands: play out the first, then pick up your foot, build books of seven and score over exactly four hands.