What is Samba?
Samba is a bigger, faster form of canasta, played with three packs and six jokers, 162 cards in all. Everyone holds fifteen cards and draws two each turn, so hands fill quickly and melds grow fast. Besides the usual melds of one rank, you may meld runs of three or more cards of one suit, from four up to ace, with no wild cards in them. A run of seven cards is a samba, worth 1,500 points, and a side needs two canastas or sambas, in any mix, before it may go out.
The discard pile is never frozen, yet it can only be taken with a natural pair matching the top card. Instead of drawing, you may also take just the top card when it extends one of your side's runs. The game is played to 10,000 points.
Here Samba is played by two, three or four players: four play in two partnerships with partners sitting opposite, two or three play alone. The rules follow the usual published account of the game, with a few simplifications that apply to people and computer players alike: red threes are laid out automatically, a player who may not go out yet keeps two cards in hand rather than passing with the last one, and taking the pile with a pair always starts a new meld of that rank. As in the standard game, you may ask your partner before going out. A tie for the lead at the end is a draw, and a game that somehow reaches 60 hands stops there as a draw.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Canasta | Samba |
|---|---|---|
| Cards | Standard CanastaTwo packs with four jokers, 108 cards. | SambaThree packs with six jokers, 162 cards. |
| Deal | Standard CanastaEleven cards each with four players, thirteen with three and fifteen with two. One card is turned up to start the discard pile. | SambaFifteen cards each at every table size. One card is turned up to start the discard pile. |
| Drawing | Standard CanastaOne card from the stock with four players. With two or three players you draw two and still discard only one. | SambaTwo cards from the stock at every table size, then one discard. |
| Melds of a rank | Standard CanastaThree or more cards of a rank, with more natural cards than wild cards and at most three wild cards. A meld can keep growing past seven cards. | SambaThree or more cards of a rank with at most two wild cards, and at least twice as many natural cards as wild cards. A meld can keep growing past seven cards. |
| Runs | Standard CanastaNot allowed: a meld is always made of cards of one rank. | SambaThree to seven cards of one suit in unbroken order, from four up to ace, with no wild cards. A run stops at seven cards, which make a samba. |
| Taking the discard pile | Standard CanastaWith two cards from your hand that meld with the top card: a natural pair while the pile is frozen (until your side has melded, or after a wild card was discarded), otherwise a matching card and a wild card will do. Never when a black three or a wild card is on top. | SambaAlways with a natural pair from your hand matching the top card, never when a wild card or a three is on top. The pair, with any more cards of that rank or wild cards you add from your hand, starts a new meld with the top card, and the rest of the pile goes to your hand. |
| Taking only the top card | Standard CanastaNot possible: you draw from the stock or take the whole pile. | SambaInstead of drawing, you may take just the top card when it extends one of your side's runs of fewer than seven cards. |
| First meld | Standard CanastaAt least 15 points with a negative score, 50 from 0, 90 from 1,500 and 120 from 3,000. The top card of the discard pile can count towards it. | SambaAt least 15 points with a negative score, 50 from 0, 90 from 1,500, 120 from 3,000 and 150 from 7,000. Several melds, runs included, can be laid together to reach it, and when you take the pile the top card and the cards melded with it count, but not the rest of the pile. |
| Threes | Standard CanastaRed threes are laid out at once and replaced from the stock: 100 each, 800 for all four, counted against a side that has not melded. A discarded black three stops the next player taking the pile. | SambaRed threes are laid out and replaced: 100 each, 1,000 for all six, scored for a side that has the two canastas it needs to go out and against a side that has not. Three or more black threes can be melded, but only on the turn you go out. |
| Discarding | Standard CanastaAny card but a red three. A discarded wild card freezes the pile. | SambaAny card, wild cards and black threes included. While a wild card or a three lies on top, nobody can take the pile. |
| Going out | Standard CanastaYour side needs one canasta (two in the two-player game). Going out earns 100, or 200 if you meld your whole hand in one turn without having melded before. | SambaYour side needs two canastas or sambas, in any mix; until then you must keep two cards in hand after melding. Going out earns 200. |
| Bonuses | Standard CanastaMixed canasta 300, natural canasta 500. | SambaMixed canasta 300, natural canasta 500, samba 1,500. |
| Winning score | Standard Canasta5,000 points (7,500 with three players). The setup can set 2,500, 5,000, 7,500 or 10,000 instead. | Samba10,000 points. The setup can set 2,500, 5,000 or 7,500 instead. |
History
Canasta is commonly said to have been devised in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939, though some accounts place its beginnings later in the 1940s. It spread through South America, was introduced to the United States in 1949 and became one of the most fashionable card games of the 1950s.
Samba grew out of that boom. Card game references describe it as a three-pack variation of canasta that allows runs of one suit as well as melds of equal cards, and game catalogues date it to around 1950; no inventor is recorded. It is also known as Samba-Canasta, and one Dutch book calls it Straat-Canasta. Bolivia, a close relative, uses the same cards and runs and adds canastas made entirely of wild cards.