Section 2: The Deck
Required Equipment
Canasta requires one combined deck of 108 cards: two standard 52-card decks shuffled together with four jokers. Cards should have matching backs so that no card can be identified while face down.
Card Values
| Cards | Value per Card | Special Use |
|---|---|---|
| Jokers | 50 points | Wild cards |
| Deuces | 20 points | Wild cards |
| Aces | 20 points | Natural cards |
| Kings, queens, jacks, tens, nines, and eights | 10 points | Natural cards |
| Sevens, sixes, fives, and fours | 5 points | Natural cards |
| Black threes | 5 points | Stop the next player from taking the discard pile |
| Red threes | 100-point bonus or penalty each | Displayed immediately and replaced from the stock |
Wild Cards
Jokers and deuces may be added to most melds as substitutes for the meld’s rank. A meld must always contain at least two natural cards and may contain no more than three wild cards. It must never contain more wild cards than natural cards. Once a wild card has been placed in a meld, it cannot be moved to another meld or exchanged for a natural card.
A partnership may not keep two separate melds of the same rank. All later cards of that rank must be added to the existing meld. A completed canasta may continue to receive matching natural cards and, if doing so remains legal, wild cards.
Special Threes
A red three is not kept in the hand or used in an ordinary meld. Whenever a player receives or draws one, the player places it face up with the partnership’s meld area and immediately draws a replacement from the stock. A red three exposed during the deal is likewise displayed and replaced before normal play begins.
A black three placed on the discard pile prevents the next player from taking that pile, though it does not permanently freeze it. Black threes normally cannot be melded. A player who is going out may meld three or four black threes as a set, without wild cards, during that final turn.