Play Canasta free online against the computer
Canasta is the rummy game of melds, wild cards and the great heap of a discard pile, and here you can play the classic two-player game against the computer, free, with nothing to download or sign up for. The cards are large, your melds are laid out for you, every hand is counted line by line, and a hint is there when you want one. A game in progress is saved in this browser.
New to the game, or rusty? Read the Canasta rules, with the scoring table.
How to play
Canasta uses two packs of cards and four Jokers, 108 cards in all. In the two-player game each of you gets 15 cards. Your aim is to lay down melds, three or more cards of the same rank, and to build them into canastas of 7 cards or more, which score big bonuses: 500 for a natural canasta with no wild cards and 300 for a mixed one. Jokers and 2s are wild and can stand in for any rank, but a meld always needs at least two natural cards and may hold no more than three wild ones.
- Draw. Each turn, draw two cards from the stock, or take the whole discard pile if you can use its top card in a meld straight away.
- Meld. Lay down new melds, or add cards to your melds. The first time you meld in a hand, the cards must add up to a minimum that grows with your score.
- Throw. End your turn by throwing one card on the discard pile.
Red threes are bonus cards: they go face up at once, and you draw a card in their place. A black three thrown on the pile blocks it for the next turn. To go out you need 2 canastas; then meld or throw your last card, and the hand is scored. The first to 5,000 points wins.
Playing on this site
On your turn, tap the stock to draw two, or tap the pile to take it. To meld, tap the cards in your hand to select them (they lift up), then tap Meld. To add cards to a meld you already have, select them and tap that meld on the table. To end your turn, select one card and tap Throw it. If a move is not allowed, the game says why in plain words.
Keys: D draws, P takes the pile, Enter selects a card, M melds, T throws, U undoes, H hints. Big cards makes everything larger.
Hint suggests a step and says why, the way a friend at the table might: which meld to lay down, when the pile is worth taking, which card is safe to throw. Undo takes back your steps this turn, and your throw until the computer moves.
The computer player
The computer sees only its own cards, the melds on the table and the discard pile, just as you do. It never looks at your hand or the order of the stock. It plays a steady game: it takes the pile when it is worth having, keeps its canastas natural while it can, throws carefully, and goes out when that wins it the game or keeps it ahead. Beat it, and you have played well. For ways to do that, see the tips in the Canasta rules.