Kanasta rules

Players and cards

Kanasta is played by four players in two teams of two; partners sit opposite each other. Every hand uses 108 cards: two standard 52-card decks plus 4 jokers.

The game ends after the hand in which a team's total reaches 300 points.

The deal and the buried packets (fi)

Each player gets 11 cards. Two face-down 11-card packets are also set aside; in Turkish they are called fi. One card is turned up to start the discard pile and the remaining 41 cards form the stock.

At the start of every hand a random trump card is revealed. A kanasta built from the trump card’s rank or suit gets its bonus doubled (see the table below).

Playing a turn

1. Draw one card from the stock, or take the whole discard pile.
2. Optionally lay down new melds or add cards to your team's melds.
3. End your turn by discarding one card. Play passes counter-clockwise.

Two restrictions: with a single card in hand you cannot take a single-card pile, and a card taken from a single-card pile cannot be discarded on the same turn.

Melds and wild cards

• Set: three or more cards of the same rank (e.g. three 8s).
• Run: three or more consecutive cards of the same suit (e.g. 5♥ 6♥ 7♥). The ace can be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A), but a run cannot wrap around (no K-A-2).
• A meld can hold at most 13 cards.
• Jokers and 2s are wild cards. A meld may contain at most one wild card. Exception: a 2 of the run's own suit, sitting in its natural place (as in A-2-3), counts as a natural card.
• A meld of 7 or more cards is a kanasta.

The first meld (opening)

Your team's first meld must meet two conditions:

• At least one of the melds must be a run without wild cards (three natural consecutive cards of one suit).
• The cards laid down must reach a value threshold based on your team's score: 0–99 points → 4.5, 100–199 → 7.5, 200 or more → 10.

If you will have at most one card left after opening, the value threshold does not apply.

Going out

To empty your hand your team needs at least one kanasta. You empty your hand by discarding or melding your last card.

• If a buried packet is still on the table, the player who empties their hand picks it up and play continues. Each packet taken scores +10 for the team.
• Once both packets are taken, the next player to empty their hand ends it; their team scores a +10 going-out bonus.
• The hand also ends when the stock runs out.
• A team that has taken the first packet cannot go out by discarding while the second packet is still on the table; the last card must be added to a meld.

Scoring

A team's score for the hand: packets taken × 10 + card values in its melds + kanasta bonuses + going-out bonus − the value of cards left in both partners' hands, rounded up.

Kanasta types and bonuses

Matching the trump: a set matches when its rank equals the trump card's rank; a run matches when its suit equals the trump card's suit.