| Cards | Point value |
|---|---|
| Jokers | 50 points each |
| A, 2 | 20 points each |
| K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 | 10 points each |
| 7, 6, 5, 4 | 5 points each |
Canasta is normally played with standard 52 card decks plus two jokers.
The cards A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 are called natural cards. All of the deuces (twos) and jokers are wild cards. With some restrictions, wild cards can be used during the game as substitutes for a natural card of any rank.
The threes have special functions and values: Black threes are used as discards as they cannot be picked up. Black three's (3♠ / 3♣) held in a player's hand at the end of the game count minus 100 points (subtracted from the player's score). Red threes (3 ♥ / 3 ♦) are not to be used to meld a Canasta, but are set into the meld area and have a value of 100 points each. Black three's may only be melded by the player going out at the end of the hand.
Read more about this topic: Ponytail Canasta
Famous quotes containing the word cards:
“Oft have I played at cards and dice,
Because they were so enticing;
But this is a sad and sorrowful day
To see my apron rising.”
—Unknown. The Rantin Laddie (l. 1–4)
“A revolution is not the overturning of a cart, a reshuffling in the cards of state. It is a process, a swelling, a new growth in the race. If it is real, not simply a trauma, it is another ring in the tree of history, layer upon layer of invisible tissue composing the evidence of a circle.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“But cards are war, in disguise of a sport.”
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834)