there must not be more than two wild cards in a group.Ī group of seven or more cards is called a canasta.there must be at least twice as many natural cards as wild cards.Wild cards can be used to substitute for some of the cards of a group, with the following restrictions: To end the game by going out, your team must have melded at least two sambas or two canastas or one of each.Ī group is a set of three or more natural cards of the same rank, for example three kings, or five eights. A group of seven or more equal cards is a canasta, and a sequence of seven cards is caled a samba. There are two types of meld: groups and sequences. The value of a meld is the sum of the values of the individual cards in it. If you begin a meld, you partner can later add cards to it, and vice versa. In partnership versions of the game, melds belong to a partnership, not an individual. The objective of the game is to score points for melds, which are sets of cards which you display face up on the table. The next card is placed face up on the table to start the discard pile, and the remaining cards are stacked face down beside it, to form the stock. When there are 6 players, everyone receives 13 cards. When there are 2, 3, 4, or 5 players, 15 cards are dealt to each player. The threes have special uses, described later. The 4s to aces inclusive are natural cards.

The values of the individual cards are as follows: Samba is played with 162 cards, three decks of 52 cards and 6 jokers. In the event of 6 players, all partners are always separated by two other players. When there are four players you and your partners are placed opposite at the table. Samba is a three pack card game that can be played with 2, 3, 4, 5 or even 6 players! When you're playing with two, three or five players, everyone plays his or her own game when you're playing with 4 or 6 players, you play with a partner. These canasta cards can be ordered from. They come as a double pack (108 cards) so you would need two of these for a three-deck samba game. Piatnik or Bicycle Canasta cards (marked with point values) can also be used for Samba. It is recommended that you understand the basics of Canasta before you play this variation. In some places it is known as Samba-Canasta one Dutch book also calls it Straat-Canasta (Sequence-Canasta). This page is based on a contribution from Harrie Wiering, who describes the Dutch version of this game.

Rules for playing canasta card game