Teammates sit across from each other and work together to form more melds than the other team. The dealer position rotates clockwise at the end of each round. The top card of the stock is turned upright and placed to the side to form the discard pile. The remaining cards are placed faced down to form the stock. The dealer then passes 11 cards one by one clockwise to each of the four players. The initial dealer shuffles the deck and the player to their right cuts it. To do so, every player is given a card from a shuffled deck and whoever receives the highest card becomes the first dealer. Set Upīefore the game begins an initial dealer must be chosen. If you are looking for cards to play Canasta with, check out a standard pack here or one of our more recent arrivals here. The objective of Canasta is for your team to reach 5000 points first.įor other Rummy type games, see our guides for Classic Rummy and Gin. (A typical game of Canasta in action) Card Game RulesĬanasta is a Rummy type game of melding that is played with two 52 playing card decks and two teams of 2.