Choose a starting point
Classic Canasta introduces matching groups, shared melds and the importance of the discard pile. Samba adds natural sequences of one suit. Hand & Foot adds a second, unopened hand and a longer checklist of books. All three are partnership games, but learning one does not make every move legal in the others.
If you have never played, read the first-game walkthrough beside the rules. You do not need to memorize every bonus before drawing your first card. Return to the scoring guide when a round ends and compare the displayed result with the worked examples.
Classic Canasta guides
Learn the two-deck partnership game, from the first opening to frozen discards and the 5,000-point finish.
Samba Canasta guides
Learn our Dutch Samba defaults: natural sequences, whole-pile and single-card pickups, red threes and the 10,000-point finish.
Hand & Foot guides
Learn the hand-to-foot transition, the clean/dirty/wild book checklist, seven-card pickups and scoring all four rounds.
Find the answer without leaving the reading room
Use the game names in the header to switch between guide collections. On a rules, scoring, score-sheet or specialist-guide page, the same control takes you to that topic for another variant. The topic navigation takes you between rules, scoring, PDF sheets, first-game instructions, discard examples and strategy. You only enter a playing table when you choose an explicit Play link.
The contents list near the beginning of each article jumps to a specific explanation. Related guides at the end suggest the next useful question. You can move from a discard example to an opening rule and then to a scoring worksheet without having to return through the home game.
Three ways to use this library
For a first game, begin with the walkthrough and keep the full rules as a reference. The walkthrough explains where to click and how to finish a turn; the rules establish what a combination, opening and exit must satisfy. The optional guide inside the game teaches the first controls but does not replace every rule in a complete match.
For a disputed move, choose the relevant discard guide or rules page and compare the actual visible cards with its examples. For a disputed score, use the scoring page and transfer each category to the PDF worksheet. For planning a home session, read a comparison first, agree on a ruleset, then download the sheet for that variant.