The game of Canasta is said to have originated in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1939, from there it spread to Argentina, the USA and throughout the world. It was extremely fashionable in the 1950's, threatening for a while to displace Contract Bridge as the premier card game.
The main object of the game is to create a ‘canasta’ which consists of 7 cards and can be either pure or impure. An impure canasta can include ‘wild’ cards – these are either Jokers or ‘2’s whereas the pure canasta (which attracts more points) is 7 cards without any ‘wild’ cards.
We begin by ‘melding’ i.e. putting down cards on the table of a minimum of 50 points, this progresses through the game to 90 and 120 points minimum. The game ends when a partnership score 5000 points. As you can imagine there are many more rules and regulations, far too many to put into this article and rules vary from one part of the country to another, as I found out when I returned in 2010 having played canasta for many years in Berkshire!
Canasta is generally agreed to be best for four players, playing in partnerships. However, our group quite often consists of more people than this, so we now enjoy a version called ‘Hand and Foot’. In this version 1 pack per member + 1 extra is required, each player deals two hands (hand and foot) of 13 cards each which is then passed to the player on their left.
Once again, the first meld is with 50 points on the table and in this game 2 impure and 1 pure canasta are required before going out. The points scored in Hand and Foot progress through to the last meld of 150 – yes, it can be achieved!
This group not only enjoys playing canasta which keeps our minds lively, but we also have formed strong friendships over the years and enjoy social occasions together, in fact 2 of our ladies have even been on a cruise together.
Isn’t this what the U3A is all about?