Canasta Unmasked: Putting a New Face on an Old Game

Canasta, like many of the old card games, is often thrown at first sight, lost among our childhood memories of our grandmothers and their friends sitting on the cards over the tea table. No matter how you look at it, Canasta is a deceptively simple game to learn to play; The challenge is not in remembering or following the rules, but in applying a simple strategy that will turn this simple game in your favor. Since you can’t play without the rules, here they are:

Canasta is a game that is all about melding (meld is three or more of the same card), so basically, what you have to do is try to get lots of the same card. To be technical, 7 of the same card (called Canasta); Get that first before you meld (put down all your cards) and score big. I promise, it sounds more complicated than it is.

Each part consists of three parts: the withdrawal, the melody, and the abdication. The extraction phase always occurs in any direction, the other two phases may or may not be considered. At the start of your turn, you can choose to discard two cards from the face-up pile or cards in the face-up pile (however many there are). If you haven’t done your initial meld yet, then you can only collect cards from the discard pile if you can meld with the card and have enough points to make your initial meld (depending on how many hands you’re playing); you can always draw two from the pile while there are some left; if they are not present, the game is not to worry about drawing at all. If you made your meld, you can destroy the stack while you can heal the top card.

If you draw 3 reds from the face pile, immediately put them down and discard the card. Red 3s are worth 100 points, and you can’t hold them in your hand (and therefore never discard them; you don’t want to). If you get four of them all, you get an extra 800 point bonus, so the red 3s are only worth 100 points if you get them all. That’s a very good way to draw a game if the opponent doesn’t have red 3s, but we’ll get to drawing the game later.

The circle can be tied when player 2 or the joker discards (a wild card game) and the discard pile can only then be drawn if the top two cards are in your hand and can heal them. Freezing decks are a good way to keep your opponent from discarding your stack, but I’ll cover a little deeper.

The second phase of the draw is the Easter Melding. You may place melds in any turn as long as you have met your initial meld requirement (50 points at first, and increases later in the game), but it is often in your best interest not to place cards in your hand as soon as you can. When you first start, this can be a good way to get some experience in how the game works, but if you put all your melds on the first chance, you can expect to lose most of the time. Do not lose as a bad thing in card game (unless there is money in the game), but rather as a way to learn something new that you wouldn’t have known before. Card games are very much about learning different strategies and types of opponents, so there is almost always something new to learn.

Finally, you are ready to throw it away. If all the cards are melted, it’s a hand. If you cast all but one of the cards, but you still haven’t made a Basket, then don’t discard it, and your turn ends. If there are more cards left, you can discard whatever you want. A black 3 will keep your opponent from destroying the pile for one turn (black 3s cannot be collected), playing a 2 or a joker (wild cards that can be melded like any other card, as long as the number of natural cards exceeds the number of wild cards in the meld number). they will be cold. Once it is bound from the deck, the disconnection cannot be collected until the player has the top 2 cards in his hand and is ready to meld it.

Canasta concludes the game; The only other thing you need to worry about is scoring, but that lesson for another day . For your manhood, you must do well.

With all your newfound knowledge, you’re ready to start playing some cards. Don’t be afraid to be treated like the only people around you who know how to play have decades of experience under their belts; There are a few simple ways to become a Canasta competitor, and they don’t require induction into the secret society of Canasta players or require any experience.

1. Do your best not to give away what you have in your hand.

The Canasta trick is lying to your friend, plain and simple. Once the cards are shuffled and on the table, the games are more than in the middle, and any advantage you might have had is gone. Now your opponent knows what you want with your chest and what you don’t want, and it can make a difference in any card game, but it is a very delicate matter when it comes to Canasta, because your opponent then also knows the score: exactly how many. points (or down) you are in this hand, and you can draw your hand until it has a point advantage, or through numerous melds and baskets or by digging to decorate until it finds some three reds (and for 100 points each. the presence of three red tides can turn the hand instead ). Putting early also allows your opponent to deck, leaving you rather helpless unless you have the luck and wisdom to keep a pair of almost every card in your hand.

Yes, the best thing you can do in Canasta is to save the contents of your hand as quickly as possible. Of course, you can’t discard a wild card or a black 3 every turn, so how do you place cards without telling your opponent what cards you do and don’t want? Well, that’s tricky.

2. Don’t be afraid to decorate.

Decorate and refrigerate often. This can always work to your advantage, but only if you follow the advice mentioned earlier and have your cards in hand where you can actually do something with them. Matches between two strong Canasta players almost always involve tying the boats together at least once, often several times. Newcomer Canasta’s freeze can shake the deck, but it keeps the opponent from discarding picks, and it can contain dozens of cards to destroy, which are worth huge amounts when you finally pick it up and meld! Once the deck is set, you only need to remember two things: you try not to discard every single card, as they provide your opponent with empty knowledge in your hand. The best thing to do is after playing your black 3s and wild cards to play cards of which you already have more than 2. This is not to say, do not observe the hand of your adversary while you act; just make sure you move the best you can at all times.

3. Wait until you have a convenient point to edit.

In playing Canasta, there is one thing that confuses me far more than another. I stop dead in my tracks, hang my head to the side, and look in a completely panicked way, and then I push off and go back to playing because my opponent is moving completely and utterly in my favor. . It will never, ever, ever be extinguished unless you have a point advantage in your hand (unless you have already scored the points you need to win the game and your opponent has not. If you missed this first, let me say this one time: never, ever bother me if your opponent has already blown more points How do you help the Other to win? I will not, again: never, never spill before you have what you have in hand.

4. Don’t take the canasta cookie jar with your hand.

Nothing can lead to a strong mess up in Canasta like getting caught with a few cards when your opponent is out of luck. So how do you keep your hand to yourself and surprise your opponent with your every move, while wishing you weren’t caught with the cards when your opponent collided, you ask? It is not as difficult as it seems.

First, the vast majority of Canasta players do not set the melody first; It is usually somewhat tricky to do unless you draw the cards well in your hand, it is still more difficult when you only get two cards at once. The first trick, then, is to keep your sleeve firmly in place, so that the adversary does not destroy the stack once he has more cards in it; A large pile of undoing makes a quick meld-out very easy. This is where the numb deck can come in handy. Just remember that if you discard anything other than a black 3 a 2 or joker, you are taking the opportunity to pick up the whole stack, and that everything that passes is such a story. a little more dangerous. Card games are all about risk, though, so don’t be too afraid of winning those chances; This is what separates the good card players from the mediocre ones.

Once your opponent has laid down his cards, you simply need to analyze the situation quickly. Do you already have canasta? And if they do, take care that they resume again; this is a player who either has two cards that cannot be fused, is waiting for a point advantage over you (if he is currently ahead in this hand), or is looking for an extra two points to beat him. elementary School. The more melds of different values ​​the opponent has laid out, the safer you are. This means that it will take more work for him to get the Canasta work to heal, and that typically works in your favor. Is the opponent still 3 cards away from Canasta, and down to only two cards in his hand? Go ahead and take a chance that won’t blow with the other hand, but do all the equipment to get your cards in order and to meld (and meld quickly). If your opponent is down to only two cards, this is usually a safe time to meld what you have, so that it doesn’t bring any kind of knowledge.

5. Play with your opponent’s hand

Just because you have a great hand doesn’t mean you can forget that you are the only one in game. Chances are your opponent has an equally good hand, if not a better one, and if you’re not careful, you’ll play right into it, leaving you high and dry. Watch your opponent; see what he rejects, carefully study the number of cards in the hand and melds what he has put down. He is carefully tied with the ship, and remembers what he then puts down, so that there is nothing missing (read: it could be a trap).Now, you don’t have to watch your opponent like a hawk… It’s far more likely to make him nervous, angry and uncomfortable, and you find yourself without anyone wanting to play with you at all in his hand, and rather his head.

Good bye!

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