As you know, at Bridge in the Box, we love playing cards. Canasta is a favourite card game and we thought you might like to see how it is played!
Have supper first, then light the candles, make coffee and settle down for a cosy evening of cards.
It is most commonly played by four people in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards.
The game of Canasta, card game of the rummy family, developed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay in the 1940s and became popular in the United States and Britain from the 1950s onwards, threatening to replace contract bridge as the top card game.
Canasta, from the Spanish word for “basket,” probably derives from the tray placed in the centre of the table to hold undealt cards and discards. Variations include samba and bolivia.