Wild cards

  1. Maximum 2 per canasta

  2. Can use wild cards with a meld of two or more natural cards on opening

  3. Cannot add a wild card to a meld without 5 natural cards (THE RULE OF 5)

  4. Can open with a wild card canasta without needing a clean meld as long as minimum point count for opening is met

  5. If a wild card canasta is incomplete no wild cards may be added to other melds

  6. Wild card canasta consists of all wild cards

  • 2000 points mixed jokers and twos

  • 2500 points with all four jokers

  • 3000 points with seven twos

  1. Incomplete wild card canasta yields a penalty of negative 2000 points, -2500 points if it contains all four jokers

  2. Cannot go out with an incomplete wild card canasta

  3. Cannot discard a wild card (except as discard to go out)

Aces

  1. On opening can use wild cards with Aces; thereafter any meld with aces must be clean

  2. Cannot go out with an incomplete clean Ace canasta

  3. Incomplete clean Ace canasta = negative 2500 points

  4. At end of hand, 3 or more Aces remaining in hand = negative 1500 points

Sevens

  1. Always clean

  2. Cannot go out with an incomplete Seven Canasta

  3. Incomplete Seven Canasta – negative 2500 points

  4. At end of hand 3 or more Sevens remaining in hand – negative 1500 points