Sport and Games Atlas

How The Game Is Played
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Game

Canasta

Matching and Shedding Card Games

Canasta is a card game of the rummy family, usually played by two partnerships with two standard decks plus jokers, in which players build melds of seven or more cards of the same rank, called canastas, to score points. The game originated in Uruguay in the 1930s, is credited to a small group of Montevideo card players, and spread through South America before becoming an international fad in the United States and Europe in the early 1950s, at one point rivaling contract bridge in popularity among home card players.

Facts
Partially Attested
Governing Body
Canasta League of America 1
The Canasta League of America is described as a standardizing body for the most common rules in North America; the source names no international governing body for canasta.
Origin Year
1939 1
Originating Region
Uruguay 1
Game Type
Rummy family card game 1
Classification
Player Count
Small Group (3-6 Players) 1
Sport
Game Type (category)
Card Game 1
Canasta
Filter Results1 entry
Connections

Ancestor Of

Buraco, Games
Source Buraco (Wikipedia)

Associated With

Rummy, Games
Source Rummy, Wikipedia

Derived From

Rummy, Games

Canasta, developed in Uruguay in the 1930s, is a member of the Rummy family of card games.

Source The Oxford Guide to Card Games
In the Other Atlases

Found In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. Canasta, Wikipedia
  • Introduction
    Canasta (; Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 rum.
  • History section
    The game of Canasta was devised by attorney Segundo Sánchez Santos and his Bridge partner, architect Alberto Serrato in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939, in an attempt to design a time-efficient game that was as engaging as Bridge.
  • Variations, Modern American Canasta
    The Canasta League of America, founded in 2011, has been focused on standardizing the most common rules played in North America.
  • Wikipedia, article summary lead
    Canasta (; Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and "go out" by playing all cards in their hands.
View the Source
Wikidata: Canasta
Wikidata Q278854, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
Rummy, Wikipedia
Associated With: Rummy, Related games section, canasta
Quote, Associated With: Rummy, Related games section, canasta
Although in North America the word rummy is often used interchangeably for gin rummy, the term is applicable to a large family of games, including canasta, mahjong and Rummikub.
View the Source
Buraco (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Buraco, Lead paragraph [derived-from]
Quote, Ancestor Of: Buraco, Lead paragraph [derived-from]
Buraco is a variation of Canasta which allows both standard melds
View the Source

Take a Related Quiz

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.