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Canasta HD is a popular online card game on Pogo, where you take turns drawing and discarding cards, and creating melds to rack up points.
This game is exclusive for Club Pogo members only.
How to Play
Canasta is played between two teams of 1-2 players each, use 2 decks and 4 jokers, for a total of 108 cards.
In each round, teams create groups of card with the same rank, called melds, until they have exhausted their entire hand. A round ends when a player has no cards and points are awarded for the round based on the card groups that have been made.
A meld is when 3 or more cards of the same value are laid down together. A meld of 7 cards or more is called a Canasta. Red 3’s automatically go to the score area without needing a meld.
In addition to points gained for melded cards, a player can earn bonus points for certain actions:
Going Out – 100 points
Melding Out – 100 points
Mixed Canasta – 300 points
All 4 Red 3’s – 400 points
Natural Canasta – 500 points
Points are gained over multiple rounds until a team reaches or exceeds a total of 5,000 points. The team with the highest core wins.
Tips
If you are far ahead in the overall game and close to reaching 5000 points, play conservatively by keeping melds small and putting down cards earlier to prevent your opponent from scoring big hands.
Use a conservative strategy to avoid building large discard piles, since a big pile gives your opponent more chances to pick it up and close the gap.
If you are behind and need to catch up, switch to an aggressive strategy by allowing the discard pile to grow so the winner of the hand earns more points.
When playing aggressively, try to bait your opponent into picking up the discard pile early and then freeze it afterward to force a larger pile and increase potential scoring.
Always track how many wild cards have been played because knowing what’s left helps you decide whether to freeze the pile or attempt a risky pickup.
Visit our Pogo Tips page for more tips on other Pogo games!