- Score sheets
- Card games
- Canasta
How to score Canasta
Here is how to score Canasta. After each hand, each side adds its bonuses (500 for a natural canasta, 300 for a mixed one, 100 for each red 3, 100 for going out), adds every card it melded, and subtracts the cards left in both partners’ hands. Hands go on until a side reaches 5,000, and the higher total wins.
- 4 players, 2 partnerships
- Two decks and 4 jokers
- First side to 5,000
- Higher total wins
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real app screen, live, on Teams. Open the Scorepad to see every hand: each side’s goes under one partner, and the teams bar adds them up.
Canasta
A partnership rummy game played with two decks and four jokers, where each side builds canastas (melds of seven), earns bonuses for them and for red 3s, and plays hand after hand until a side reaches 5000.
Year from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Canasta, in brief
Partners lay down melds (3 or more cards of one rank) and grow them into canastas of 7 or more. Hands go on until a side reaches 5,000.
- Deal 11 eachShuffle two decks with 4 jokers and deal 11 to each player, partners opposite. The rest is the stock; turn up its top card as the discard pile.
- Draw, meld, discardDraw one card from the stock, or take the whole discard pile if you can meld its top card now. Meld, then discard.
- Mind the wild cardsJokers and 2s are wild. A meld needs at least 2 natural (non-wild) cards and at most 3 wild. Red 3s go face up beside your melds and are replaced.
- Go outOnce your side has a canasta, you may go out by playing your last card. Then both sides score.
Bonuses, then the cards, minus what you’re still holding.
Partners score together. When someone goes out, the hand stops and each side counts what it has on the table: the bonuses first, then the value of every card in its melds, canastas included. The cards still in both partners’ hands come off.
What scores
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Natural canastaSeven or more cards of one rank, no wild cards | 500 |
| Mixed canastaSeven or more cards, up to 3 of them wild | 300 |
| Each red 3All four on one side: 800. A side that melded nothing loses them instead | 100 |
| Going outConcealed, the whole hand melded in one turn: 200 | 100 |
| Joker | 50 |
| Ace, 2 | 20 |
| K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 | 10 |
| 7, 6, 5, 4, black 3 | 5 |
- Add the bonuses500 for each natural canasta, 300 for each mixed one, 100 for each red 3 and 100 for going out.
- Add the cards on the tableEvery card your side melded counts, the cards inside canastas too. Seven natural kings are 500 + 70.
- Subtract both handsEvery card left in either partner’s hand counts against the side. A side that never melded loses its red 3s as well.
- Keep the running totalIt sets your first meld next hand: 15 below zero, 50 up to 1,495, 90 from 1,500 and 120 from 3,000.
- Stop at 5,000Finish and score the hand in which a side reaches 5,000. The higher total wins, even when both sides get there together.
Hand 7: Sam goes out, and both sides pass 5,000.
You and Anya are Team A, Dev and Sam Team B. Going into hand 7 it is 4,605 to 4,155. Sam goes out for Dev and Sam. You and Anya have melded, but are left holding five cards between you. This is hand 7 on the Scorepad above.
| Team | Bonuses and cards melded, minus cards held | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Dev and Sam | Seven natural kings · five 8s with two 2s · three aces · two red 3s · going outCanastas, cards, red 3s, going out: 500 + 300 + 70 + 90 + 60 + 200 + 100 | 1320 |
| You and Anya | Four queens, a joker and two 2s · three 6s · one red 3; holding a joker, 9, ace, 5 and black 3Canasta, cards, red 3, then the cards held: 300 + 130 + 15 + 100, minus 90 | 455 |
Big hands, added for you.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. For Canasta, pick Teams and type each side’s hand. Tabletales keeps the running totals all the way to 5,000.
- Partners add themselvesTap a letter to put each player on Team A or B, then type a side’s hand under one partner and leave the other blank. The teams bar adds them up.
- Big hands on the keypadType each hand’s total, or type it the way you count it (500 + 300 + 70 + 90 + 60 + 200 + 100) and Tabletales adds it up. A hand below zero takes one tap on ±.
- 5,000 sits on the padSet the game to play to 5,000 and the Scorepad shows it in the header. Each side’s total also sets what its first meld needs next hand.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo from the table. Each game gets a history: how often you play it, who with, and who wins.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Canasta, with its scores
Common Canasta scoring mistakes
- Scoring only the canasta bonusThe cards inside count too, so seven natural kings are worth 500 + 70.
- Paying red 3s to a side that never meldedWith nothing melded by the end of the hand, each red 3 costs that side 100, or 800 for all four.
- Using the wrong first meldIt follows your side’s total at the start of each hand: 15, 50, 90 or 120.
- Stopping the moment a side passes 5,000Finish and score the hand, then the higher total wins.
Canasta scoring, answered
- How do you score Canasta?
- Each side adds its bonuses (500 per natural canasta, 300 per mixed one, 100 per red 3, 100 for going out), adds the value of every card it melded, and subtracts the cards left in both partners’ hands.
- How many points is each card worth in Canasta?
- Jokers are 50, aces and 2s 20, kings down to 8s 10, and 7s down to 4s and black 3s 5.
- How many points do you need to win Canasta?
- 5,000. The hand in which a side gets there is finished and scored, and the side with the higher total wins, even if both passed 5,000.
Canasta score sheet
Print one for the table: Team A and Team B, fourteen hands, with each side’s bonuses, its card count and a running total, and every value at the bottom.
Score another game
Tables differ: two players draw two cards a turn and need two canastas to go out, some decks carry more jokers, and Modern American Canasta scores its own way, to 8,500. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against Bicycle Cards, Pagat and Wikipedia.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
