Variations

The 2 feet 6 canastas version a.k.a. Collin’s variation

When setting up the game, instead of dealing a Hand and a Foot to each player, you deal one Hand and two Foot piles. Therefore each player has three sets of thirteen cards to play instead of the regular two. Players must play their Hand before getting to their first Foot, and play all cards in their first Foot before getting to their second Foot. And, you guessed it, the player that finishes their second Foot first wins that round.

Another big difference is that you also have to complete three black canastas and three red canastas instead of the regular two of each. All other rules remain unchanged.

When playing this version one-on-one you should be ok with only five decks of cards but we recommend adding decks when playing this version in teams.

The easy run twist a.k.a. Emercio’s amendment

In this version we allow wildcards to be used in runs, but doing so should reduce the value of the completed run: for instance, it could be considered a black canasta worth only 300 points. Cards in this meld (wildcards excluded) must still be of the same suit. And the regular pure run (no wildcards) remains an option and is still a red canasta worth 1,500 points.

The half dozen adaptation a.k.a. Brian’s inclusion

If there are six of you, you can still play by splitting into three teams of two. Add one or two extra decks on top of the regular five, because six players will burn through the cards faster and need a larger draw pile.

You still try to alternate teams around the table so that no two teammates sit side by side. For teams A, B, and C it would look like this: A1 – B1 – C1 – A2 – B2 – C2

All other rules remain unchanged.

The threesome vector a.k.a. Gilbert’s curve

Same as The Half Dozen adaptation (#3) except you play 3 against 3. Seating around the table could look like this for teams A and B: A1 – B1 – A2 – B2 – A3 – B3

The wildcard damnation a.k.a. François’s bitchslap

In this variation, you can force the next player to skip a turn by discarding a wildcard — 2 or joker — at the end of your own turn. The skipped player does not draw, lay cards down in their building area, or discard. Play simply moves to the following player. The discarded wildcard is burned. It remains on top of the discard pile, but nobody may pick it up.

This effect also applies at the very beginning of the round, when a wildcard is flipped over to start the discard pile. In such a situation, the first person who was supposed to play must therefore skip their turn.

The endurance experience a.k.a. Michel’s marathon

In the regular version, the first person or team to reach 20,000 points wins the game. In this variant, you can simply decide to increase that limit to extend the game. For example, you could play to 25,000 points, 30,000 points, or even more if you want a true marathon game.

In keeping with these new goals, you could also increase the point thresholds required to open. For example, you could continue the progression beyond 150 points for score ranges above 20,000 points. Another option would be to raise all opening thresholds in order to make opening a little more demanding at each stage.

The idea is not to impose a whole new structure, but rather to allow players to adapt the length and difficulty level according to the type of game they want to play.

The Perfect Draw a.k.a. Lucien’s Tribute

Once the cards have been thoroughly shuffled, the person who shuffled does not deal the Hands and Feet. Instead, each player takes a stack of cards from the top of the draw pile, one at a time, trying to pick up exactly 26 cards.

Without looking at the faces of the cards, the player counts how many they picked up. If they have exactly 26 cards, they earn a 100-point bonus. If they picked up too many, they return the extra cards to the draw pile. If they do not have enough, they draw the number of cards needed to reach 26. The bonus is awarded only when the original stack contains exactly 26 cards, before any adjustment.

Each player then divides their 26 cards into two piles of 13: one for their Hand and one for their Foot.

No one may look at their cards until every player has finished. Once any 100-point bonuses have been awarded, each player sets their Foot aside, face down and without looking at it, then picks up their Hand to begin the round.

In team play, any bonus earned is added to the team’s score. All other rules remain unchanged.