To pull from the discard pile, you have to use the top card right away to form a meld. Every player’s turn begins by picking a card from either the draw pile or the discard pile. Gameplay starts with the player on the dealer’s left and goes clockwise around the table. If you turn over a bonus card (a joker, 2, or a red 3), keep pulling from the stack until the discard pile starts with a “natural” card (any non-bonus card).

Stack the remaining cards in the middle of the table to form the draw pile and turn the top card in the stack over to create the discard pile.

Then, everyone can pick up their cards and look at them. Pick 1 player to be the dealer and, starting with the person to their left, deal each player 11 cards facedown. To set up the game, pair into partners and shuffle 2 decks of cards together (jokers included). Canasta is a fun card game for 4 people where players try to make melds out of cards of the same rank until they 'go out' by playing all the cards in their hand.

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