The card game of Canasta is said to have originated in Montevideo, Uraguay in 1939.  From there it spread to Argentina, the USA and throughout the world.  

The rules were standardized in North America around 1950, and it was this version of the game, which will be called “Classic Canasta” and gained worldwide popularity.  In many countries, Classic Canasta is still played in its original form sometimes alongside several variations.  
In North America, however, some players have continued to develop Canasta, and these groups now favor a different version, called Modern American Canasta. John McLeod is the editor of Pagat.com, a website devoted to card games. John published an excellent article about the history of Canasta and the difference between Classic Canasta and Modern American Canasta played in the United States and around the world. Other versions of Canasta are also played by groups including Hand and Foot, and Samba. (1)    Adapted with Permission: www.pagat.com

All forms of Canasta are predominantly games of skill, intelligence and strategy with a bit of chance thrown in based on cards dealt to players and cards drawn from a stockpile as part of the game.  It is not totally a game of skill like chess, however, neither is it a game of totally random chance where players do not have control of the game or outcomes like roulette, the dice game of craps or slot machines.  Good Canasta players usually achieve their status by their experience playing the game, in-depth knowledge of the game, scoring, employing offensive and defensive strategies, and communicating and receiving certain legal signaling techniques from their playing partners

CanastaMatch™ (CM) is a membership-based, social community. Subscription membership in CM provides members in the Canasta playing community, regardless of the version of Canasta they play the following benefits.

Benefits available for Base Annual CanastaMatch Members

• Through a unique search function, CM members can search for and contact other CM members in their respective zip code, city, or state. A contact form enables a method for direct communication with individuals on CanastaMatch.
• CM members can create their own private groups on the site through the Social Network Module.
• Members can use the Find and Seek Players and Groups Classified Ads feature to report public places where Canasta games are played, create their own private groups and provide their location and contact information for in-person game.
• CM members have total control of the type of personal information (name, phone number, email, city etc.) provided to people who are searching on the CanastaMatch platform for a Canasta game.  This element increases the personal security for people meeting through the site.  Members reaching out to others to play in-person or  on online sites must provide their email and phone number via a contact form while the recipient of the request may remain anonymous and respond or not to any contact request.
• CM members can find and contact CanastaMatch affiliated instructors for in-person or virtual Canasta lessons on all versions of Canasta found in the CM Play game. 
• Informative instructional YouTube videos and rules for playing various versions of Canasta are available from www.pagat.com on the CM website.
• Videos about using the CM website are available on YouTube.
• CM members may register and participate in NO FEE in-person Canasta tournaments sponsored by CM or other organizations who use the CanastaMatch platform to promote their events or tournaments.
• CM members can participate in regular Zoom calls on various Canasta related topics offered by CanastaMatch and its affiliated instructors.
• CM members may register for their upcoming cruises and match with other CM members interested in playing Canasta during the cruise.  This feature is called CanastaMatch Cruises.
• In 1 Quarter of 2026, the play the CanstaMatch Play online game will be available. All base members may upgrade their member ship to play unlimited Canasta on CanastaMatch Play.  Modern American Canasta will be the first version available followed  by Hand and Foot and Samba later in 2026.

The Base Membership for CanastaMatch is $20 per year.

In the first quarter of 2026, the CanastaMatch Play online game website will be launched. Base annual members, will be able to upgrade their annual subscriptions at that time to incorporate the Canastamatch play game into their membership. These memembers will receive a discount to upgrade their memberships.

All Canasta Instructors in the United States and Canada are eligible to apply to receive a listing on CanastaMatch. Canasta Instructors are validated and are provided free membership in CanastaMatch.com. Instructors will have access to all features of the site including being able to use CanastaMatch Play, when launched, for their lessons. CanastaMatch receives no compensation in any form from CanastaMatch Instructors who advertise or receive payment for their lessons or services through the CanastaMatch site.

CanastaMatch does not retain your credit card information.  It is held by the credit card processor, Chase Merchant Services.

Yes!!  CanastaMatch does have a Facebook Group.  Please follow the link below and Join.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/canastamatch/

The Canasta Facebook group sites are a good starting resource for many Canasta players to learn about the rules of various Canasta versions and share their good hands. However, there are multiple limitations to finding compatible and available players to play as a FB Canasta groups member.  Here are just a few of these limitations:

•  People seeking to join Canasta Facebook groups may have difficulty in identifying which groups or persons playing in person games are seeking new members or need substitute players in their game.  CanastaMatch™ will identify established groups and/or people in your city or neighboring cities who are seeking permanent and/or substitute fill-in players for their games. However, the likelihood of finding other players or groups is entirely dependent on the number of CanastaMatch members, their geographic distribution and the willingness of players in your city or region in the CanastaMatch.com database to invite or allow new players to join their canasta games.  To increase this likelihood of players to match with, please inform all your Canasta playing  friends and contacts about CanastaMatch and CanastaMatch Play to encourage them to join.  CanastaMatch will market and publicize the availability and services provided by CanastaMatch on social media and use paid advertising to get the word out.  People seeking to play in-person can select the distance they are willing to drive to play in-person.
•    Although you may periodically see people posting their personal e-mails or phone numbers on Canasta FB group pages, many people may not feel comfortable meeting “strangers” through Canasta Facebook Groups and may not wish to provide their personal contact information (e-mail, cell phone number, address) to anyone contacting them through FB direct messaging (DM).  These individuals may prefer to remain anonymous or prefer not to share their personal contact information with others when first interacting with them through a FB Canasta Group site. CanastaMatch is purpose built as a Canasta Player Membership Community and game site with our software partner MemberLeap, a 20 year old company which has built websites and their functionality for over 700 companies and organizations. The person looking for a playing partner or group can search the city, zip code and/or state for an in-person playing partner or public or private groups seeking members.  Members may also organize their own in-person playing groups and advertise their search through the Classified Advertisement feature on the website.

         If there are registered member within the CanastaMatch data set who match the city, state and/or driving time/distance which is input by requestor seeking a person or a group to play Canasta with, the requestor will pull up a list of anonymized CM Member by their ID numbers, username or other contact information which the registrant is willing to share publicly.  The person requesting to join an established game or play with other member matches, will allow their profile to share their contact information (email and phone number),state of residence, and canasta playing experience. The responder can provide whatever contact information they wish to the requestor or may decide to not respond at all.  If there is a match, the two can decide if it makes sense to meet, abiding by the safety recommendations of the CM site, and whether to participate in a game with the individual(s).

•    On Facebook Group sites, persons seeking playing partners for in-person who post  may get viewed by other group members when the post is initially made, but the viewers may be people who are out of the requestors regional area or not interested in playing at the particular time or day of the week or at a particular experience level of the requestor and will not reach back to the posting individual. These individuals most likely end up playing most of their Canasta on-line.

           It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine how many people who are seeking a game or players in their locale on Canasta FB Groups find one and actually play in a game with the person or groups they meet through  Canasta FB Groups. For example, a group of 4 people may have a regular game but need a temporary or permanent substitute or can only play certain days or times during the week. If the people seeking partners do not repost that they are looking for a game to join, their post continues to move down the posting list of the group and the post is replaced by other subsequent posts until it is very difficult to be found by other people on the FB Group site even if they lie in close proximity to the person who posted. On Canastamatch, once a player has registered their profile on CM, their contact information will always be on the site for as long as the person is a paid subscriber of CM.

•    When playing online, many people get upset when people leave a game before they are completed and end up playing with a Bot, online players may not allow you to join their game if they think your “online score” on the site (usually based on the number of games or amount of time you play online) is not high enough, even though that online score may not be a true reflection of how long you have played Canasta or how well you can play Canasta.  On CM Play, you can search for people who play at your self-assessed experience level based on the years of play.  By messaging them with your CM Play username, you can play on CanastaMatch Play with someone or a group of people who are also at a similar experience level as your. Because you all belong to the same CanataMatch community,  this process is likely to reduce the number of people who leave a game before it is completed and significantly increases your chances to get into games quickly which are both common complaints of online Canasta players. In addition, CMP has a voice communication function where you can speak to players in the game.
•    Different versions of Canasta are played across the United States and Canada.  The CM community is impartial and will welcome people who play any version of Canasta.  The versions could range from Modern American Canasta, Classic Canasta, Hand and Foot, Samba, Pennies from Heaven and other versions which may be out there.  Connecting with people who play less popular but still exciting versions of Canasta will support these players’ social and competitive needs.  In addition, the instructors online can teach various versions of Canasta.
•    There can be rules variability in Canasta games played by different groups of players.  The CanastaMatch Play game will allow the flexibility to play with commonly used “table rules” if the group wishes. Some of these modification include, modification of Special Hands and their scoring, Courtesy rule, Auto-Meld Aces etc.
•  Players may reside in two or more locations during the year. For example, Spring, Summer and Fall in the Northeast and Winter in Southwest or Southeast part of the country. CM will allow members to register in two residences and “flip the switch” when they move.  In this way, groups seeking “seasonal” members for games can identify them and invite them to play or for members to seek temporary playing situations.

CM is  also developing a mobile application for CanastaMatch members who travel or are staying in a particular location for several days.  The mobile app will allow registrants to find a group and/or location to play Canasta.

CanastaMatch Play (CMP) is an integrated Canasta game platform.   The game will be available to be played on a personal computer, a laptop computer, iPad or via a mobile phone.  Members may play unlimited games in solitaire mode or with your friends and family on CMP. CanastaMatch Play operates from a central server located in the United States.  Therefore, it is accessible through any of the devices through connection with the website.

Initially, CMP will be launched with the Modern American Canasta version available to play.  This decision was made since MAC has the most rules and took the most time to develop as an online game .  However, future Canasta games to be included will be Hand and Foot and Samba.  These games will be available in late 2025 or early 2026.

The CMP game was developed to simulate, as much as possible, the way people play Canasta in their in-person games.  The game is uniquely designed, and the game table is different and much simplified, yet very informative of game score status, compared to other subscription based online Canasta online games. 

For example, there are only two melding areas for each team or partnership.  Cards are easily selected and melded with minimal steps or hand movements required. 

The self-determined experience of the player and their state of residence will be shown on screen profile when activated.  This will facilitate players playing with individuals either at their level or higher or lower based on their personal preferences.

People may wish to “friend” players who live in their state or those they enjoy playing with on the CMP platform.  They may easily do so by adding the player’s username to their friends list.  Since the game is integrated with the CanastaMatch website, a person can engage with the other player through written and voice chat and later exchange personal contact information through the written chat feature should they wish.  

Other game features include:       

Automelding of 3’s may be turned ON or OFF

Game sounds may be turned ON or OFF

CMP allows for the modification of the look of the backs of the cards.

Bots in the game are programmed not to violate the rules of the Canasta version played.

Bots are programmed to play a competitive Canasta game at the level of an intermediate to advanced player.

Each bot in the game will play at the same level of difficulty against other bots and humans

Modification of certain rules of Modern American Canasta are allowed. 

o   Meld Base (3 or 5 may be selected)

o   Modify the types of Modern American Canasta Special Hands which can be played during the game and their score value.

o   Implement “Wipeout” scoring in the game.

o   Courtesy Special Hand function may be turned ON or OFF

An expert group of Canasta intructors will advise CanastaMatch on additional "house rules" the game should offer players.

To play the CanastaMatch Play game, you must be a CanastaMatch member and have upgraded to the CanastaMatch Plus membership type.

The CanastaMatch Play online game will follow the 11^th edition of the “Standard Rules and Instructions for Playing Modern Canasta”. This is the official rule book of the Canasta League of America (CLA). CanastaMatch™ Live and on-line Tournaments are not sanctioned by the CLA.   CanastaMatch Play online game is not affiliated with CLA.

There are some elements of the CanastaMatch Play site which allow for modifications including:

Special Hands played in the game

Scoring for Special Hands

Wipeout Scoring (On/Off)

Going Out with a Pair and a Wild (On/Off)

Using Wild Cards Only to obtain target meld score (On/Off)

Rules for the live tournament events will be provided to participants prior to the event.  The CanastaMatch Tournament Committee of expert Canasta players and other members will develop rules for both live and online tournaments.

There will be some tournament’s play and scoring rules for the CanastaMatch Play events which will differ from the CLA rules book. These modifications are meant to maximize the number of hands played in the time allotted for the live events since the physical manipulation of cards on the table is likely to slow play compared to playing online Canasta.