How to Play

A three-deck Canasta variant where partnerships also build seven-card suited runs, called sambas, for huge 1,500-point bonuses.

Samba is a three-deck Canasta variant in which partnerships build not only the familiar rank-based melds (groups) but also suit-based runs. A canasta is still any meld of seven or more cards, but a seven-card suited run, known as a samba, is worth more than a canasta and counts toward going out. Each turn a player draws two cards (instead of one), may pick up the entire discard pile under tightened conditions, extends or creates melds, and discards. Play ends when a partnership goes out after building the required combination of canastas and sambas, and the first partnership to 10,000 points wins the match.

Players

Four players in two fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite, is the standard form. The game also plays with two players (each for themselves) or six players in three partnerships of two. With six players the deal is reduced to 13 cards each.

Card Deck

• Three standard 52-card decks shuffled together with six jokers, for a total of 162 cards.
• Jokers and all twos are wild cards.
• Red threes (hearts and diamonds) are bonus cards, worth 100 points each or 1,000 if a team captures all six.
• Black threes (spades and clubs) are blocking cards; they may only be melded to go out, and only in groups of three or four of a kind.
• Ranks inside a run go low to high: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, but an ace attached to a 2-3-4 run counts as high (K-Q-J-10 and 4-3-2-A are both legal sub-sequences; A-2-3 is not).A♠2♠3♠4♠5♠6♠7♠8♠9♠10♠J♠Q♠K♠

Objective

Be the first partnership to score 10,000 points. Points come from melding cards, completing canastas (seven-card groups) and sambas (seven-card suited runs), collecting red threes, and going out.

Setup and Deal

1. Shuffle the three decks plus jokers together. Partners sit opposite one another.
2. The dealer gives 15 cards to each player (13 each with six players), one at a time.
3. Turn the next card face up to start the discard pile (if it is a joker, deuce, or red three, bury further cards on top until a natural non-red-three shows).
4. Any player dealt a red three places it face up in their partnership's scoring area and draws a replacement from the stock, repeating if necessary.
5. The remaining cards form the face-down stock.

Gameplay

1. Draw: On your turn, take two cards from the top of the stock, or pick up the whole discard pile under the take conditions below.
2. Take the discard pile: You may take the pile only if you can immediately meld the top discard, either by pairing it with two natural cards of the same rank from your hand, or by extending an existing meld of your partnership. With a black three on top, the pile is frozen and cannot be taken until someone legally takes it.
3. Meld: Place new melds in front of your partnership or add cards to existing partnership melds. A meld is either a group (three or more cards of the same rank, at most two wild cards) or a run (three or more consecutive cards in one suit, no wild cards). Black three groups may only be melded on the turn you go out.
4. Replace a wild card in a run: If you hold the natural card that a wild card is substituting for in an incomplete group, you may swap it in and keep the wild card. Runs do not allow wild cards at all, so no swap is needed there.
5. Discard: End your turn by placing one card face up on the discard pile. You may not discard a card that would take your hand to zero unless your partnership has met the going-out requirements.

Melds, Canastas, and Sambas

• Group: Three to six cards of the same rank. Wild cards may be included, but at most two per group, and the group must always contain more natural cards than wild cards.
• Canasta: Any completed seven-card group. A natural (clean) canasta has no wild cards and scores 500 bonus points; a mixed (dirty) canasta has one or two wild cards and scores 300.
• Run: Three to six consecutive same-suit cards, without wild cards.
• Samba: A completed seven-card run, worth 1,500 bonus points. Once completed, the samba is closed and no further cards can be added.
• Initial meld requirement: The first meld of a deal must have a combined point value of at least 50 if your team has under 1,500 points, 90 if 1,500 to 6,999, and 150 from 7,000 onward.

Going Out

• A partnership may go out only when it has completed at least two canastas, or two sambas, or one canasta and one samba.
• To go out, a player must play or discard their last card. The last play may include a fresh meld or an addition to existing melds.
• A player may ask their partner "May I go out?" before their final plays; the partner's answer (yes or no) is binding for that turn.
• Going out concealed (melding the entire hand on a single turn with no prior melds by the player, and without picking up the pile) earns a 200-point bonus on top of the standard 100-point going-out bonus.

Scoring

• Card point values: Joker 50, Ace 20, Two 20, King 10, Queen 10, Jack 10, 10 10, 9 10, 8 10, 7 5, 6 5, 5 5, 4 5, Black three 5.A♠K♠Q♠J♠2♠
• Bonuses: Samba 1,500, natural canasta 500, mixed canasta 300, each red three 100, all six red threes 1,000, going out 100, going out concealed 200.
• End-of-hand tally: Add up the point values of cards melded by the partnership, add all bonuses, then subtract the point value of cards still in each partner's hand. Record the running total.
• Penalty for unmet red threes: If a partnership collects red threes but never reaches the initial meld, each red three scores minus 100 instead of plus 100.
• Match: The first partnership to reach 10,000 cumulative points wins the match after the current deal is completed.

Winning

A deal ends when one partnership goes out (legally, after meeting the canasta-or-samba requirement), at which point all bonuses are added, remaining hand cards are subtracted, and the running match score is updated. The match is won by the first partnership to reach 10,000 cumulative points; if both sides cross 10,000 in the same deal, the higher total wins.

Common Variations

• Bolivia: A close cousin using three decks and adding escaleras (suited runs) plus extra wild-card combinations, with a 15,000-point target.
• Two-player Samba: Each player is dealt 15 cards and plays alone; going out requires two canastas or sambas owned individually.
• Uruguayan Samba: Allows only up to two wild cards across all groups in a deal (not per group), tightening wild-card strategy.
• Open Samba: Permits wild cards inside sambas at the cost of their bonus (the resulting run scores 1,000 instead of 1,500).

Tips and Strategy

• Build toward sambas aggressively when you already hold four or more cards of one suit in a short span; the 1,500-point bonus dwarfs a canasta.
• Coordinate discards with your partner. Discarding a rank your partnership has melded almost always invites the opponents to grab the pile; discard dead ranks (those already threefold in your partnership's melds) whenever possible.
• Freeze the discard pile (by discarding a wild card or a black three) when the opponents are hungry for it; the pile then cannot be taken except with two natural cards from the hand matching the top discard.
• Guard the red threes. Even flipping a single red three late without meeting the initial meld converts a 100-point gift into a 100-point penalty.
• Do not rush to go out. A well-built deal can score over 4,000 points in a single round, so it usually pays to delay going out by one turn if doing so completes an extra samba or canasta.

Glossary

• Samba: A seven-card suited run, worth 1,500 bonus points.
• Canasta: A seven-card group; natural (no wild cards) scores 500, mixed (one or two wild cards) scores 300.
• Meld: Any valid group or run on the table.
• Wild card: A joker or a two, usable as a substitute in groups (not in runs).
• Freeze: A discard pile that cannot be taken except by a natural pair matching the top card, triggered when a wild card or a black three is discarded.
• Initial meld: The first meld a partnership puts down each deal; must meet a minimum point total scaled to running score.
• Concealed out: Going out in one turn without any earlier melds by that player; worth a 200-point bonus.