Canasta Express is classic Canasta, the Hoyle game of melds and wild twos, for four players in two partnerships, or two players head to head, each on their own phone. Meld cards of a rank, make canastas of seven, take the pile when you can, and be first side to go out.
About Canasta Express
Canasta came from Uruguay in the 1940s and swept the card tables of the world. It is a rummy game for partners, and it needs four people at one table. Canasta Express keeps the game and drops the table: one phone hosts, the other three join it with a short code, and nothing needs a server or an account. Bots take any empty seat, and your partner can be one.
Two decks and four jokers are dealt eleven cards each; twos and jokers are wild. On your turn you draw from the stock, or take the whole discard pile when you can use its top card, then meld and discard. A meld is three or more of a rank, with more natural cards than wilds, and seven cards make a canasta: 500 for a natural one, 300 for a mixed one. Red threes are bonus cards, and black threes may be melded only to go out.
The first meld of a hand has to reach a minimum that grows with the side's score. The pile is frozen against a side that has not melded, and for everybody once a wild card or a red three is on it. A side goes out with a canasta, after asking its partner: "May I go out?". A game is played to 3,000, 5,000 or 7,500.
Made for the journey
- No internet, no mobile data. The phones talk to each other directly, so a game carries on through tunnels, ghats and stretches with no signal at all.
- Everyone on their own phone. Nobody passes a handset round, and nobody sees a hand that is not theirs.
- Short of players? Bots take the empty seats, each with a setting for how closely it follows the play.
- A dropped link is not the end of the hand. A phone that loses the connection can join the same table again.
- No sign-in and no real money. Install it, open it, play.
How playing together works, and tips for trains, buses and flights
Features
- Canasta for four players in two partnerships, or two players, each on their own phone
- Both sides' melds laid out by rank, with canastas marked natural or mixed
- The first-meld minimum, and what the cards raised add up to, always on the screen
- "May I go out?" asked of your partner, who answers on their phone
- The pile frozen or open, shown as it is; red and black threes as Hoyle plays them
- Quick game: save a table of bots, and open it in one tap
- Bots to fill any seat, your partner's included
- Connects over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Google Nearby, with no internet
- No sign-in, no server, no real money