Canasta score sheet
Four hands, each with its own block: canastas counted by type, red threes, going out, card points down and the penalty for what stayed in hand. The minimum you have to lay down first climbs with your score, and the sheet works out which band you are in.
Keep score in the browser
The grid below is the sheet. Type into it and the totals, bonuses and thresholds are applied as you go; press Print at any point and the paper version comes out with whatever is in the boxes.
Names and scores stay in this browser and nothing is uploaded. Where a game has competing conventions the sheet says which one it applies. Check this before you rely on it. This score sheet and scorekeeper is provided free and without warranty, and its results are not professional advice.
Canasta score sheet
Date ____________
| Score | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hand 1 | ||||||
| Natural canastas500 each | ||||||
| Mixed canastas300 each | ||||||
| Red threes100 each, 800 for four | ||||||
| Went out100 | ||||||
| Card points down | ||||||
| Left in handsubtracted | ||||||
| Hand 1 total | ||||||
| Hand 2 | ||||||
| Natural canastas500 each | ||||||
| Mixed canastas300 each | ||||||
| Red threes100 each, 800 for four | ||||||
| Went out100 | ||||||
| Card points down | ||||||
| Left in handsubtracted | ||||||
| Hand 2 total | ||||||
| Hand 3 | ||||||
| Natural canastas500 each | ||||||
| Mixed canastas300 each | ||||||
| Red threes100 each, 800 for four | ||||||
| Went out100 | ||||||
| Card points down | ||||||
| Left in handsubtracted | ||||||
| Hand 3 total | ||||||
| Hand 4 | ||||||
| Natural canastas500 each | ||||||
| Mixed canastas300 each | ||||||
| Red threes100 each, 800 for four | ||||||
| Went out100 | ||||||
| Card points down | ||||||
| Left in handsubtracted | ||||||
| Hand 4 total | ||||||
| Total | ||||||
Natural canastas pay 500, mixed ones 300, and the meld you have to lay down first rises with your score.
Which minimum applies to you now?
The first meld of a hand has to reach a figure decided by what your side already has on the sheet, and the boundaries get crossed mid-game. Give it the running total and it names the band.
A worked example
One natural canasta, two mixed, two red threes, going out, 320 in card points and 45 left in hand.
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| Canasta and go-out bonuses | 1200 |
| Red threes | 200 |
| Card points less the hand | 275 |
| Total | 1675 |
Five hundred for pure, three hundred for mixed
A canasta of seven with no wild cards in it is worth five hundred; one containing any wild card is three hundred. Going out adds a hundred, and doing it having melded nothing at all beforehand adds another hundred on top. Those four figures are the whole bonus structure, and counting how many of each you made is a faster and less error-prone entry than adding them up.
The card points on the table are entered separately, and the cards stranded in hand are entered as a positive figure and taken off. Splitting the block that way means a hand can be recalculated from the sheet weeks later, which a single scrawled total never permits.
The threshold moves as you pull ahead
What your side must lay down on its first meld of a hand depends on what your side already has. Below zero it is fifteen. From zero up to just under fifteen hundred it is fifty. From there to just under three thousand it is ninety. At three thousand and above it is a hundred and twenty.
The consequence is a handbrake bolted onto whichever side is ahead, and the boundaries catch people out constantly because they are crossed mid-game. The block header shows the band that applies given the running total, so the question is answered before somebody lays down short and has to pick it all back up.
Red threes cut both ways
Each red three is worth a hundred to a side that has melded, and eight hundred for holding all four. A side that never gets a meld down has the same figures counted against it, which converts a quiet hand into a serious loss and is the sharpest edge in the game.
They are entered here as a count on their own line, with the sign handled for you, so the four-of-them case is not missed and the negative case is not accidentally added. It is a rule people remember in the abstract and forget at the moment it applies to them.
Common questions
How many hands does a game run to?
Play usually continues until a side passes five thousand, which typically takes four to six hands. Four blocks are printed; a longer game carries on with a second page and the running totals brought over.
What makes a canasta natural rather than mixed?
The complete absence of wild cards. Seven of a rank with no twos and no jokers is natural at five hundred; a single wild anywhere in it makes the whole thing mixed at three hundred.
Can a side go out without a canasta?
In the standard rules, no — at least one canasta is required before going out, which is what stops a fast hand ending before anything has been built. Some variants relax it, and the sheet does not enforce it either way.
Do red threes have to be melded immediately?
They are placed face up as soon as they are drawn and replaced from the stock, so they are never really held. The scoring question is only whether the side got a meld down at all by the end of the hand.
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