Samba
The three-deck canasta game where a run of seven cards in one suit, the samba, outscores any canasta. The four-player partnership rules, how other tables play it, and a score keeper for tonight.
What you need
Four players in two partnerships, partners facing each other, and three standard decks with six jokers shuffled together: 162 cards. Twos and jokers are wild. Fours up to aces are the natural cards, and the threes have jobs of their own. You play hand after hand, and the game ends when a team reaches 10,000 points.
Two, three or five can play, each for themselves. Six play as three partnerships, with two other players seated between each pair of partners. Samba is a canasta game, so if you know canasta you know most of it already. The parts that change are marked as they come up.
Which samba this is. This page teaches the classic three-deck game, the one pagat.com records as Samba: 162 cards, 15 dealt to each player, two drawn a turn, and a game to 10,000. In the United States, many groups now play Modern Samba, with six decks, or Super Samba, with seven. Those are separate games with their own rules, taught by the Samba League of America. If your group plays with six or seven decks, learn the game from the league.
The deal
Each player gets 15 cards. The rest of the pack goes face down in the middle as the stock, and its top card is turned over to start the discard pile. The player to the left of the dealer goes first, and play runs clockwise. With six players, each gets 13.
On your turn
- Draw two cards from the stock, or take from the discard pile instead under the rules below.
- Meld if you can and want to: start a group or a sequence, or add to one your team already has.
- Discard one card to end your turn.
Two cards in and one card out means your hand grows as the hand goes on. Some players keep their black threes, twos and jokers in a separate pile so the hand stays manageable.
Melds
A meld is a set of cards your team lays face up on the table. In a partnership game, melds belong to the team: your partner can add to one you started, and you can add to theirs. Samba has two kinds of meld, groups and sequences, and the full-size version of each is what the game is about. Seven or more cards of one rank make a canasta. Seven cards in a row in one suit make a samba. To go out, your team needs two of them: two sambas, two canastas, or one of each.
Groups and canastas
A group is three or more natural cards of one rank, fours up to aces. Wild cards can stand in, within two limits: natural cards must outnumber wild cards at least two to one, and a group never holds more than two wild cards. So a group of three to five cards may include one wild card, and a group of six or more may include two.
Seven cards or more make a canasta, and a canasta can keep growing. A canasta with no wild cards is pure. Square it into a pile with a red card on top. A canasta with wild cards is mixed, and takes a black card on top. Add a wild card to a pure canasta and it becomes mixed.
| Canasta | What is in it | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Pure | Seven or more cards, no wild cards | 500 |
| Mixed | Seven or more cards with one or two wild cards | 300 |
One difference from canasta: a team may keep more than one group of the same rank. If your aces already carry a joker, you can start a second meld of aces on their own and build it toward a pure canasta. You may also merge two groups of the same rank on your turn.
Sequences and sambas
This is the part canasta does not have. A sequence is three or more natural cards of one suit in consecutive rank: the six, seven and eight of hearts, say. No wild cards and no threes, so a sequence runs from the four to the ace at the widest. You extend it from either end, up to seven cards. Seven cards is a samba, worth 1,500, and nothing more can be added to it.
With threes and wild cards out, only five sambas are possible in each suit: four to ten, five to jack, six to queen, seven to king, and eight to ace. Every one of them holds the eight, nine and ten of its suit. If two of the three eights of spades are already locked in a canasta, a spade samba is a long shot. The better play is to turn those cards toward groups.
Two short sequences already on the table stay separate. You cannot join them into a samba by melding the card between them.
Your first meld
The first time your team melds in a hand, the cards you lay down must add up to a minimum. The minimum depends on your team's score before the hand began. Count card values only. Red threes, sambas and canastas carry bonuses, and bonuses do not count toward the minimum.
| Team score | First meld |
|---|---|
| Below zero | 15 |
| 0 to 1,495 | 50 |
| 1,500 to 2,995 | 90 |
| 3,000 to 6,995 | 120 |
| 7,000 or more | 150 |
Taking the discard pile
Canasta players watch for the frozen pile. Samba has no freezing, because the pile is always as hard to take as a frozen one. There are two ways in, and both are narrow.
- With a natural pair. Hold two natural cards that match the top card's rank and you can take the whole pile. Meld the top card with your pair first, then pick up the rest, then make any other melds you like and discard. If this is your team's first meld, the top card plus cards from your hand must reach the minimum before you touch the rest of the pile.
- Onto a sequence. If your team has a sequence of fewer than seven cards on the table and the top card fits on either end of it, you may take that one card. Add it to the sequence and draw nothing from the stock. The rest of the pile stays where it is.
Nothing else takes it. You cannot add the top card to a group already on the table without a natural pair from your hand, and you cannot take it to start a new sequence. With the six, seven, eight and nine of clubs melded and a ten of clubs on the pile, take it. With those four still in your hand, leave it.
No one can take the pile when a three, a two or a joker is on top. Discard one of those and you have blocked the pile for the next player.
Threes
Red threes are bonus cards and nothing else. You may meld one face up on its own, and you do not have to. Each melded red three is worth 100, and all six are worth 1,000 instead of 600. That holds as long as your team has the two sambas or canastas it would need to go out. Without them, each melded red three costs you 100 instead. A red three still in a hand when the hand ends costs 750, whether it is one red three or several. You can also discard a red three to block the pile.
Black threes are blockers. Discard one and the next player cannot take the pile. You can meld black threes as a group under the usual group rules, even seven of them for a canasta, and only on the turn you go out.
Going out
You go out by melding every card in your hand, or all but one and discarding it. Your team needs two full-size melds on the table first: two sambas, two canastas, or one of each. Going out is worth 200.
Without those two melds you must keep at least one card. If you meld down to a single card, you keep it and say pass instead of discarding, and that is the only time a pass is allowed. You may ask your partner whether to go out before you do, and the answer binds you. You may also go out without asking.
The hand can also end at the stock. When one card is left, the next player to draw takes that one card instead of two and finishes the turn as usual. Once the stock is empty, play continues until someone needs to draw and cannot. Then the hand is scored, and nobody gets the bonus for going out.
Between hands: shuffling 162 cards
Three decks, two loads.
Lotus holds up to two standard decks, 104 cards, at a time. The samba pack is 162 cards, so split it about in half and run each half as its own load.
A finished hand goes back into the pack as sambas and canastas, seven cards of one suit or one rank in a row. After each pass, trade half of one load for half of the other, so cards cross between the loads. Drop a load in, touch the sensor, and a pass takes about five seconds. Three passes suit a home game, and about seven bring a single 52-card deck to near-random.
Card sizes and finishes are covered in what cards work with a card shuffler.
How to use Lotus for Samba
Samba is three decks, 162 cards, more than one load, so the pack goes through a Lotus card shuffler in two halves. The player dealing the next hand shuffles once the hand is scored.
| At the table | With Lotus |
|---|---|
| The pack | Three standard decks and six jokers, 162 cards. |
| Loads | Two, about 81 cards each. Lotus holds up to two standard decks, 104 cards, loaded together. A second sensor inside reads how many cards are loaded, so there is nothing to select. |
| Who shuffles | The player dealing the next hand. One touch on the sensor on top starts each pass. No buttons, nothing to grip. |
| When | After the hand is scored. Count the melds and the cards left in each hand first, since every card on the table goes back into the pack. |
| Passes | Drop a half into the center tray and touch the sensor. Lotus deals the cards into two piles. Stack one pile on the other, and that is one pass. A pass takes about five seconds. After each pass, trade half of one load for half of the other, so cards cross between the two. Run several passes. A finished hand comes back as sambas and canastas, seven cards of one suit or one rank in a row, and the passes are what break them up. |
| The discard pile | It goes back in with everything else. Gather the melds, the discard pile, the stock and the cards from every hand, turn them face down, and square them into two halves. |
| The deal moves | Lotus runs on a 9V battery with no cord, so it goes to whoever deals the next hand. |
Two decks on the table is Canasta, and five is Hand and Foot. Every game is in the game table.
Scoring
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Joker | 50 |
| Two, ace | 20 |
| Eight to king | 10 |
| Four to seven | 5 |
| Black three | 5 |
| Red three | No card value, bonus only |
| Item | Points |
|---|---|
| Samba | 1,500 |
| Pure canasta | 500 |
| Mixed canasta | 300 |
| Going out | 200 |
| Red three melded, with two sambas or canastas | 100 each, 1,000 for all six |
| Red three melded, without them | Minus 100 each |
| Red threes left in hand | Minus 750, however many |
At the end of a hand, each team adds its bonuses and the value of every card it melded, then subtracts the value of the cards left in both partners' hands. The first team to reach 10,000 at the end of a hand wins. If both teams reach it on the same hand, the higher total wins.
The cards in a samba or a canasta count as well as the bonus. A samba from eight to ace is worth 1,580: 1,500 for the samba, 60 for the eight through king, and 20 for the ace. To count melded cards quickly, stack them in piles worth 100.
A worked hand. One team goes out with a samba, a pure canasta, a mixed canasta and three red threes on the table. Its melded cards add up to 740, and the partner is left holding 60. That is 1,500 for the samba, 500 and 300 for the canastas, 300 for the red threes, 740 in cards and 200 for going out, less 60: 3,480. The other team has a mixed canasta and two red threes melded, 410 in cards and 125 left in hand. One canasta is not the two melds the red threes need, so the threes count against them: 300, less 200, plus 410, less 125, is 385. Had one partner also been caught with a red three in hand, take off 750 more and the hand ends at minus 365.
How other tables play
The rules above are the game as pagat.com records it. Its cousins change the deal, the sequences and what a team needs to go out. Settle these before the first deal.
| Rule | This page | Other tables play |
|---|---|---|
| Decks | Three, 162 cards | Modern Samba uses six decks and Super Samba uses seven. Both are separate games with their own rules |
| Deal | 15 cards | 13 cards with six players |
| Players | Four in two partnerships | Two, three or five play alone; six play in three partnerships |
| Wild cards in a sequence | None | Black Samba allows a wild card in a sequence |
| Melds made only of wild cards | Not allowed | Bolivia allows them, and seven wild cards make a bolivia worth 2,500 |
| Melds needed to go out | Two sambas, two canastas, or one of each | Bolivia: two seven-card melds, at least one of them a sequence |
| Melds of threes | Black threes as a group when going out, red threes one at a time | Royal Canasta plays melds of seven threes, red or black |
Rules as recorded by pagat.com, Samba, with its notes on Bolivia, Black Samba and Royal Canasta, and pagat.com, Canasta for the base game. Deck counts for Modern Samba and Super Samba from the Samba League of America.
Common questions
How many cards are in a samba deck?
162: three standard 52-card decks and six jokers.
How many cards do you deal in samba?
15 each with two to five players, and 13 each with six. You draw two cards a turn and discard one, so hands grow as the hand goes on.
What is a samba in the card game?
A sequence of seven cards in one suit with no wild cards, worth 1,500. Only five are possible in each suit, from four to ten up to eight to ace, and nothing can be added to a finished samba.
What is the difference between samba and canasta?
Samba uses three decks instead of two, deals 15 cards instead of 11, and draws two cards a turn instead of one. It adds sequences in a suit, and a seven-card sequence outscores any canasta. The discard pile is never unfrozen, a team needs two sambas or canastas to go out instead of one, going out is 200 instead of 100, and the game runs to 10,000 instead of 5,000.
How do you go out in samba?
Meld every card in your hand, or all but one and discard it, once your team has two sambas, two canastas, or one of each on the table. Going out is worth 200. Without those two melds you must keep at least one card.
Score keeper
Enter each team's sambas, canastas and red threes, the card points it melded and the cards left in its hands, then mark who went out. Add the next hand with the plus button. It shows the first meld each team needs and keeps the game on this device.
| This hand | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hand score |