The Game Senior Citizen’s Love to Play: Hand and Foot Canasta

My favorite game to play with my senior citizen parents is a card game called canasta, specifically hand and foot canasta. The game is a social card game meaning you can chat while playing without missing a beat. A complete round takes about an hour and fifteen minutes, just enough time to be fun and not so long that your favorite senior citizen falls asleep from weariness. Seniors (or juniors learning) with memory problems are with difficulties remembering can be prompted since the rules are fairly easy to remember. Common prompts include “Do you have any [list out canasta numbers]”, “can you go down?” or “can you go out?”

Our entire family plays the game, many of my nieces and nephews learned at eight years old and still beg to be allowed to play. My mom organized parties where the game was played in tables of four. Since four rounds are played, this makes mixing and matching among tables a sure way to get everyone to mix. Hearing is not required since partners aren’t allowed to talk across the table. Cards displayed on the table provide the necessary information to cooperate. Only scorekeepers and the partners that keep the cards really need to be able to count.

Benefits for Senior Citizens:

Hand dexterity is encouraged. Counting, sorting and matching keep minds active. Moving from tables encourages some exercise. Companionship and social interaction are encouraged. Competition isn’t very fierce. Conversation can be limited or expansive depending on the needs of the group.

What is needed to play the game:

· A small card table

· Tv trays for drinks and snacks are nice to have

· A notepad and pencil for the scorekeeper

·(for senior citizens who can’t hold many cards or whose hands are stiff)

· Card shuffler (good for senior citizens with stiff hands)

· Pillow seats (good for tail bones that don’t like sitting for long)

To play the game, each person is dealt eleven cards. Each player takes turns selecting two cards from the pile or off the discard pile and throwing one away. The object of the game is to make collections of seven cards of the same number i.e. seven fours, fives, sixes, through kings and aces. When a player collects three of one face card, they can place it on the table. Their partner can play singles on the piles on the table.

Restrictions:

Twos and Jokers are wild and can be used in place of one of the numbered cards to make a set of seven.

Black threes have to be discarded. Red threes have to be discarded or played on a red (no wild cards used) canasta.

No discards can be used when going out.

Only two wild cards can be used on a canasta. Only one wild card can be used to lie a pile down, unless there is more than three of the one number card.

Scoring:

4-8’s count as five points

9-K’s count as ten points

Aces and twos count as twenty points

Jokers count as fifty points

Black threes don’t count, red threes count 100 if played on a red canasta, otherwise they count 500

Red canasta’s (no wild cards used) count 500 points

Black canasta’s (wild cards used) count 300 points

The team that goes out (meets all requirements) is given 100 extra points.

When a team goes out, all of the canasta’s for each team are added up and listed for the team on a scoring pad as the first score. The second score comes from counting each card that was used in a canasta or laid on the table. All cards held in the hand when a person goes out is subtracted. If a team has not made a canasta, all of the cards are counted back (as a negative number on the score sheet).

Additional Rules for the Hand and Foot Variation:

A game of hand and foot canasta isn’t complete until four rounds are played. Instead of dealing just one set of cards, two sets of eleven cards are dealt at the beginning, one a hand, the other the foot. A person must play all eleven cards and any drawn from the pile before going to their foot. They can have a discard when going into their foot, but can’t play it until their next turn.

In round one:

Each person draws two cards and discards one. If a card is picked off the pile, the person must have a pair of the card showing on top of the discard pile, cards on the table or the minimum amount for going down and they can draw three cards.

The minimum amount for going down is 90 points worth of piles of three or more. Two black and two red canasta are required before going out.

In round two:

Each person draws three cards and the minimum amount for going down in 120 points. Three red and three black canastas are required before going out.

In round three:

Each person draws four cards and the minimum amount for going down is 150 points. Four red and four black canastas are required before going out.

In round four:

Each person draws five cards and the minimum amount for going down is 180 points. Five red and five black canastas are required before going out.

Playing with a Group of people:

Tables of four can be set up. Winners of a round can go to one table and losers to another table. Or a list of table numbers can be provided. Tables of two or three play as individuals instead of as a team. Tables of six can play with three on a team, with team members alternating. The object of having many rounds is each round players can swap partners and tables so everyone plays with someone new.