The short answer
Modern American Canasta uses two 52-card decks plus four jokers. That is 108 cards total. Both decks are shuffled together and used as one stock pile.
Why two decks?
Canasta is a melding game built around making sets of seven or more cards. With only one deck, the math falls apart. Two decks give players enough duplicates to build canastas (the seven-card melds the game is named after) without depleting the stock too quickly.
What about Hand and Foot?
Hand and Foot is the most common Canasta variant, especially for groups of four to six players. It uses one deck per player, plus jokers. So:
- Four players: five decks total (one per player plus one extra)
- Six players: seven decks total
- Eight players: typically seven to eight decks
Our 6-deck Canasta set ships with all the cards you need for Hand and Foot up to six players.
Do the decks need to match?
The two decks should have the same back design so cards in melds and the discard pile look uniform. Most Canasta sets ship as a matched pair for exactly this reason.
Quick reference
| Game | Decks needed | Total cards |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Canasta (2 to 4 players) | 2 decks plus 4 jokers | 108 |
| Hand and Foot (4 players) | 5 decks plus jokers | ~270 |
| Hand and Foot (6 players) | 7 decks plus jokers | ~378 |
Looking for a set with everything included? Browse our Canasta game sets, all of which ship with the right number of cards for the version you want to play.
