Play Online Canasta

Canasta is truly a classic card game and it first appeared in Uruguay in 1940. The game eventually spread to Argentina and then reached a huge popularity in the whole of Latin America. The next step was obvious as the game reached United States, where the popularity reached an all time high, being the most popular card game then. The Manhattan Regency Club eventually created standard official rules for the game and the name that it received was Classic Canasta. This is the game that most of us play today. For another interesting article on games origin, read about gin rummy history.

Even though nowadays Canasta is not the most popular game of cards that is played, at one point in time it was in USA. As time passed different variations of Canasta appeared like Bolivia, Pennies from Heaven or Samba.

The publicity that this game received was tremendous. It appeared in well known publications like Newsweek, The New York Times and Time Magazin. Thanks to the articles that were written the popularity of the game grew even more.
There is a similarity between Mahjong and Canasta as both are basically Rummy games. The problem is that it was never knew who invented the game. We just know that it appeared if we look at most publications. You will want to know that canasta appeared due to it being invented by Alberto Serrato and Segundo Santos. It seems that they wanted the game to be similar to rummy and this is what they did, in a combination that resulted in a game that was called Cooncan. As time passed the game rules were improved and the result was Canasta.

In 1953 we already saw around 30 books that were written about the game of Canasta. Most of them ended up being bestsellers and this is a good indication that the game was highly popular. You should know that even soviet athletes were playing this game although soviets usually dislike anything that appeared as popular in USA.

The interesting fact about Canasta history is the fact that it is still not over. Although we do not expect to see rules changing in the future, there is a strong chance that more people are going to start playing, especially due to the possibility of playing online. Canasta is definitely a highly entertaining family game and we are sure that you will love it if you give it a chance. Learn the different canasta glossary to know how to play and using the correct terms.