Lissy's Lesson

Hi Canasta Lovers,

One rainy day last summer as Paradise turned into Dante's Inferno, I taught my friend Lissy to play Canasta.  Lissy is the kind of girl who is interested in everything and talks to everybody but she had never wanted to get involved with a card game.  But it was a hot, steamy afternoon and with nothing else to do we decided to give it a shot.

Having no idea where to begin, I took a deep breath and dealt out four hands. We played everything open-handed. I told Lissy to set her hand up chronologically from low to high and I likewise set up the other three hands. Quite a lot of cards on the table.  We started to play and as we picked and discarded I tried to explain: What is a meld? Where do the 125 points come from? What the heck is a clean triple?

By the time we got to aces and sevens I felt like I was teaching a new language rather than a card game. Hard to make a newbie see why sometimes you can put those three pretty queens down without a wild card but not those delicious twenty point aces.  "And what's with the sevens" Lissy asked , "I have a pair why can't I take the pack now?"  Well Lissy there are somethings you have to take on faith. It will all make sense soon.

By the end of the first hand of the first lesson we had 108 cards open on the table, it looked like a giant game of concentration!  We did keep at it for a couple of hours, all the while Lissy saying that she didn't get it, she was never going to get it.

Well, of course, she got it. Now, a few months later, Lissy is a pro. She plays a couple of times a week and is invited into the very best games in Paradise!

That was my first attempt at teaching, I liked doing it so much that I thought teaching the game I love to friends and neighbors would be a fun thing to do. And so here I am meeting and having fun with so many future canasta goddesses.

By the way at yesterday's canasta game a question was raised about "going out" (not dating). We play that at the end of the game you can go out with two face cards and a wild card BUT what about  three or four face cards with a wild card? I thought, for lack of any other info, it should be a table rule. Input please.

Live and love, Canasta Gal