Hi Canasta Lovers,
It is chilly here in paradise today. Record breaking cold temperatures in south Florida according to my favorite weatherman, Al Roker. I'm not complaining, goddesses, the sun is shining, the temperature will warm up into the sixties and unlike our friends up north we have no need for shovels, snow blowers, boots or gloves.
Last time I wrote I promised an interesting hand. Well, the stars aligned for this beginner group last week. Nicki and Mickey were the lucky partners playing against Katie and Suzy*. It was the second hand of the lesson and Nicki and Mickey had already amassed 2025 points. Early in the hand Nicki tried for a wild card canasta, laying down three big jokers and two deuces. Mickey's turn, she closes it up with a fourth big joker and another deuce. 2500 beautiful points! Across the table Katie and Suzy were struggling to open with 125. In order to keep more points in her hand Suzy split her sevens (my students will tell you how I feel about that move). Play goes on, the pack gets bigger and bigger. Nicki and Mickey are still sitting with their big joker canasta and 1100 points in threes. They are watching the other teams discards very carefully. They know where seven sevens are and are salivating for the pack. Turn card...opponent Suzy throws her third ace into the discard pile and Mickey takes that big, juicy seven laden, virgin pack with her pair of aces. Wow !!! The aces and sevens cancel each other out but they covered the five threes with three clean canastas (1500 points) and over seven hundred points in count. One hand, a very classy 5800 points!!! The next hand was a little anticlimactic, Nicki and Mickey only made a regular wild card canasta, a final score after three hands of 10,355 points. After I regained my voice I told them to get in their car and hurry down to the Hard Rock Casino. That kind of luck doesn't come around every day.
Classes are continuing with two new groups, learning to play our favorite game. Hope something as interesting and fun happens for them.
Stay warm canasta Goddesses, it will hit eighty degrees again before you can shout PAIRS!
Sending love to all,
Barbara
*Don't try to figure out who's who. I change the names to protect the innocent!
