About Gortonasta | The Rules | Unwritten Rules and Form | Snacks

The Rules

It is unclear who first came up with the rules to Gortonasta, but many generations of Gortons have played the game with the same rules, passed down in the 'sacred scrolls'-- a handwritten document detailing the rules of the game. This document, seen at right, spells out the few solid rules of the game.

At its simpliest, Gortonasta is a card game that requires four decks of card, with jokers, for a combined 216 cards. First, we'll include here the transcribed rules from the original document and then fill in the gaps where needed with discussion.

Double Canasta

Discussion

While concise and sometimes cryptic, the rules detailed on the 'sacred scrolls' above describe every aspect of the game while only repeating information once- reiterating that a game is, in fact, the first pair to 15,000 points. Now that we've shared the rules, let's discuss them a bit to ensure they are correctly interpreted.

Gortonasta requires 4 decks of 52 cards (plus 2 Jokers each), for a total of 216 cards. Of those cards, Jokers and duces are wild and thus can be played on the table as any other playable card (not 3's). The game is played in pairs, for a total of 4 players. The game is best played on a rectangular table with four sides, with pairs sitting across from one another.

Green cards along the edges of the tables are the two teams' played cards, grouped by suit 4 through Ace. The four green cards in the center are each player's second hand.
Lastly, the red and white cards are the playing deck and discard pile.

In the center of the table are the playing deck (of all remaining cards not dealt initially), a discard pile (with one playing deck turned over to start off the discard pile), surrounded by each player's second hand.

After the cards are shuffled and dealt (by one pair), one person of the non-dealing hand starts the game by drawing two. The aim of the game is to play all of your first hand, enter your second hand, play all of those cards and complete the hand according to the rules and in doing so accruing points which are tallied throughout the game.

The point value of cards is as follows:

- Joker: 50 points
- Aces and 2's: 20 points
- King through 8's: 10 points
- 7's through 4's: 5 points

If a pair gets seven cards of the same suit (or a wild), it is called a canasta and the cards are stacked instead of spread out. If no wild cards were used to make the canasta, it is considered a red canasta and is worth 500 points. If wild cards were used, it is a black canasta and it is worth 300 points. A red 3 can be placed above a completed red canasta, which doubles the point value of the canasta to 1,000.

The player starts by deciding if they would like to pick the next two cards from the playing deck or pick up the top eight cards in the discard pile. In making this decision, the player cannot review unseen cards in the discard pile, only the top card. Once the player picks up whichever set of cards, they must then determine if they can 'open', or start laying cards down, by placing three like cards down on either their or their partner's side of the table. At various points during the game, a certain number of points are needed to 'open', or start the game for your team.

Points Needed to Open:

-If your team has less than 7,000 points: 50 points
-If your team has between 7,000 and 9,000 points: 90 points
-If your team has 9,000 or more points: 120 points

To successfully finish the hand the player must meet certain criteria:

- The player must be able to play all of their cards (including a possible discard)
- The player's pair must have at least two canastas, one of which must be red
- The player must ask their partner if the partner would like them to 'go out' - or end the game at that time

When a player can play no more cards in their turn, they must discard one card. Gameplay continues clockwise around the table, each pair of players striving to play or discard all their cards, both in their first and second hands, in order to have their teams be the ones to finish the hand, or go out, first. Before a player can go out, they must ask their team member if they would like to go out before doing so.

Once one team has gone out, all cards remaining in play (either in a player's current hand or second hand if they have not picked up their second hand) are totalled and count as negative points. All cards that have been played, either in completed canastas or ones in progress, count as positive points. The winning team also gets a 200 point bonus for going out.

After a hand is over, the opposite team shuffles than did previously and gameplay continues as outlined above until a team reaches 15,000 points.

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