Evening star., 1949-09-27

IL IL not easy 10 place tne strategy
Of canasta within defined limits.
The number Of combinations appears
endless 80 that for practical pur-
poses only broad general hints can
be offered. We shall examine the
subject under various headings, such
ss the initial meld, discarding, hand
management and going out.
The Initial Meld.
Where 1t Is convenieut to do 80,
the initial meld should be made as
early as possible. The side meldingI
first has a distinct advantage over
Its adversaries, for as soon as the
initial meld Is made one may take
the discard pile with the aid of a
wild card, whereas the opponents
must still have q natural pair
matching the top Of the discard
pile before they can 60 In. How
ever, making the initial meld fire.
quently involves a sacrifice and in
such case one should weigh care
fully the advantages and disad-
vantages Of spreading the first meld.
At the outset Of the game, when
only so points are required for the
initial meld, you should not hurry
to spread the first meld If 1t will be
necessary to use up great number
Of cards; for depletion of your hand
is a serious handicap. There are
few things more important in the
game than possession of a great
many cards. When your hand Is
reduced to very few cards, the enemy
Is almost sure to gain the upper
hand, 50 that If it will take as many
rs six cards for you to 60 down.
postpone such action for while.
For If you make the initial meld at
this great cost, you will be left with
less than half your original hand.
BY delaying a while you may find
that you are able to pick up the
discard pile as you make your
initial meld.
With only five cards left in your
hand you will find it extremely
difficult to make subsequent melds.
One must keep his eyes constantly
focused on. melds rather than on
going out. The bonus for going out
is insignificant and the act Of going
out should be incidental. You can
not hope to score heavily without a
great many cards.
The ideal initial meld, when only
30 points are required, is three aces
This involves the least possible de-
pletion of your holding. Further
more, 1t does not require your giving
up wild card, which you may find
very useful as the fight wakes furi-
Gus. When player is fortunate
enough to have such holding he
should meld at once. The next
most desirable initial meld is a pair
Of aces and wild card; especially
If it Is not your only wild card, so
that you still retain one to make
life simpler as the contest progresses
Conserve Wild Cards.
Wild cards should be handled
frugally during the early part of
the game. II you have only two
wild cards, it is not very good STRAIT
egy to use them both with a pair
in order to make the initial meld:
but If you happen to have three
WIZ CdI 10 tIlCIl IllCIC 10 IlU OUJCCtiOIi
to melding two of them with pair,
since you will still retain one az an
aid In obtaining the discard pile
In other words, giving up your only
deuce Is . highly undesirable pro-
cedure.
Aces should be melded early when
It is convenient to do so. The ace
Counting 20 points is higher val
ued than any other natural card
and is, therefore, q great comfort
to q player when he is seeking to
make up his count for the initial
meld. It Is for this reason that
one should be wary of discarding
aces early in the game. When a
player has one, he normally holds
on to it In the hope Of drawing one
or two more In order to be able to
meld them. When this has been
done. partner will have convenient
place to drop any aces that he draws