What is canasta? Is it hard to learn how to play?

Question

I've heard of it, but know nothing about it.

Answer 1

You have to be the first one to a set amount of points usually 500. You try to make canastas (7 of one card) and you can use wilds (Joker and 2) but It will cause you to lose points compared to a clean canasta (no wilds). You play with a partner and at first you have a meld (starts at 10 and goes to like 120 or something) What you have to do is put down cards equal or over the meld. You must put down cards in threes and Aces and face cards are worth more along with wilds so if you put down 3 aces and 3 4's, then you'd have like 45 (4 = 5pts) (A = 10pts) or something like that. You have to get a certain no. of pts to put up your score on the main board (you pretty much transfer points from the small board) Like you have to get at least 300 pts to put up your score on the main board. So lets say that you just finished a round and you got to 323 and your opponents had 127, you would each put your numbers on the board but of course the 323 team has the odds in there favor. Once you have 5000 onthe main board, you win (give or take). If both teams get to 5000 the team with the highest number of points will win.  

*not sure about ties

This isnt exact but im pretty sure

Hope I could help