How many decks of cards do you need to play Hand and Foot Canasta?

Hand and Foot Canasta usually requires five to seven decks of cards to play, although this depends on how many people are playing. This is far more cards than normal Canasta, which usually requires only two decks of cards. It requires more cards because each player gets two sets of cards.

Hand and Foot Canasta is a lot like normal Canasta, except that players are usually in teams of two. Up to eight players can participate in the game. In order to determine exactly how many decks to use, take the number of players participating and add one, meaning that if there are eight players, nine decks of cards should be used. Canasta is considered a game of rummy that originated in North America.