Help & Support

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Canasta Circle scores three games: Hand and Foot, Classic Canasta and Modern American Canasta. A Hand and Foot group’s app says “round” and “book”; a canasta group’s says “hand” and “canasta”. The answers below use Hand and Foot’s words, with canasta’s in brackets where they differ.

Joining a group

How do I join my group?

Tap the invite link your organizer sent you. If the app is already on your phone, open it, tap I have an invite link, and paste the link in.

It says my link is a Bunco Circle invite.

Each Game Night Circle app has its own groups. An invite from another of our apps, such as Bunco Circle or Farkle Circle, opens in that app, and a Canasta Circle invite opens here. Ask your organizer for your card group’s link.

How do I start a group of my own?

Open the app and tap Start a group (or, if you’re already in a group, tap your group’s name at the top of the screen, then + Start another group). You name it, say when you play and how many players, and answer Which game do you play? (you can pick it later). How your group plays is in Organize → Group settings, and what everything is worth is in Organize → Your game and scoring. Then share the invite link from Organize → Roster & invite.

Signing in

My sign-in code never came.

Canasta Circle emails you a 6-digit code, so there’s no password to remember. Give it a minute, then look in your junk or spam folder. The email is called “Your Game Night Circle sign-in code”. Still nothing? Tap Didn’t get it? Send again. Make sure the email address is spelled right: the code goes only to that address.

I already use another Game Night Circle app. Can I use the same email?

Yes. Sign in with the same email address. The first time, Canasta Circle asks your name, and your phone number if you’d like to give it. Your card groups, scores and subscription are kept separately from your other apps.

Keeping score

Who keeps score?

Each table has a scorekeeper: a player at that table who has the app. Only players who have the app can keep score. The organizer sees who it is on Table setup (Scorekeeper: Judy · Change) and can tap Change. The organizer and co-organizers can keep score for any table, and if nobody at a table has the app, the organizer keeps that table’s score. Everyone else just plays: they don’t need the app at all.

How do I score a round?

When a round ends, tap Score Round 3 → (Score Hand 6 → in canasta). First answer Who went out?: tap the team that went out, or Nobody — the cards ran out. Then, on each team’s card:

• tap + and − for its books (Clean books, Dirty books, Wild books; in canasta, Natural canastas and Mixed canastas) and its Red 3s laid down;
• type Cards on the table: the points of every card the team melded, books included;
• type Cards left in hands and feet (Cards left in hands): the points of everything the team still holds.

The going-out bonus is added for the team that went out. + Other points takes anything else your group scores, with Add or Take off. Each team’s card shows its total for the round as you go, and the foot shows what the totals become. Tap Save Round 3. If a team went out, WENT OUT! flashes with their names, and the line under the button says what was saved, such as Round 2 saved — Phyllis & Frank went out · 3,410 to 1,250.

A Classic Canasta group also has a Went out concealed tick under the team that went out. A Modern American group has 7s or aces canastas, a Wild canasta choice, and Red 3s and Black 3s, and the app works out whether they count for or against the team.

Does the app count the cards?

No. The app never deals, never counts cards and never referees. Each team counts its own cards the way it always has, and the scorekeeper types the two numbers. Card points go up in 5s, so a number that isn’t a multiple of 5 shows Card points go up in 5s. The app does the multiplying and adding, and a score below zero shows with a minus sign. Scores are points only: no money changes hands in the app.

Can we just type the totals?

Yes. On the scoring sheet, tap Just type the totals and type each team’s score for the round, with Add or Take off. You still tap who went out. A round typed as totals doesn’t count books. Count it for me goes back to the counters.

Do my points stay with me?

Yes. Your points tonight are your team’s totals from every game you played, added up. If your group moves tables, your own points go with you to each new table and partner.

Your game and what things are worth

Which games does it score?

Hand and Foot, Classic Canasta and Modern American Canasta, one per group. Your organizer picks it in Organize → Your game and scoring, and that game’s usual values fill in: in Hand and Foot, a clean book 500, a dirty book 300, a wild book 1,500, each red 3 laid down 100 and going out 100.

Our group scores differently. Can we change the values?

Yes. In Your game and scoring, your organizer can change any value, the meld minimums and the books (or canastas) needed to go out. Empty means it doesn’t score for your group, and its row leaves the scoring sheet. Picking a different game asks first, such as Switch to Classic Canasta? Its values replace yours. The game can’t be changed during a card night. Anything else your group does, like an exact pick-up, can go in + Other points on the night.

Where can players see what things are worth?

Tap Our scoring sheet on the Scorekeeper, or Our scoring sheet → on Home during a card night. It lists every value your group scores, the meld minimums, what it takes to go out, and the card points.

Melding and how a game ends

Does the app check the first meld?

No, it only shows it. Before every round, the Scorekeeper says what a team’s first meld needs: To meld this round: 120 in Hand and Foot (50, 90, 120 and 150 to start). In canasta, each team’s panel shows its own, by its score, such as Needs 90 to meld. When canasta tables move, it goes by the hand of the game: To meld this hand: 90. What it takes to go out, such as 2 clean and 2 dirty books, is on Our scoring sheet, for reference.

When is a game over?

• Hand and Foot: after the last round, 4 unless your organizer changes Rounds per game. The highest total wins.
• Canasta, staying at your table: after the hand in which a team reaches the Winning score, 5,000 in Classic and 8,500 in Modern American. The higher total wins.
• Canasta, moving tables: after the Hands per game, 3 to start.

Then the scorekeeper taps Game over →. To end a game early, tap Game over → before the end; the app asks first, such as End Game 1 after Round 2?, and rounds can’t be added afterwards.

When does the night end?

If your organizer set Games per night, the night ends after the last game: each table taps Last game over →, and when every table is done, everyone goes to Tonight’s winners. Otherwise the organizer taps End the night now on the Scorekeeper. Every round already saved counts, and a game that isn’t finished has no winner.

Tables, partners, staying or moving

How are the tables and teams made?

On Table setup, the organizer picks How many tables?, which lists only the counts that work. The app makes teams of two, with partners across from each other: two teams at a table of 4, three at a table of 6. With an odd number, one table of 3 plays everyone for themselves. Exactly 5 players make one table of 5, everyone for themselves, and 2 players play head to head. Partners are drawn at random: Tap two names to swap them (to keep a couple together, say), or tap Shuffle to draw again. Then Start Game 1 →. Everyone plays.

What are the two ways to play?

Your organizer chooses in Group settings → Your card night:

• Stay at your table: everyone keeps their table and partner all night, and each table plays its games one after another without waiting for the others.
• Move tables: after each game, the app draws new tables and new partners for everyone, and everyone’s own points add up. Nobody moves until every table has finished the game, and nobody gets the same partner twice in a row when it can be helped.

How do I know where to sit?

Where do I go? shows your table, your seat and your partner, such as Your partner: Judy, with a little map of the tables. When your group moves tables, it opens again after each game, once every table has finished. Where’s my table? on the live scoreboard shows it any time.

Late arrivals and going home

Someone came late.

Before the tables are made, just tick them Here on Card night sign-in. Once play has started, the organizer taps + Someone just arrived (on the Scorekeeper or Table setup), and picks their name or taps + Someone new to type it. They play from the next game, when the app deals the tables again with everyone who’s there: Stan plays from Game 2. The app deals the tables again when it starts. If the game being played is tonight’s last, they’re marked Here and play next time.

Someone has to go home.

Tap Someone has gone home (on Table setup, or at the foot of the scoring sheet) and pick who. They keep the points already saved. Their partner plays on for the team, and the team’s points from then on go to the partner. At a table where everyone plays for themselves, their seat is just skipped.

Fixing a round

We typed the wrong number.

Tap Undo. It takes back the last saved round completely: its points, books, red 3s and who went out. Undo works until the game is over (Game over →, Last game over → or Start Game 2 →). The table’s scorekeeper and the organizer can use it.

The mistake was a few rounds back.

Tap that round in the list under the team totals (Tap a round to fix it.). It opens with that round’s entries, as Fix Round 1; change what was wrong and tap Save changes. The totals are worked out again.

We already tapped Game over.

Tap Fix Game 1 (with the game’s number) on the Scorekeeper, then the round. The highest total still wins; if a fix leaves two teams tied, they share the game unless you tap one. Nobody’s seat moves. The table’s scorekeeper and the organizer can fix a game until tonight’s winners are saved.

Ties

What if two teams tie for a game?

They share it, and each team gets a game won: the Scorekeeper says, for example, Tied at 9,770. If your group settles ties another way, tap Tap the winner instead and tap the team that won.

Two players tie for a prize.

On Tonight’s winners, the organizer sees It’s a tie — tap the winner, with each player’s numbers to help decide. Partners who played every game together tonight have the same points, so they win a prize together, shown as Ron & Lois.

Take a look first

Can I try the app before my group starts?

Yes. Before you’re in a group, tap Take a look first. You get a sample group of your own with eleven pretend players, a card night already played, and a practice night today. Open Card night sign-in, tap Here for each player who came, then Make the tables, pick how many tables and Start Game 1. The other players are pretend, so you keep score for every table. Everything is unlocked in the sample, and nothing is sent to anyone.

How do I get rid of the sample?

Tap Delete sample on its banner, or Delete the sample group on Me. The pretend players and their card nights go with it. Nothing else changes.

Bigger words

How do I make the words bigger?

Go to Me (or Settings, if you aren’t in a group yet) and choose a Text size: Normal, Large or Extra Large. Large is where the app starts.

Subscriptions

What’s free?

Saying “I’m in”, RSVPs, keeping score, finding your table and partner, tonight’s winners with every team’s scores, and your brag card are always free, for everyone in your group.

What does the subscription cost, and what does it unlock?

It is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year in the US, per person: each player who wants it subscribes for themselves. The App Store or Google Play shows the price before you buy, and in Canada it shows your price in Canadian dollars. It is paid through Apple on iPhone, or Google Play on Android. One subscription covers every Canasta Circle group you play in. It unlocks the live scoreboard, season standings, the winners log and your stats.

Does my subscription to another Game Night Circle app cover this one?

No. Each app has its own subscription. A Bunco Circle, Mahjongg Circle, Euchre Circle or Farkle Circle subscription doesn’t unlock Canasta Circle, and a Canasta Circle subscription doesn’t unlock the others.

How do I change or cancel my subscription?

In the app, go to Me and tap the Subscription row. Or on your iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. On Android, open the Play Store app, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions.

I subscribed, but things are still locked.

Tap any Subscribe button, then Restore purchases. Make sure you are signed in to the same Canasta Circle account you subscribed with. In a web browser, subscribe in the Canasta Circle app on your phone; it unlocks in the browser too.

Deleting your account

How do I delete my account?

Go to Me (or Settings, if you aren’t in a group yet) and tap Delete my account. The app tells you what goes and what stays before anything is deleted. If you run a group, pass it on first: Organize → Roster & invite, tap … next to a player who has joined and isn’t a sub, and choose Pass the circle to them. Or delete the group in Organize → Group settings → Delete this circle. Deleting your account doesn’t cancel an Apple or Google Play subscription, so cancel that first.

No longer have the app? Sign in at gamenightcircle.com/canasta in any web browser and do the same from Me, or email support@gamenightcircle.com from the address you sign in with and we will delete it for you.

If you also use another Game Night Circle app, that account stays, and so does your sign-in for it. Deleting one of those accounts leaves Canasta Circle alone, too. More in the privacy policy.