The objective of Canasta for Two is to beat your opponents by scoring 500 points. Canasta for Two is a 2-player variant of the traditional 4-player Canasta card game.

Players draw cards to determine the dealer. The player who draws the highest card becomes the dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals 11 cards to each player, 1 at a time. The remaining cards form the draw pile, with the top card placed face-up next to it to start the discard pile.

Players take turns clockwise, drawing either the top card from the draw pile or the entire discard pile.

Create melds of cards and go out. To create a meld, you must create a run of at least 3 cards of the same rank and/or sequences of consecutive cards in the same suit. A meld of 7 or more cards is called a canasta. You can add to a meld that you have made but not one that your opponent has made. Melds must contain at least 2 natural cards and cannot contain more than 3 wild cards (until you have a canasta of that card).

You can only make the initial meld if the meld meets the initial meld point requirement (listed in the score box to the top right). When it is your turn, you can pick up a card from the stock, the face down cards that haven't been picked yet, or pick up the entire discard pile. You can then make as many melds as you are able to and then discard a card to the discard pile.

You can only take the entire discard pile if you are able to take the top card of the discard pile and meld with it. The discard pile is frozen for you until you have met the initial meld requirement.

If a wild card is placed on the discard pile, the discard pile is frozen. You can only pick up the discard pile if it is frozen if you have at least 2 natural cards in your hand equal to the rank of the top card.

3s are special cards. Red 3s may never be melded and will always be automatically removed from your hand and placed in the meld area. Black 3s can only be melded on the last meld before going out (you must hit the "Go Out" button to play these 3s). If you place a black 3 on the discard pile, the next player cannot pick up the discard pile.

Play ends when a player goes out. You can go out only when you have completed a canasta and you play all your cards into melds; you may discard one last card to empty your hand. Play can also end when the stock is empty and you cannot take the discard pile and meld with the top card. Once a player goes out, the other player gets the value of all cards in their meld area minus the value of all cards remaining in their hands.