What is Conasta, you ask?

Conasta is a card game. And just about everyone plays it differently.

In our group, you have four players at a table with the person directly across from you being your partner. Conastas are seven cards of the same suit. A red is all seven being the same, while a black can have up to three wild cards.

We play for points. Two decks of cards are used, but I'm hearing there are games that use three or five decks. Each player gets 13 cards. Red threes are bonus points. Each being worth 100 points. If you get all four, the points double. The black threes are simply wild cards that freezes play for the next person. Two's and Jokers freeze the deck differently. The person to the left of the one who threw the wild card can't pick up. But once a two or joker has been thrown(you turn them sideways so they are easy to see), you have to have two of what has been discarded by your neighbor to pick up the discard pile.

Two's and jokers are also wild. And when counting points, or melding, the twos are worth 20 points and the jokers are worth 50.

You can't pick up the discard pile unless you have melded. To do this, you must lay down cards that total at least 50 points. You can use wild cards in your meld, but you must always have one less wild card than regular cards.

Play moves to the left of the dealer. If a card is thrown, and there have been no twos or jokers thrown, you can pick up the discard pile with one like the discard and a wild card(two or joker) or two just like the discard . If there has been a wild card thrown, you must have two of the discard.
Have I totally confused you yet? If not, read on.

Red conastas are worth 500 points, black are worth 300. If you had a perfect deal, that's worth 200 as is going out. To get your total, add up your conastas, perfect deal, going out(playing all the cards in your hand and having at least one red and one black conasta), and any red threes you may have. This gives you your base total.

Then you count all the cards you had laid down. Jokers, 50, Twos and Aces 20, Kings to eights, 10 and seven down are worth only 5.

We play a hand, then switch tables. You can buy cards that are also used for bridge, that tells you which table and who will be your partner next hand. This card is given to you by the hostess at the beginning. She puts the names and assigns a number before the game begins.

I'm sure this is much more than you wanted to know about Conasta. In all probability, once you read that it is a card game, you were finished. Or even if you read a little more, you probably became totally bored about mid way through and quit. I wouldn't blame you for that.

Tomorrow, I think I'll tell you about my most(or at least one of my most)embarassing moments.