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The canasta must contain at least seven natural cards (this is called the base). Seven or eight of a kind, with no wild cards, is called a natural canasta (or pure canasta); A set of seven or more containing of a kind, and one to three wild cards, is called a mixed canasta.
In a standard deck used for bridge, poker and other games, there are 52 cards (4 suits, 13 cards per suit). There are also two jokers, because some card games use one or two jokers in the game. So sometimes you could say there are 54 cards in the deck, even though most card games don't use the jokers.