Ponytail Canasta agreed to be best for four players playing in partnerships. However, there are playable versions for two, three, or four partnerships. These additional player partnerships call for additional decks of cards Canasta is normally played with standard 52 card decks plus two jokers. The cards A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 are called natural cards. All of the deuces (twos) and jokers are wild cards. With some restrictions, wild cards can be used during the game as substitutes for a natural card of any rank. The threes have special functions and values: Black threes are
A Gamut of Games Abbott expanded his game Crossings, published here, into the more-refined title Epaminondas. Many of the games covered in the book were creations of Sid Sackson himself, who was a prolific game designer. The sections of the book and the games covered therein are as follows: "All of the games in this section use a standard pack of cards." "All of the games in this section use a checkerboard." "All of the games in this section are meant to be played with pencil and paper." A second edition of the book was published in 1982; Dover Publications released an unabridged reprint,