Some playing card manufacturers cashed in on the trend by selling prepackaged triple decks of cards, marketed for use in Samba. Samba was borne of the Canasta craze of the early 1950s, and, for a time, was a fad itself.

The number of cards available is bigger in Samba, too-it’s played with a triple deck, compared to the double deck used in Canasta! Like Canasta, it is a partnership game for four players.

Samba is an expansion upon Canasta that adds more cards and more melds! In Samba, you can meld sequences of the same suit, a feature found in most rummy games but absent in Canasta.