How to Play the Canadian Salad Card Game

The card game Canadian Salad was created here in Canada and is very popular in certain places here in Canada and south of the boarder. It also goes by many names including Fruit Salad, Canadian Fruit Salad, Salad Bowl, Wisconsin Scramble and Texas Twister. That is a lot of different names, but surprisingly there are few rules changes throughout all the names.

This is a trick taking game like Hearts, Frogs in the Pond and Linger Longer. It’s also a bit like the card game Phase 10 but with some very different game play.

Let’s get into the Canadian Salad card game rules, how to play and variations.

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What you Need for Canadian Salad Card Game

You will need a deck of cards, jokers removed and a score sheet. You can get your free scoresheet in our Fun Library; you can get your password in the black box. Canadian Salad is the perfect game for four people as you need an even amount of cards for each player. However, if you want to play with another amount of players, we haven’t you covered.

For three players you will need to remove the 2 of clubs.
For five players you will need to remove the 2 of clubs and the 2 of diamonds.
With six players, you will need to remove the 2 and 3 of clubs and diamonds.
For seven players you will need two decks and remove all the clubs.
For an eight player game, you need two decks of cards with nothing removed.

How to Play Canadian Salad

To start the dealer will shuffle and deal all of the cards out. The dealer position should rotate through the rounds.

Now the player to the dealer’s left, choses any card in any suit to play. All of other players need to follow suit if they can. Aces are high. The player who played the highest card in the suit lead, takes the trick and can start the new trick with any card form her hand. This continues until everyone has played all of their cards.

Now the fun part of Canadian Salad card game is that in each round there is a different set of cards that score points with the overall goal to be the player with the least amount of points. The round goals are as follows:

Round One: all tricks are worth 10 points each
Two: all hearts are worth 10 points each
Three: each Queen is worth 25 points each
Four: the King of Spades is worth 100 points
Five: the last trick is worth 100 points
six: all of the above are in effect

Winning Canadian Salad Card Game

The winner with the least amount of points after the six rounds is the winner.

Variations

First, I have to say for a card game with so many different names, this card game is the one with the least rule changes. During my research, I read that many people have their own house rules but few have shared them. Here are the ones I did find.

The first variation is that if one player takes all the tricks, then she gets a score of 0 and the rest get 100 points. This doesn’t apply to round with only one card or trick to avoid.

The second is to add length to the game. For this you need to add that there is a round as follows:

All red cards are worth 5 points.
All even numbers are worth 5 points.
Face cards are worth 10 points.
All seven are worth 30 points.
Aces are worth 30 points.
One eyed Jacks are worth 40 points.

Mix It Up Fun

The card game Canadian Salad has lots of names and I can see why as it’s a fun, frustrating game that will make you want to play again and again.

If you need some new cards, shop here. May I suggest ones with a Canadian flag on them for extra fun? Canadians can shop playing cards here. Don’t forget to grab your free scoresheet with reference cards in the Fun Library.

For more fun games, check out Sticks, 3 to 13 and the Hockey card game. Be sure to visit our Family Game Shelf shop for tons of fun with seasonal and original games for the whole family!