In Canasta, when the pile is frozen, you need a natural pair to pick up.
I've joined a group that says you can ONLY pick up to the freeze wild card, YOU ARE NOT allowed to take the whole discard pack.
I've played canasta for 60 years, and NEVER heard of this. I know that in established groups, rules get added and most people go along to get along.
Has anyone EVER heard of this rule?
Not a rule I'm familiar with.
I don't have quite your depth of experience, but I've played Canasta over 40 years in New York, Ohio, and Texas.
While I've played different variants of Canasta with different groups, picking the whole discard pile is what I would consider to be a core feature of a Canasta game.
Picking up only the freeze card leads to questions. Does the new top of the discard pile control it? I'm not sure I'd want to grab just one freeze card to expose the rest of the pile to my opponent(s). That's weird!
