Why can't I draw the discard pile?

[realdamona]

I'm learning Canasta. Sometimes I can't draw the discard pile, even when I could make a meld with the top card, and I already have the required number of points. What am I missing?

[ufm]

You have to check two things:
- Is the pile frozen and do you have two or more corresponding natural cards in hand?
- Do you have only a single card in hand and the discard pile also has a single card?

[realdamona]

It looks like it was frozen, but I don't know why. The top card was a nine of clubs.

[ufm]

The top card doesn't matter. If there is at least one wild or red 3, then the pile is frozen.
Hence those cards are rotated to show the frozen status.

Also, in some tables the piles are always frozen due to the table variant setting.

[realdamona]

Thanks for the quick answers.