Beginner rule card
Hand & Foot,
one step at a time.
Keep this page open at the table. Start with the three-part turn below, then use the rest when a question comes up.
The 60-second version
Every turn: draw, meld, discard
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1
Draw
Take 3 cards when everyone scores individually. If any players share a team score, everyone draws 2. Or—once the pile has at least 5 cards—pick up exactly the top 5 discards. The top card cannot be a black 3, and you must use that top card in a legal meld during the same turn. You do not need two additional matching cards in your Hand.
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2
Meld
Lay down legal groups or add cards to your side’s existing melds. The first time your side lays down each round, all opening melds from that turn must reach the round’s point minimum.
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3
Discard
Discard 1 card to end every turn, including the turn when you go out. Your final card must be this discard.
Your goal: play through your Hand and Foot, build the required books, and finish with the highest total. The game ends after a round in which any side reaches 10,000.
Stock empty? Shuffle the discard pile—leaving its top card in place—to make a new stock.
01 · Set up
Deal a Hand and a Foot
- Use 6 complete decks, including 12 jokers.
- Deal each player 13 Hand cards and 13 face-down Foot cards.
- Begin with an empty discard pile. The first player creates it by discarding 1 card at the end of the first turn.
- The seat after the dealer starts; the dealer advances each round.
Two players and odd player counts play individually. Even tables of 4+ default to partnerships. With four players, each person teams up with the person sitting opposite them. You can choose different teams in setup.
02 · Melds, books & wild piles
Match ranks; use wilds carefully
- 2s and jokers are wild. Threes cannot be melded.
- To start a meld of matching cards—for example, 8s or Queens—lay at least 3 cards, including at least 2 non-wild cards of that rank.
- That meld can contain at most 3 wild cards.
- Exactly 7 cards complete a book or wild pile.
Clean · +5007 cards of one rank, no wilds
Dirty · +300At least 4 cards of one rank, 1–3 wilds
Wild pile · 1,500 total7 twos and/or jokers
Clean and dirty book bonuses are added on top of their card values. A wild pile scores 1,500 total; its seven cards do not score again.
03 · Open the round
Meet the minimum in one turn
- Combine several melds during the same turn if needed.
- Use card values only—not book, red-3, or going-out bonuses.
- Partners share one opening requirement.
- A partial opening cannot carry into a later turn.
04 · Hand, Foot & going out
Empty the Hand, then the Foot
- When your Hand empties, pick up your Foot.
- Meld your last Hand card: pick up the Foot and keep playing.
- Discard your last Hand card: pick up the Foot for your next turn.
To go out, all three must be true:
- You reached your Foot.
- Your side has at least 3 clean + 3 dirty books.
- You must make a discard; your final card is that discard.
Wild piles do not count toward the required 3 clean and 3 dirty books. There is no table talk: partners do not signal or ask permission to go out. The side that goes out gets +300, then subtracts the point value of every card a partner still holds.
Round scoring
Add the table. Subtract what’s held.
Clean and dirty book bonuses + wild piles at 1,500 each + card values outside wild piles + revealed red 3s + 300 for going out − every card left in Hand or Foot
A round score can be negative. Once anyone reaches 10,000 after a round, the highest cumulative score wins—not necessarily the first side to cross the line. On an exact tie for the highest score, a tied side wins if it went out in the game-ending round. At a table with three or more sides, a top tie remains unresolved if the side that went out is not part of it.
The 3s
Reveal red 3s; black 3s block pickups
- Red 3
- Place it face up in your score area—“table” it—and draw a replacement immediately whenever you find one in your Hand or Foot. This can happen out of sequence: if you reach your Foot, pass the turn, and then notice red 3s, table them and draw replacements right away. Each revealed red 3 scores +100; one still hidden in an unreached Foot when the round ends counts −100.
- Black 3
- It cannot be melded. On top of the discard pile it blocks pickup; left in Hand or Foot it costs 100 points.