Rules for Hand & Foot

Cards

Play with two standard decks per couple. Leave the jokers in...

Card Values

Dealing

Each player draws a card... The player with the high card will go first once play begins.

To "deal", put all cards in a loose pile on the table. Each player draws two sets of 11 and passes them to the right. The cards passed to you from the left become your cards. You choose which set of 11 to pick up first. That set becomes your hand; the other set is your foot.

Play

Beginning with the player who drew the high card, each player draws two cards and, once finished playing cards, discards one.

In order to play cards, your team must first "lay down".

• In order to "lay down", you must be able to lay down at least 60 points.
• Points are collected by assembling three or more of a particular value.
• The 3 card cannot be used for points (that is, you can't make a book of 3's).
• You have to have at least as many natural cards as wild cards in your collections.

Once you have collected 60 points (by collecting, for example, three Aces), you can lay them on the table in front of you. At this point, your team is free to play other collections of three or more, or to play onto existing collections.

Making Books

Once a collection reaches seven cards, it is converted into a book by collecting the cards into a pile and placing an appropriately colored card on top.

• If the book contains any wild cards, it's a black book and a black card should be placed on top.
• Otherwise, it's a red book and a red card should be placed on top.

Once a book has been designated black or red, its designation cannot be changed. You may continue to play cards onto a book so long as you add no wild cards to a red book and make sure that at least half of the cards in a black book are natural cards.

Picking up a Discard

In order to pick up from the discard pile, you must observe the following rules:

• If your team hasn't laid down, you can only pick up if you have at least two of the card you're picking up (the top card on the discard pile) in your hand, and the card you're picking up completes the necessary points for laying down.
• If your team has laid down, you can only pick up if you have at least two of the card you're picking up in your hand.

In either case, you pick up the top card and the four below it. If there aren't enough cards in the discard pile, you may not pick up the discard.

Finishing the Round

Play continues until you've collected at least three black and two red books, and you've exhausted all of the cards in your hand as well as your foot. Your partner does not have to have exhausted all of his/her cards.

You get into your foot by getting rid of all of the cards in your hand. You may do so by playing all but one of your cards onto a collection and then discarding the remaining card, or you may play all of your cards onto collections and then go straight into your foot and continue with your turn.

Scoring

At the conclusion of each round, you adjust the score.

• Count the points you have in books and the points you have in played cards (even those in books) as positive.
• Count any cards that remain in your hand (or foot) as negative.
• Add the net from your team's score.

Finishing the Game

Once the round has ended, you adjust the scores and then shuffle the cards and start over. This time, you need at least 90 points in order to lay down. Play continues as before. In the next round, the target is 120, and then (in the fourth round) 150. After four rounds, the team with the most points wins.