How to Play Hand and Foot

Objective

Work with your partner to meld cards of the same rank, and grow those melds into books of seven. A clean book has no wild cards and is worth far more than a dirty book, which has at least one. Play through your hand, pick up your foot, and go out once your team has the books it needs.

Hand and Foot is a home game first, so the details change from one kitchen table to the next. The rules here are the version most tables play. Agree on any changes before the first deal.

Setup

Partners sit across from each other. Shuffle all the decks together; it helps to split them into a few piles and have several people shuffle at once. Each player takes two packets of 11 cards. The first is your hand. The second is your foot: set it aside face down and don’t look at it yet.

Place the rest of the cards face down as the stock and turn the top card face up to start the discard pile. The game lasts four rounds, and the first meld your team makes in each round must add up to a minimum number of points.

How to play

Start your turn by drawing two cards from the stock. Instead, you may pick up the discard pile if you hold two natural cards that match the top card. Meld those three cards at once, then take the next six cards of the pile into your hand, seven cards in all. You can’t pick up the pile when a wild card or a three is on top.

Next, meld if you can. A meld is three to seven cards of the same rank, laid down on your team’s side of the table. Twos and jokers are wild, but a meld must always contain more natural cards than wild ones. A meld of seven cards is a book and is closed: square it into a pile, red card on top for clean, black for dirty.

End your turn by discarding one card.

When you play the last card in your hand by melding, pick up your foot and keep playing. If your last card goes out as a discard, pick up your foot at the start of your next turn. To go out, your team needs at least two clean and two dirty books, and you must be playing from your foot. Ask your partner “May I go out?” and follow the answer. Then meld or discard your final card.

1. 1Draw two from the stock, or pick up the top of the pile
2. 2Meld cards of one rank, more naturals than wilds
3. 3Close a meld at seven cards to make a book
4. 4Discard one card; play into your foot when your hand is gone

Scoring

At the end of each round, each team scores its books, its going-out bonus, and the value of every card it melded. Then it subtracts the value of every card still left in its players’ hands and feet.

Add 500 for every clean book, 300 for every dirty book, and 100 for the team that goes out. Keep a running total over all four rounds; the higher total wins.

Variations

Shorter game: require only one clean and one dirty book to go out. Longer game: deal 13 cards to each hand and foot.

Big pick-up: some tables let you take the whole discard pile, not just the top seven cards.

Wild book: a book made of seven wild cards, worth a large bonus (often 1,500) at tables that allow it.

Two, three or six players: with two or three, everyone plays alone. With six, play three teams of two, or two teams of three.

Tips from the table

Try to empty your hand by melding, not discarding. A meld lets you pick up your foot and keep playing right away, which can be a whole turn ahead.

Hold pairs of natural cards. Two matching naturals are your ticket to the discard pile, and seven fresh cards often turn into a book.

Spend your wild cards carefully. Every wild that goes into a meld turns a possible 500-point clean book into a 300-point dirty one.

When your partner asks to go out, check the cards in your own hand first. Points left in your hand count against the team, so say no if you are holding a pile of aces and jokers.

Frequently asked