Hand and Foot

My family has played Hand & Foot for years and years. Whenever we visited my grandparents we would inevitably end up playing it. It’s become such an installation, that our family reunions now include a large tournament where we have figured out a sort of round robin type thing to switch up teams.

So what is Hand & Foot? It’s a card game played in 4 rounds where each pair/team is trying to make the most number of books. I’ve heard that it is similar in some respects to Canasta, but I’m not super familiar with Canasta, so I can’t quite weigh in on that.

Ok, here’s the rules/how to play:

Game setup

The game is played with 6 regular decks of 54 cards (Jokers are included). The cards are all shuffled together and placed in the center of the table (usually in 2 piles, but it doesn’t matter)

The game is comprised of 4 rounds which are essentially the same with the only difference being the score necessary to meld/put down.

Hand & foot is played in pairs. Each person sits directly across from their teammate.

Setup of the rounds

Each person takes a small portion of the card piles, striving to get exactly 26 cards (without counting) and divides these into 2 piles of 13 cards. Extras are put back on the deck, and if more are needed, they are taken from the deck until the two piles are done. If someone gets 26 cards exactly, then their team scores and extra 100 points. One pile is given to the player on the left and the other to the player on the right. Upon recieving the piles from their neighbors, each player counts the cards in the piles to verify that there are 13 in each, and then, without looking at the cards, descides which will be their “hand”. The other is designated their “foot” and is set aside to be used later in the game.

At this point the round is set up and ready to be played. To determine the first player, each player cuts the deck and the player with the highest card goes first. Aces are high, jokers are do-overs, ties for highest are redone.

Playing the turns

A turn starts by the player selecting either: draw 2 cards from the draw pile or pick up all cards in the discard pile. Then, the player sees whether they can play any cards down on the table. They do this by either “going down” if neither they nor their partner has gone down yet, or by playing cards and adding to what their team has down on the table already.

Going down

In order to “put down” a player must meet the round score threshold.

Once one person on the team has reached the threshold and lays down cards totaling more than that threshold, then either player may add to the cards played down to increase their score. In order to reach this threshold, then sets must be made of 3 or more cards of that rank in order to be able to play that rank down as a new category. The cards that can be played down are scored by the following:

If a player tries to play down and is unable to reach the threshold value, then all the cards are picked back up into their hand and their team is given a negative one hundred point (-100) scoring.

Adding cards

If the player’s team is already down, then they can add to any category that is down or they can add new categories. A new category is added by playing at least 3 cards of that rank down and playing it with the team’s cards on the table. It is advantageous to have numerous different categories, because it allows a team to more easily place down more cards.

Making books

When a category reaches 7 cards or more, then it is collapsed into a pile and has become a book. If the category had no wilds, it is deemed a clean book, and a red card of the rank of the category is placed on top. A clean book scores 500 points. If there were wilds in the category, then it is a dirty book, and a black card is placed on top. A dirty book scores 300 points.

Cards of the same rank may be buried under a book, although there is not any scoring advantage to this. A new category of that rank may be created, if a player has another set that may be put down.

Wilds

Wilds (which comprises all jokers, 2s and any “weird” cards) may be used in categories, but there must at all times be more “regular” cards than wilds.

Red 3s

Red threes are the only cards that are unable to played down on the table. They are only able to be discarded. They are negative five hundred (-500) points each. Black threes have no stigma attached and can be played down.

Getting into your foot

If at any time, a player plays all the cards in their hand, whether by playing it down on the table or discarding, they pick up their foot and use that as their hand for the remainder of the round. If they discard to get into their foot, it is considered going indirect. If they play their last card down on the table, and end up continuing their turn with their foot, it is considered going direct.

End of the round

When a player may play their last card of their foot, they are in a position to go out. But in order to do so, there are a few requirements. The first requirement is that they must have at least four books, of which at least two of them are clean. If they don’t have the requisite number of books, then they must undo their last steps and find a way to continue the game. Often this means discarding someting useful.

The second requirement is that they must ask their partner whether they should go out. Their partner may encourage them to, or ask them not to. This is technically the only valid form of table talk of the game: a confirmation or denial of whether the round should be ended. (Aside: And though I’ve alwasy been explained about the rule of asking, I haven’t ever heard that the response need sway a person. I.e. if the partner says not to, then the player can still choose to go out, but just bear the wrath of their partner. Of course the civil thing would be to adhere to what your partner says…)

The player who does go out receives an additional one hundered points for going out. Any cards remaining in a player’s hand (and foot) are counted as negative points and are subtracted off of any points earned. Then points are counted for the team and recorded. The table below may be of assistance in tabulating points.