Card Game - Hand and Foot

Hand and Foot

For 2,4,6,8,9 Players

Objective: Be the first team to reach 10,000 points, through various rounds of play. Points are gained by laying down sets of the same number, and then by adding to them throughout the round. Points are scored at the end of the round.

Setup: First pick even teams (usually two people to a team, but you can play with more to a team as long as they are even). Sit so that the teams are evenly spread apart (With two teams sit every other, with three teams sit every third, and so on). You will need at least a deck of cards per person playing, plus one (i.e. if four people are playing you will need five decks, for six people, seven decks, etc.). Shuffle and deal out two sets of ten cards to each player. Put one set (the foot) off to the side but don’t forget about it, you’ll need it later. Look at the remaining set (the hand) of ten cards and arrange them by number. With the remaining cards, create a draw pile and flip the top one over to create a discard pile.

To Play: Pick someone to start, in any way you choose. To start your turn you may only do one of the following:

1.      Draw two cards off the top of the draw pile, or

2.      Draw eight off the discard pile, but only if you can lay something down only using the top card. If there is fewer than eight cards take all of them.

Then, if you can, you may lay down cards in sets of three or more. Then, you must discard one card to end your turn. The next player then takes their turn, and so on. Play continues to the left. When you play all of the cards in your hand, you can pick up your foot. If you discard the last card in your hand then you can pick up your foot and play from it on your next turn. However, if you play all of the cards in your hand without discarding you can pick up your foot and keep playing.

To start a set you must play three or more of a kind, or if you play a wild with a set you must play at least two of the number with the wild, but sets cannot have more than two wilds. When a set reaches seven or more cards it is a complete set, and may still be added to. A set with no wilds is called a clean book and a set with one or two wilds is called a dirty book. Sets can be made with any number except: 2’s, 3’s, and jokers (they are special cards), but you cannot have more than one set of a specific number. When a team has a complete clean and dirty set they can play all the cards in their foot, and end the round. Then points are scored, and a new round is started if no one has won.

At the begging of a round you need to be able to lie down a specific amount of points depending on how many total points your team has earned over previous rounds. Points needed to first lay down sets are as follows:

Team points                 Points needed to lie down

˂1495                          50 points

1500 – 2950                75 points

3000 – 4495                100 points

5000 – 6495                150 points

6500+                          200 points

Once a team member has played the initial number of points teammates can play freely, on their turn, on to their team’s existing sets with out needing to play the amount of points listed above, until a new round is started. All teams try to make complete sets, called books because complete sets score bonus points. They need a clean and a dirty set to go out, meaning you play all of the cards in your foot and end the round.

Special cards: The 2’s and jokers are wild and can be put with any other number, but no more than two per set. All 3’s are bad and cannot be used for anything. They cannot be made into sets nor can the discard pile be drawn from if a three is on top.

Scoring: When the round ends, count up the cards played on the table in sets plus bonus points for complete books. Then subtract the points of all cards still in your hand and foot and in your teammates hand and foot.

Cards are scored as follows:

4’s through 7’s are worth 5 points

8’s through kings are worth 10 points

Aces and 2’s are worth 20 points

Jokers are worth 50 points

Dirty books are worth 250 points

Clean books are worth 500 points

Black 3’s are worth negative 50 points

Red 3’s are worth negative 500 points

When a team’s points surpass 10,000 points they win. If more than one team surpass 10,000 in the same round the team with the most points win.