Hand & Foot is a 4-player partnership game like Canasta where you play through a hand and then a foot, building seven-card books to go out.
Learn the game step by step with our interactive tutorial. If you play ranked games, you can see how you rank on the leaderboard.
Hand & Foot uses five complete decks of standard playing cards plus Jokers, for a total of 270 cards. Cards have different roles and values.
| Card type | Cards | Point value |
|---|---|---|
| Natural cards | Aces | 20 |
| 8s through King | 10 | |
| 4s through 7s | 5 | |
| Wild cards | Jokers | 50 |
| 2s | 20 | |
| Special cards | Red 3s | +100 if your team has melded -100 if it hasn't |
| Black 3s | 5 |
Hand & Foot is played over four rounds. The team with the highest score after all four rounds wins. Points are earned by creating melds and completing books, with bonus points awarded for going out.
Each player receives 11 cards for their "hand" (played first) and 13 cards for their "foot" (set aside face down until the hand is depleted). Players cannot look at their foot until they have played all cards from their hand. After dealing, one card is turned face up to start the discard pile. If that card is a red 3 or a wild card, it goes back into the stock and the next card is turned up instead.
Players take turns clockwise around the table. On your turn, you must draw either two cards from the stock pile or the top seven cards from the discard pile (if you meet specific conditions). Then you may form new melds or add to existing ones. Finally, you must discard one card unless you are going out.
A meld consists of three to seven cards of the same rank. Melds can include wild cards (2s and Jokers), but must contain at least twice as many natural cards as wild cards. In practice, this limits the wild cards by meld size.
You can also create melds consisting entirely of wild cards.
Your team's first meld in each round must meet a minimum point requirement.
| Round | Minimum points required |
|---|---|
| Round 1 | 50 |
| Round 2 | 90 |
| Round 3 | 120 |
| Round 4 | 150 |
| Tiebreaker round | 150 |
A book (also called a canasta) is a completed meld of exactly seven cards. Once a meld reaches seven cards, it becomes a book and cannot have additional cards added to it. There are three types of books.
On the table, completed books are stacked. A small count shows how many books of that rank your team has. Hover over a stack to see whether each book is clean, dirty, or wild.
To pick up the discard pile, you must be able to immediately meld the top card with two matching natural cards from your hand (wilds do not count). You can only take the top seven cards (or all cards if fewer than seven).
The discard pile is blocked when topped by a black 3. If the top card is a wild card, you may only pick up the discard pile if you have two matching wild cards in your hand. You need two 2s to pick up a 2 or two Jokers to pick up a Joker. You must immediately meld those three wild cards as a wild pile.
How you play the last card of your hand decides when you get your foot. If you meld your last card during your turn, you pick up your foot right away and keep playing. If you discard your last card, you pick up your foot at the start of your next turn.
To end a round ("go out"), your team must have completed these books.
Additionally, both you and your partner must have picked up your feet. You must also ask for and receive permission from your partner before going out. If your partner doesn't answer in time, the answer counts as yes. You then meld or discard all remaining cards.
A round also ends when the stock runs out. From then on, play goes on only while each player takes the discard pile. The game takes it for you when you can. If you can't take it, or you put it back, the round ends and no one goes out. If the last card of the stock is a red 3, it is laid out as usual and the round ends at once.
After each round, teams score points for these achievements.
| Achievement | Points |
|---|---|
| Clean book | 500 |
| Dirty book | 300 |
| Wild book | 1,500 |
| Red 3, if your team has melded | 100 |
| Red 3, if your team has not melded | -100 |
| Going out | 100 |
Your team also scores the point value of all melded cards, minus the value of any cards remaining in your hand or foot.
The game ends after four complete rounds. The team with the highest total score wins. If both teams have the same score, play an additional round as a tiebreaker. Its first meld needs 150 points, as in round 4.