How to Play Hand & Foot: Card Game Rules & Interactive Tutorial

Hand & Foot is a captivating 4-player card game played in partnerships, with teammates sitting across from each other. Points are scored through "melding" — creating sets of cards of the same rank — with the ultimate goal being to complete piles (completed melds of seven cards).

Learn the complete rules by reading them below or through our interactive tutorial above. Either way, you'll be ready to start playing and enjoying this classic card game.

Once you've learned the rules, you can play Hand & Foot online on World of Card Games, where you can choose between playing against bots or multiplayer with people online or your friends.

The Cards

Hand & Foot uses five complete decks of standard playing cards plus Jokers, for a total of 270 cards. Cards have different roles and values:

Objective

Hand & Foot is played over four deals. The team with the highest score after all four deals wins. Points are earned by creating melds and completing piles, with bonus points awarded for going out.

Deal

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.

Gameplay

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.

Melding

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 means:

• Melds of 3-5 cards: maximum 1 wild card
• Melds of 6-7 cards: maximum 2 wild cards

You can also create melds consisting entirely of wild cards.

Your team's first meld in each deal must meet a minimum point requirement:

Piles (Complete Melds)

A pile is a completed meld of exactly seven cards. Once a meld reaches seven cards, it becomes a pile and cannot have additional cards added to it. There are three types of piles:

• Clean Pile: Seven cards of the same rank with no wild cards - 500 points
• Dirty Pile: Seven cards of the same rank including one or two wild cards - 300 points
• Wild Pile: Seven wild cards (2s and/or Jokers) - 1,500 points

Once a pile is complete (7 cards), it is stacked and marked as complete in the UI. A small count shows how many complete piles of that rank you have, and hovering shows whether it is clean (no wilds), dirty (with wilds), or wild (all wild cards).

The Discard Pile

To pick up the discard pile, you must be able to immediately meld the top card with two matching cards from your hand. You can only take the top seven cards (or all cards if fewer than seven). Black 3s block the next player from picking up the pile when discarded.

Picking up Your Foot

When you play the last card from your hand, you immediately pick up your foot and continue playing. If you meld all cards from your hand during your turn, pick up your foot immediately and continue. If you discard your last card, pick up your foot at the start of your next turn.

Going Out

To end a deal ("go out"), your team must have completed at least:

• 2 clean piles (no wild cards)
• 2 dirty piles (with wild cards)
• 1 wild pile (all wild cards)

Additionally, your partner must have picked up their foot, and you must ask for and receive permission from your partner before going out. You then meld or discard all remaining cards.

Score

After each deal, teams score points for:

Plus the point value of all melded cards, minus the value of any cards remaining in hand or foot.

Game End

The game ends after four complete deals. The team with the highest total score wins. If both teams have the same score, play an additional deal as a tiebreaker.

Special Rules

• Red 3s must be placed on the table immediately when drawn, and a replacement card drawn
• Black 3s cannot be melded and can only be discarded to block the pile
• You cannot have two incomplete melds of the same rank
• If you cannot go out, you must keep at least two cards when playing from your foot

History

Hand & Foot is a popular North American canasta-style game. Its exact origin is unclear, but it evolved from Canasta variants and spread widely through clubs and home play.

Ready to play? Jump into a game and start building those piles!