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. It evolved from Canasta, but adds its own twists to melding and books. Points are scored through "melding", which means building sets of cards of the same rank, and the ultimate goal is to complete books, melds that have grown to 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.

Hand & Foot at a glance

A canasta style partnership game played with two hands, the hand and the foot.

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 books, 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:

Books (Complete Melds)

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:

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

On the table, completed books are stacked, and 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.

The Discard Pile

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: 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.

Picking up Your Foot

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.

Going Out

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

• At least 2 clean books (no wild cards)
• At least 2 dirty books (with wild cards)
• At least 1 wild book (all wild cards)

Additionally, both you and your partner must have picked up your feet, 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 your 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

The rules in practice

A meld is 3 to 7 cards of the same rank, and it belongs to your whole team. Say you hold three Aces. They're worth 60 points, enough to open deal 1 where the first-meld minimum is 50, but not deal 2 where it's 90. Add a Joker, which is worth 50 and is the one wild a small meld may hold, and the same meld is worth 110. That opens deal 2 with room to spare.

Picking up the discard pile rewards preparation. Suppose the top card is a 9 and you're holding two natural 9s. You can take the top seven cards of the pile, meld the three 9s right away and keep whatever else came along. If a black 3 sits on top, the pile is blocked. And if the top card is a wild, you need two matching wilds to take it, two 2s for a 2 or two Jokers for a Joker, and the three must be melded together as a wild pile.

The switch to your foot is a moment worth engineering. Meld away the last card of your hand in the middle of your turn and you pick up your 13-card foot immediately and keep playing. Discard your last hand card instead and the foot has to wait until your next turn begins. Near the end of a deal one more rule kicks in. If your team can't go out yet, you must keep at least two cards while playing from your foot.

Strategy basics

A few habits will carry you a long way in your first games.

• Keep pairs of natural cards. Two naturals matching the top discard unlock the seven-card pickup.
• Spend wilds carefully. Your team must complete a seven-wild book to go out, and every 2 wasted as meld filler is a card that book won't get.
• Finish melds clean when you can. A clean book scores 500 points while a dirty one scores 300.
• Plan the moment you enter your foot. Melding your last hand card mid-turn gets you into the foot without missing a beat.
• Add to melds your team has already started rather than opening thin new ones. Every meld is shared with your partner.
• When your partner asks to go out, check your own cards first. Everything left in your hand and foot counts against the team.

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.

Frequently asked questions

What happens when I draw a red 3?

Red 3s never stay in your hand. The card goes straight to the table and you draw a replacement. At the end of the deal each red 3 is worth 100 points if your team has melded and minus 100 if it hasn't.

Can I meld black 3s?

No. Black 3s can never be melded. Their only job is to be discarded, and a black 3 on top of the discard pile blocks it so nobody can take the pile while it sits there.

How many wild cards can one meld contain?

A meld of 3 to 5 cards may hold one wild, and a meld of 6 or 7 cards may hold two. The exception is a meld made entirely of wild cards, which is how you build the 1,500-point wild book.

Can I add cards to a completed book?

No. Once a meld reaches seven cards it becomes a book and closes. You can start a fresh meld of the same rank afterwards, and the table shows a count of how many complete books of that rank your team has.

Do I have to discard at the end of my turn?

Yes, every turn ends with one discard. The only exception is going out, where you meld or discard all your remaining cards to end the deal.

Helpful Links

Pagat.com Hand and Foot Page