Hand and Foot Card Game Rules

Hand and Foot is a member of the canasta family that North American card tables have made their own. Everyone gets two sets of cards instead of one, the decks stack up five or six high, and you and your partner race the other team to build seven-card books. It’s sociable, forgiving, and long enough to fill an evening.

It also has a famous problem: nobody plays it quite the same way. Ask three tables how many cards go in the foot, or what you need before you can go out, and you’ll get three answers — each one right for that table. So this guide teaches the game from the rules published by Bicycle, then shows you, in one table, where the other common versions differ. Find your table’s column, and every argument has an answer.

What you need

• Four players in two partnerships, partners sitting across from each other — the way most tables play. Two, three, or five can play with everyone for themselves, and six can play as two teams of three.
• One more standard deck than there are players, jokers included: five decks — 270 cards — for four players. Shuffle in a few batches; nobody can riffle 270 cards at once.
• Card holders or a tray, if you have them. You’ll juggle a full hand for most of the evening, and tired fingers will thank you.
• A score pad. Totals run into the thousands over four rounds.

The idea: your hand, then your foot

Each player gets two sets of cards. The hand you pick up and play. The foot waits face down in front of you until your hand is used up — then it becomes your new hand. Along the way you and your partner lay down melds (three or more cards of the same rank) and grow them into seven-card books, which carry the big bonuses. Melds belong to the team, so either partner can add to them.

A round ends when someone goes out. A game is four rounds, and the team with the higher total wins.

Which Hand and Foot is your table playing?

Here are the rules you’re most likely to meet. This guide follows Bicycle’s set; if your family plays another, the game works exactly the same way — only these numbers change.

Card values

Card	Points	Notes
Joker	50	Wild
Two (deuce)	20	Wild
Ace	20
K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8	10
7, 6, 5, 4	5
Black 3	5	Can’t be melded; counts against you if stuck
Red 3	bonus card	See the deal and scoring

The deal

1. Shuffle all the decks together, a batch at a time.
2. Each player gets 11 cards for the hand and 11 cards face down for the foot. Some tables let each player count off their own two piles — much faster than dealing 88 cards one at a time.
3. The rest is the stock. Turn its top card face up to start the discard pile. If that card is a red three, a deuce, or a joker, put it back and turn up another.
4. Lay any red threes in your hand face up in front of you and draw replacements from the stock.
5. The player to the dealer’s left goes first, and play passes to the left.

Your turn, step by step

1. Draw two cards from the stock — or take the discard pile instead, if you can (rules below).
2. Meld if you want to: start new melds or add to your team’s. Your team’s first meld of the round has to meet the minimum.
3. Discard one card face up. That ends your turn.

Draw a red three at any point? Lay it down and draw a replacement right away.

Melds and books

• A meld is three to seven cards of the same rank, laid face up. Suits don’t matter.
• Deuces and jokers are wild, but a meld can never be all wild cards.
• Threes can’t be melded — red or black.
• Seven cards make a book, and a book is closed: nothing more goes on it.
• A clean (red) book is seven natural cards with no wilds — worth 500. Square it up with a red card on top.
• A dirty (black) book contains wild cards — worth 300. Square it up with a black card on top. In Bicycle’s rules a dirty book still needs at least four natural cards, so it never holds more than three wilds.

Some versions also hold smaller melds to “more natural cards than wilds” while they grow — pagat’s classic version requires twice as many. Agree on it before the first deal.

Meld minimums by round

Your team’s first meld of each round has to add up to a minimum, and the bar rises every round:

Round	First meld must total at least
1	50
2	90
3	120
4	150

Count card values only — book bonuses and red threes don’t help. You may lay down several melds at once to reach the number. In round one, A-A-A is 60 and clears the bar alone; 8-8-8 is only 30, but 8-8-8 plus K-K-K makes 60. Once your team is down, there’s no minimum for the rest of the round.

Taking the discard pile

Instead of drawing two from the stock, you may take from the discard pile when all of these are true:

• The top card is not a black three.
• You hold two cards of the same rank as the top card, and you meld all three right away (with more cards from your hand, if you like).
• Your team is already down — or this meld meets the round’s minimum. Only the top card counts toward the minimum, not the rest of what you pick up.

You then take the top seven cards of the pile, not the whole thing. Discarding a black three stops the next player from taking the pile at all — a handy roadblock when the pile has gotten fat.

Picking up your foot

Your foot comes into play once your hand is used up. Announce it — “I’m in my foot” — so the table knows. There are two ways to get there:

• Meld your last cards without needing a discard, then pick up your foot and keep playing from it, ending the turn with a discard as usual.
• Get down to one card and discard it to end your turn. You pick up your foot at the start of your next turn.

Going out

Under Bicycle’s rules, your team may go out once it has at least one clean book and one dirty book. You go out by getting rid of every card, ending with a final discard — simply running out of cards without a discard doesn’t count.

Some tables add a rule from pagat’s classic version: before going out, you ask your partner, “May I go out?” — and go out only if your partner agrees. When someone goes out, the round ends and everyone counts. If the stock runs out first, the round ends when a player who needs to draw can’t; both teams score what they’ve laid down, minus their cards still in hand, and nobody gets a going-out bonus.

Scoring a round

Item	Points
Each clean book	+500
Each dirty book	+300
Every card in your team’s melds and books	+ card value
Going out (classic version)	+100
Each red three laid down (classic version)	+100
Every card left in a hand or foot	− card value
Each red three caught in a hand or foot (classic version)	−100

Add the round to the running totals. After four rounds, the higher total wins.

A round, counted

Using Bicycle’s book values plus the classic version’s 100 for going out and 100 for a red three:

• Your team goes out with a clean book of sevens (7 × 5 = 35), a dirty book of five kings and two deuces (50 + 40 = 90), three aces on the table (60), and one red three.
• The other team has a dirty book of four queens, two deuces, and a joker (40 + 40 + 50 = 130) and three eights on the table (30). One of them is caught holding a king, a nine, a five, and a joker (10 + 10 + 5 + 50 = 75).

	Your team	Other team
Book bonuses	500 + 300 = 800	300
Cards in melds and books	35 + 90 + 60 = 185	130 + 30 = 160
Red three	100	—
Going out	100	—
Cards left in hand	—	−75
Round total	1,185	385

That 800-point gap is mostly one clean book and the going-out bonus — which is the whole strategy of the game in one line.

Beginner strategy

• Get down early. Fifty points in round one is easy; 150 in round four is not. In later rounds, plan your first meld before you need it — and remember the cards you take from the pile don’t count toward the minimum.
• Build clean books first. A clean book pays 500, a dirty one 300. Save your wild cards for finishing a book or reaching the minimum.
• Don’t sit on a fat hand. Everything still in your hand and foot counts against you when the other team goes out. Melding steadily is safer than waiting for a perfect turn.
• Get into your foot. Your foot is eleven fresh cards for your team and eleven fewer cards that can hurt you.
• Use black threes as a stop sign. When the pile is big and the next player is eyeing it, a black three on top keeps it shut for a turn.
• Talk to your partner. “We need a clean book” is the kind of table talk many groups allow — agree on what’s fair before you start.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards do you get in Hand and Foot?

In Bicycle’s rules, 11 cards in your hand and 11 face down in your foot. Pagat’s classic version deals 13 and 13, and the Saskatchewan version 11 and 13 — agree before the first deal.

How many decks do you need for Hand and Foot?

One more standard deck than there are players, jokers included — five decks (270 cards) for four players. Bicycle’s rules call for five to six decks with jokers.

What do you need to go out in Hand and Foot?

Under Bicycle’s rules your team needs at least one clean book and one dirty book, and you must get rid of all your cards with a final discard. Stricter versions ask for two clean books, two dirty books, and a wild book, plus your partner’s permission.

What is the difference between a clean book and a dirty book?

A clean (red) book is seven natural cards of one rank with no wild cards, worth 500 points. A dirty (black) book contains wild cards — deuces or jokers — and is worth 300. In Bicycle’s rules a dirty book still needs at least four natural cards.

What are the meld minimums in Hand and Foot?

Your team’s first meld each round must total at least 50 points in round one, 90 in round two, 120 in round three, and 150 in round four. Only card values count toward it — book bonuses and red threes don’t.

Is Hand and Foot the same as canasta?

It’s a close relative. Hand and Foot keeps canasta’s wild cards, red and black threes, and seven-card melds, but gives each player a second set of cards (the foot), uses five or more decks, and plays a fixed four rounds.

Sources

Hand and Foot has no single governing body. This guide follows Bicycle’s published rules and checks the variations against pagat.com, which documents several regional versions side by side.

• Hand and Foot — Learn to Play (Bicycle Cards)
• Hand and Foot — rules and variations (pagat.com, including the Saskatchewan version)

Fewer than four tonight?

With just two of you, two-player canasta gives you the same melding, wild cards, and red threes with a single pair of decks. Gathering a full table? Our card game night guide covers seating, light, and snacks. And if a teenager wants in, this is a good one to deal them — Bicycle rates Hand and Foot 13 and up; our guide to card games with grandchildren has the rest of the ladder.