Hand and Foot

Dealing:

The dealer deals each player 2 stacks of 11 cards each (the hand and the foot). Exact cutting of the deck such that the dealer has no cards left after dealing to all players adds 100 points to that player's (or team's) score. Remaining cards are placed in the center of the table face down. This is the Bank.

Selecting Hand and foot:

Players look only at bottom card of each of the 2 decks they've been dealt. The deck with the highest card is the hand, the other deck is set aside face down as the players foot. High card is determined in this order: Joker, Ace, K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2. If both decks have the same value,the player chooses between the decks without looking at the other cards.

Game Objective:

Each player attempts to play all cards in his hand. Once all cards are played from the hand, the player then picks up the foot and plays from that. Primarily, scoring points is achieved by creating books. A book contains 7 or more cards of a kind (e.g. a set of 7 Jacks). A Natural book is worth 500 points, and contains no wild cards. An unnatural book is worth 300 points, and contains up to 50% wildcards(deuces or jokers).

Books are started by creating a meld of either 3 of a kind, or 2 of a kind plus a wild card. Note: a meld cannot be made for wild cards and 3's.

Books may be added to by team members during their turn. Completing a book is accomplished by adding the 7th card to the meld. A completed book is indicated by stacking the cards in the book and placing a red card of the kind on top for a natural, or a black card on top for an unnatural. Cards may be added to a completed book in the same way that they are added to a meld prior to being converted to a book. Additional cards (including wild cards) should be placed at the bottom of the book, to prevent changing the color of the top card.

Play Starts:

The first player draws 2 cards from the Bank, and adds them to his hand. He then attempts to combine cards of a kind, and wild cards, to create melds. If he can create sufficient melds to meet the minimum number of points required, he places the melds face up on the table. Once his turn is completed, he discards one card from his hand face up into the discard pile.

Starting points:

Player must have a minimum number of points to lay down, depending on the current score:

Discarding:

Players always discard one card from their hand to end their turn. If they can play all cards from their hand without discarding a card, they may immediately go into their foot, and continue playing. If they discard the last card from their hand, they may pick up their foot to be played on their next turn.

Going out:

A player (or team) may only go out when he has at least 1 natural book. When a player has completed playing his foot and can play all his remaining cards, he must ask his partner if its OK to go out. If the partner agrees, the player plays all his cards, and the hand is terminated.

Scoring:

Any cards remaining unplayed in either hand or foot are counted against the player (or team) holding them. Thus, it is desirable to go out when the opposing team still has many cards unplayed. Note: 3's only count against the team holding them. Red 3's are particularly bad to have among your unused cards. First, the unused cards are totaled as a negative score. Then completed books are totaled and added to the score. Finally, all cards in the melds and books are totaled and added to the score.

Remember, 3's never score positive, since they can never be used to create a meld.

Winning:

The first player (or team) reaching 10,000 points is the winner!