The girls, Kelsey, Melissa and Emily, are having a ball playing “Hand and Foot”! It is such a fun game. Our friends from southern Utah taught us how to play it, and it is one of our favorite things to do when they visit. These are the rules (or at least the way we play):

You will need about 5 decks of cards, all shuffled together.

Before play begins, you draw a small stack from one of the two discard piles. While counting you lay down the cards making two piles in front of yourself. If you get 22 cards (11 in each pile) then you get a bonus 100 points. If not you just make sure you have 11 cards in each pile, you may have to draw a few more cards, or put a few back. One of your piles is your “Hand” and one is your “Foot”. Set your “Foot” aside for later, and start looking at your cards in your “Hand”.

At this point you are trying to build books. The books are called “Perfect” or “Imperfect”. A Perfect is when all of the cards are the same thing, all Kings, all Aces, etc. An Imperfect is when you use the wild cards to complete the book. And example is 4 King’s and 3 wild’s. A complete book is 7 cards total. When the book is complete, you stack them and set them aside. If the book is Perfect then make sure a red card is on top, if it is Imperfect the top card should be black.

The game is played in rounds. At the beginning of your turn, you draw two cards. When you have at least 3 cards that will eventually become a book, you can start putting them down and begin building them in front of you on the table. In order to put them down though, you’ll need to have enough points to put them down. In round 1, you need at least 50 points to put your cards down, round 2=90 points, round 3=120 points, round 4=150 points. The person who puts their cards down first gets a 100 point bonus.

In each round you will need to build 2-4 books. Round 1 you need to build- 1 Perfect and 1 Imperfect, round 2- 1 Perfect and 2 Imperfects, round 3- 2 Perfects and 1 Imperfect, and round 4- 2 Perfects and 2 Imperfects.

You can pick up the cards in the discard pile if you have at least 3 cards matching the card on top of the pile, then you get 7 additional cards off the pile, a total of 8. One thing about taking the cards from the discard pile, is that you have to be able to play the card on top. Which means also having enough points to lay down for each round. Also, you may end up with a bunch of bad cards, it is the discard pile after all.

Wild cards are: Jacks and 2’s.

Red 3’s count against you 500 points.

Black 3’s are 0 points.

Ace’s=20 points, 2’s=20 points,

Jack’s=50 points,

7 & up=10 points, 6 & down=5 points.

After you have played all of the cards in your “Hand” you can go into your “Foot”, and start playing them. Of course you want to get rid of any red 3’s as quickly as you get them. Note: you cannot make a book out of red 3’s or black 3’s.

The person who gets the required books for the round and is able to discard their last card, wins that round and also gets a bonus 100 points.

When someone discards their last card for that round, everyone counts the books they have made: Perfects are worth=500 points, and Imperfects are worth=300 points, count them first. Then count all of the cards you have, including the books you have already counted, using the point system above. If you weren’t the one who went out and you still have cards in your hand, those count against you. Hopefully, you won’t have a red 3 (or more). Total the cards and minus that off what you laid down.

The object of the game is to get the most points. So, fun!! I think that’s all, if it doesn’t make sense leave me a message and I explain it better. We have had so much fun playing with friends and also with family!! Try playing a game of “Hand and Foot”, I know you’ll love it!