Official   
  Hand and Foot   

Welcome to Official Hand and Foot!  

Hand and Foot is a canasta game played by people all over the country. It's a social game, meaning that while you certainly must strategize, there is ample time to talk with friends and have a good laugh. You actually enjoy playing, even taking short breaks while others play their turns. Silence during a game of Hand and Foot is rare!

There are probably a few hundred variations of Hand and Foot. They are all basically the same, but it can still be a bit confusing to go from one to the other because of the differences and scoring variations. This version is simple and fun, and has been passed down from our family over the years. This is a popular version that is quite addictive!

How it's played - in a nutshell

The game is played by either four or six people.  You can play two teams of two, two teams of three, or (rarely) three teams of two.  When playing a round, you and your team try to make as many points as you can by building canastas. A canasta is a group of seven cards of the same number.  

A canasta may be started by anyone on your team by laying down a minimum of three cards - like three 8's or three Kings.  From that point on, each person on the team continues to add cards to the canasta until it is completed with seven cards.  When you complete a canasta, your team gets points depending on the type of canasta it is.

Types of Canastas

There are basically three types of canastas:

• "Clean" canastas, where all seven cards are natural. Natural means that no wild cards were used to make the canasta. An example of a clean canasta is seven 4's, seven Aces, or seven Queens.

• "Dirty" canastas, where up to two wild cards may be used to create the canasta. For example, five 6's and two wild cards - or six 6's and one wild card.

• "Wild Card" canastas, consisting of seven wild cards.

What is the Foot?

When everyone is dealt their cards at the start of the game, they receive two stacks of cards.  One has 13 cards and is the "Hand".  The other has 11 cards and is the "Foot."  You pick your hand up and use it to start playing.  During play, when your team finishes its first canasta (clean, dirty or wild), they may then pick up their Foot and add it to all of the cards in their hand. No telling what surprises you might have in your foot!

Basic Play

When it's your turn, you will only do three things: pick up cards, play what you can to the table, and discard one card.  Simple.  But let's break it down into a few more details:

• Picking up cards
  You have two choices here. You can pick up two cards from the pick-up pile or, if the top card of the discard pile matches a pair of cards in your hand, you can pick up the ENTIRE DISCARD STACK - as long as you play the three cards that matched. There are some caveats here, but we'll go over those details later.

• Playing cards to the table
  While looking at your own cards, you also look at the cards that your team has already played on the table. If you are able to add cards to any of your team's canastas, then you may do it.  You don't have to do it, though. There are situations where it might be good to hold your cards for awhile. Once you have played cards to the table (or not), you'll need to discard.

• Discarding
  To discard, you choose a card in your hand and put it face-up on the discard pile. There's also some strategy here, because that discard pile can get pretty large! Do you want the person after you to be able to pick it up because they're holding a matching pair?  Something to consider.

Scoring

How is the game scored?  It might seem a bit intimidating at first, but it's actually simple. Each card has a value:

• 3's are worth 100 points

• 4's through 7's are worth 5 points

• 8's through Kings are worth 10 points

• 2's and Aces are worth 20 points

• Jokers are worth 50 points

Completed canastas also have point values:

• Clean canastas are 500 points

• Dirty canastas are 300 points

• Wild card canastas are either 1000, 1500, or 2000 points (more on that later)

• A canasta of red 3's is 1500 points

• A canasta of black 3's (only played just before going out of the game after you discard) is worth 1500 points.

At the end of the game, there are two totals to add up for each team:

• The Base score is the total of all canastas you've completed, plus any red three's your team has played

• The Card Count is the total of all individual cards your team has played, whether in a completed canasta or still uncompleted on the table, MINUS the total points still in every team member's hands.

The Base and Card Count for each team is added together to make your team's score for the round. Rounds are played until one team reaches a total score (for all rounds) of 25,000 points.

More rules???

You bet there are!  But they are so easy to learn.  Over the years, we have seen that a typical new player can easily be "talked" through the first two rounds, after which they can pretty much play with only a question here or there.  Hand and Foot is easy to play and easy to learn.

Yes, there are nuances. That's what makes the game especially fun.  Explore this site to see the detailed rules. We'll be adding how-to videos, strategy advise, and more. Check out the site menus.