Hand & Foot card game

Learned this card game from our friends when we went to ride the Tour of Lakes.

Ideally, this is a partnership game. Following are the rules for Hand and Foot.  Our family loves to play this.  It is better to play with either 4 or 6 people so that you have 2 or 3 teams.  However you can play for yourself if you have 3 or 5 players.

For 4 people use 4 decks
For 6 people use 5 decks
Shuffle well and spread cards out on table. Each player selects 2 piles of 11 cards each and places them in front of him face down.
The bottom card of your pile determines which “pile” you play first.
The pile with the lowest number on the bottom becomes your “Hand”. Top/Down = Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs (If number on the bottom is a tie)
The object of the game is to get the most “natural” sets or “dirty” sets completed using wild cards, consisting of 7 cards each.
A natural set consists of for example: all queens & is worth 500
A set completed using wild cards (deuce or joker) is worth 300.
Maximum number of wild cards in a set is 3.
A set of all threes is not allowed.
A “natural” set of sevens is worth 1500 points!

You cannot go out until you have one “natural” book and two books completed with the help of wild cards (dirty) and you must have played your “hand”.  You may “go out” without playing your “foot”, but you must play your “hand”.

Only one person on the team needs to meld.  See point count for each card in chart below.  You or your partner may not lay down any cards until you have the following melds:
1st hand = 60 points.
2nd hand = 90 points.
3rd hand = 120 points.
4th hand = 150 points.

Game is over after the 4th hand above.

Your partner may play on your meld.  You may NOT play on opps meld

Once you have completed the amount required to meld, you may continue to lay down sets of three and your partner may continue to play on your sets or create his own.

Once you have completed your book of seven cards (natural or dirty), you may continue to add to your book.

Cards are worth the following points:
Ace = 20
4 thru 7 = 5
8 thru K = 10
Deuce = 20 points and is wild
Joker = 50 points and is wild
Black Three = 5 points
All cards in your “Foot” count against you.

Black 3 freezes the discard pile. This means next player must draw two cards and cannot pick up discard pile for this turn.
Red 3 = 500 points against you, so discard quickly.

A turn consists of: drawing two cards from the pile, melding as many as possible, and discarding one card.  Until you or your partner can meld, you will simply be drawing two cards and discarding one.

You can take cards from the discard pile but you must take the top 7 cards and you must have 2 of the top card in your hand (No wild cards to take the pile).  If there are not seven cards in the discard pile, you must pick up as many cards as are on the discard pile.  Once there are seven or more cards on the discard pile, you must take the top seven cards.  If you take the pile you must be able to lay down the required meld (using only the top card of the discard pile) unless your partner has already melded, then you must be able to lay down cards using the top card.  You cannot check the discard pile first!

Strategy

It is not necessarily advantageous to pick up the discard pile as there may be several red threes lurking in the cards below.  You should ask your partner if it is okay to go out as he may have more than one red three to count against him.

You must play the last card of your “hand”, but not discard, following which you pick up your “foot” and continue your turn. Once you have played as many cards as is possible in your “foot”, you then discard and your turn for this round is over.

Each “natural” set you meld counts 500; each “dirty” set you meld counts 300, so your base score is 1100 points.  To that you add the point value of each card in your sets (or other meld).  This would be plus to your score if you or your partner have played the card – negative if it remains in your partner’s “hand” or “foot” or your “foot”…  You must have played all the cards in your hand before going out.  This includes one card to the discard pile.  Score per card is shown above.