The variety of card games means that you can find one to suit most any situation — at the least, most card players are familiar with some type of Poker, though they may need to be reminded of how the hands are ranked. You can play some card games as long as all the players are happy to continue; others end at a proscribed score, and all are made more enjoyable when players adhere to card-game etiquette.
- Hand And Foot Card Game Cheat Sheet
- Free Game Cheat Sheets
- Hand And Foot Game Cheat Sheet
- Hand And Foot Card Game Cheat Sheet
Black threes are placed in the discard pile and closes the discard pile for the next player in line. Any black threes in a players hand at the end of the round will have 100 points deducted from team score. Once a card is discarded, play continues to person on the left. 1ST hand – 60 2. 2nd hand – 90 3. 3rd hand – 120 4. Free Download Hand & Foot Score Sheet (pdf, 10KB) and Customize with our Editable Templates, Waivers and Forms for your needs. 4 Hand and Foot Score Sheet free download. Download free printable Hand and Foot Score Sheet samples in PDF, Word and Excel formats.
- Hand And Foot Score Sheets: 110 Hand and Foot Score Pad For Score keeping with Directions Up to 4 Players Log Book Keeper, Scoring notepad to Keep. Keeper Log Book Journal, Log Book Keeper by Game Keeper Cloud Jun 6, 2020.
- The total amount of cards used in a typical Hand and Foot game can exceed 150. A general rule of thumb is to have as many decks as there are players in the game. 1 X Research source Once you have all the decks, place them in a pile in the middle in the middle of the table.
How to Choose the Best Card Games
Anyone who tells you that they know the best card games is either a fool or exceptionally arrogant. But, it is possible to offer a selection according to the needs of the players, so here goes!
Best cards games based on a specific number of players
Hand And Foot Card Game Cheat Sheet
For one player: Accordion and Poker Patience if you’re short on space; La Belle Lucie if you can spread out
For two players: Gin Rummy, Spite and Malice, and Cribbage
For three players: Pinochle and Ninety-nine
For four players: Bridge, Euchre, and Spades
For five to eight players: Hearts, Poker, and Oh, Hell!
For eight or more: Eights and President
Best cards games based on type of play
Best games for serious, competitive types: Whist and Bridge
Best games if you’re playing in a cramped space: Hearts and Eights
Best games for large groups: Poker and Blackjack
Best games that combine bidding and play: Pinochle and Spades
Best partnership games: Bridge, Whist, and Euchre
Best cards games based on experience
For beginners: Oh Hell! and Ninety-Nine
For children: Go Fish, Concentration, and Cheat
For groups with mixed experience levels: Knock-Out Whist, Fan Tan, and Rummy
For experienced card-players who want new thrills: Pinochle and Cribbage
How Card Games End

Beginning a card game is generally pretty straightforward — you deal the proscribed number of cards to the players. However, ending a card game can be a little different. Some games continue until a player reaches a certain score, others require a specific number of deals. The following list of popular card games tells you that you keep playing until . . .
Blackjack: The players run out of money (don’t worry about the casino) or decide they’ve had enough.
Bridge: One side wins a rubber of two games, then the side with the higher score wins. If playing Chicago Bridge, you change partners after four deals. If playing Duplicate Bridge, you play a session of between 20 and 26 deals — whatever the Tournament Director decrees.
Canasta: A player or team scores 1,500 points.
Cribbage: A player scores 121 points.
Eights: A player scores 250 points (or whatever number is agreed on by the players).
Euchre: One side scores 10 points.
Fan Tan: One player cleans out all the rest, or when everybody has had enough.
Gin Rummy: A player scores 250 points in one game or a series of games.
Hand and Foot: You finish four deals. Whoever has the most points wins.
Hearts: A player amasses 100 penalty points, at which point the player with the fewest penalty points wins.
Oh Hell!: You complete cycle of hands (starting with 7 cards to each player, and then reducing to 1, and going up again to 7 cards). The player with the highest score wins.
Pinochle: A player or partnership scores 1,000 points.
Poker: The players lose their money or lose interest.
President: Everybody gets bored of humiliating one another.
Rummy: A player scores 100 points – or whatever total is agreed by the contestants.
Setback: A player scores 11 (or 21) points.
Spades: One side scores 500 points.
Whist: One side wins a rubber of two games by getting to 7 points first on two occasions. At a Whist drive, a session typically ends after 24 deals.
How to Rank Poker Hands
Poker may be the best-known card game, and if you’re going to play, you need to know how the hands rank. The following details the various Poker hands from the highest-ranking to lowest, along with the odds of catching such a hand:
Royal straight flush: The top five cards (A-K-Q-J-10) in one of the four suits. Odds: 650,000 to 1.
Straight flush: Any sequence of five cards from the same suit (such as the 2-3-4-5-6 of clubs). If two players have straight flushes on the same hand, the higher sequence outranks the lower one. Odds: 75,000 to 1.
Four of a kind: Four of any one card; the fifth card in the hand can be anything. If two players have four of a kind at the same time, the rank of the four cards determines the better hand. If two players have equal ranked quads, the rank of the fifth card determines who wins. Odds: 4,150 to 1.
Full house: Three of a kind matched with a pair — for example, three 10s and two 9s. If two players both have a full house, the higher three of a kind determines the better hand. Odds: 700 to 1.
Flush: Five cards of the same suit, no sequence required. When two players have flushes, the highest card in each flush determines the better hand; if the top cards are the same, you look at the second card, and so on. Odds: 500 to 1.
Straight: Five cards of consecutive rank (in numerical sequence) in any suit. If two players have straights, the top card of the straight determines the winner. Odds: 250 to 1.
Three of a kind: Also knows as triplets, trips, or a set, this hand consists of three cards of the same numeric value, together with two unmatched cards. The higher-ranking three of a kind wins. Odds: 47 to 1.
Two pair: Four cards in two pairs with an unmatched fifth card. Ties are broken by the value of the top pair, followed by the value of the second pair, and finally by the spare card. Odds: 20 to 1.
One pair: One pair with three unmatched cards is the second-lowest hand. The rank of the pair, followed by the unmatched cards, splits the tie. Odds: 2 to 5.
High card: The weakest hand, high card means you have five unmatched cards. The top card in the hand determines the better collection. If two hands tie, such as two hands with ace-high, you move to the second card, and so on. Odds: 1 to 1.
Card Game Do’s and Don’ts
Card games are meant to be fun and entertaining and paying attention to the do’s and don’ts of card-playing can help you keep your enjoyment factor high and your frustration level low.
Card-playing do’s include:
Determine the rules of the game before play begins. Most games have several variations, and you need to iron out the rules before you start.
Shuffle the cards before each hand. Cut the cards, or arrange for someone else to do so, before dealing them.
Make sure that no one can see your cards, both during the deal and during play.
Avoid conversation that gives away information, or if the sole purpose of your remarks is to upset, irritate, or mislead your partner or opponents. (At Poker, though, you can get away with almost anything!)
Try to remember all the cards that you held at the start of play and recall the salient details of the cards played by the other players.
Listen to your partner’s bids and watch his plays. He wants to help you, so don’t ignore him.
Play each card in the same tempo. The speed of your play can emphasize how you feel about your cards.
Study your opponents’ actions at the table. If the game involves bluffing, try to read body language during bluffs. If you can, try to watch a group of players before joining them; you can read their behavior better when you’re not tied to one position at the table and you don’t have to worry about a hand.
Only try to bluff only one or two players at a time. If you’re bluffing against three or more players, the odds are that one of them can beat whatever bluff you’re pretending to hold.
Card-playing don’ts include:
Make any undue efforts to look at anyone else’s hand, both during the deal and during play.
Pick up your cards until the deal is finished.
Indicate whether you’re pleased or unhappy about the cards you’re dealt. In an individual game, you give your opponents unnecessary information about your hand. In a partnership game, you give your partner illegal information about your holdings.
Accidentally expose any cards while dealing, either by turning a card over or by distributing them in such a way that players can see them.
Accidentally drop a card on the table (as opposed to playing it). If you do so in an individual game, your opponent benefits from the sight of part of your hand, which is punishment enough for the error. In a partnership game, exposing a card gives your partner unauthorized information, which may lead to penalties.
Play or lead out of turn. Pay attention to the game so you don’t get caught in this embarrassing position.
Criticize your partner. It never accomplishes anything positive. Don’t dwell on what has passed; the cards have no memory.
GoCampingAmerica.com | Posted March 4th, 2013
How to Play the Card Game Hand and Foot
Happy Camper Blog
Hand and Foot is a North American game related to canasta.
Each player is dealt two sets of cards using one as the “hand” and one as the “foot. There are numerous variations of the game and no “standard” rules. You can either play as individuals or as teams. The most common version of the game is played with four players in partnerships; it can also be played by six people in two teams of three or by any number of individuals.
The following rules are for our “favorite” way to play with four people, two teams of two:
- Decks:You’ll need four full deck of 52 cards, including the jokers – one deck per player.
- Dealing:You can choose of the two options to deal, but whatever method is chosen should be used consistently within the game.
TO START
1. Choose which partnership deals first. After all the cards have been sufficiently shuffled, one partner takes half the cards and deals 11 cards to each player face down, these cards will be your hand stack. The second partner takes the other half of the cards and deals 11 cards to each player face down, these cards become your foot stack. Subsequent deals rotate to the left to spread the deal.
2. Choose which player goes first. After all the cards have been sufficiently shuffled place all the cards in the middle of the table in two face down stacks. The first player selects a random “stack” of cards off the stock, without actually counting, trying to get as close to 22 total cards as possible*. The player counts their cards into two stacks of 11 cards each, one for the hand stack and one for the foot stack. If they have selected too many or too little cards, replace or pull additional cards from the stack in the middle of the table to get to a total of 22 cards, 11 in the hand, 11 in the foot. Rotate left for remaining players to select their “stacks.
*If a player originally pulls exactly 22 cards off the center stacks – they earn 300 bonus points.
3. After each round of play is completed, the turn to deal passes to the left.
- Object of the Game: The aim is to get rid of cards from your hand (11 cards), and then from your foot (11 cards), by melding them
- What is a MELD? A set of three to seven cards of equal rank placed face up on the table.
- A Meld cannot have fewer than three cards.
- Melds belong to a partnership and not an individual player.
- After a meld has been started, each partner can play further cards on either partners melds until there are seven, it then becomes a “closed pile”.
- A meld cannot contain more than seven cards.
- If you complete a pile, you can start another meld of the same rank.
- You can meld cards of any rank from A, K, Q, … down to 4.
- Deuces or 2’s and Jokers are wild cards and can be used in melds, as long as there is at least twice as many real cards of the rank of the meld as wild cards.
- Red and black threes cannot be used in melds.
- A meld can contain a total of two wild cards at most.
- You cannot meld wild cards alone.
- A Meld of seven cards is complete and is called a Pile.
- There are two types of melds
- 1. A Clean (Natural) Meld has no wild cards and may become a Red Pile.
- 2. A Dirty(Wild) Meld has wild cards and may become a Black Pile.
- While melds are laid out face up for everyone to see, completed piles are stacked up and the card placed on top shows the type – a red card for a Red Pile, a black card for a Black Pile. Cards of equal rank can be played on completed Piles.
- Wild cards cannot be played on Piles.
THE PLAY
1. The remainder of the cards are placed face down in the middle of the table to form a “stock”.
2. The players “foot” cards are placed faced down and set aside – players are not allowed to look at them until they have played all the cards in their hands.
3. Each player picks up their “hand” and play begins with the player on the left of the one who “dealt” the round.
4. Turn to play passes clockwise around the table until someone goes out.
5. At each turn a player:
Free Game Cheat Sheets
- Draws the top two cards off the stock**
- Has the option of melding some cards, assuming round minimum can be met, or adding cards to their partners meld
- Discards one card on the discard pile to end their turn
**Instead of drawing two cards off the stock, you may take the top five cards from the discard pile. If the pile contains fewer than five cards, you may take the whole pile, but you may never take more than five cards from the discard pile at any one time. In order to pick up from the discard pile you must:
- You must hold two cards which are the same rank as the top card
- You must immediately meld these three cards (the two you are holding and the top discard), along with any other cards you wish to play
5. After picking up from the discard pile, complete your turn by by discarding one card as usual.
ROUNDS:
A game consists of four rounds. Each round has a minimum meld requirement that increases with each round.
You must put down cards whose individual face values add up to at least the minimum requirement before your team is “in the game”. You can put down several melds at once to achieve this. If you are picking up the pile, you can meld additional cards from you hand along with the top discard and the two that match to help you make up the minimum count, including wild cards. However, you cannot count any of the other six cards you are pick up towards the minimum.
- Round 1, cards points must total at least 50 to start play
- Round 2, cards points must total at least 90 to start play
- Round 3, cards points must total at least 120 to start play
- Round 4, cards points must total at least 150 to start play
PICKING UP YOUR FEET
Hand And Foot Game Cheat Sheet
When you have been able to play all the cards in your hand, by either melding or discarding them, you then pick up your foot and play from that.
Hand And Foot Card Game Cheat Sheet
If you are able to get rid of all your cards in your hand without discarding, you can continue to play into your foot during that hand. If you have to discard the last card to get into your foot, you must hold your play until your turn comes around the table.
RED AND BLACK THREES
Red and black threes are exception cards and have no real use. Red threes are undesirable cards and if you find you are holding a red three you should discard it as soon as possible. If you are caught with a red three in your hand or foot at the end of a round, your team will be charged minus 300 points per red three against your total score. Black threes have no use except to block the next player from picking up from the discard pile when you discard them. If you have any black threes left in your hand or foot at the end of a round counts 5 points against your teams total score. There is no way to get rid of a black three, except for discarding them, one by one, into the discard pile.
END OF PLAY
The play ends when one of the partners “goes out”. In order to go out, your partnership must:
- Have at completed at least two Red Piles and two Black Piles.
- Your partner must have picked up their foot and played at least part of a turn from it.
- You must ask your partners permission to go out. If your partner agrees you must meld all of your remaining cards, or meld all but one of your remaining cards and discard your last card. If your partner says “no” you cannot go out.
You do not have to discard to go out, all possible cards can be melded to complete the game. Scoring You receive two scores per hand. You score points for the combined face value of all cards you have melded AND for each pile. If your team did not go out, you are caught with cards in your hand or foot and you lose points for those cards left at the end of the play. The round ends when the first team gets rid of all the cards in their Hand and Foot, by melding/booking or discarding them. Card Values
- Jokers = 50 points (Wild Card)
- Deuces = 20 points (Wild Card)
- Aces = 20 points
- Eight through King (8-K) = 10 points
- Four through Seven (4-7) = 5 pointsKing (8-K) = 10 points
- Red three = minus 300 points
- Black three = minus 5 points
Pile Values
- Red Pile = 500 points
- Black Pile = 300 points
- Player going out gets 100 bonus points
- 5/500 - Black threes are -5 points, Red threes are -500 points
Learn more about this game and others at pagat.com