Hand and Foot
Card Track with Paper ScoreTwo teams, four deals, highest total wins.
Score Hand and Foot on paper, or track each deal in Paper Score. A wild pile is 1,500 in the usual count. The printable sheet has the card values and the pile bonuses.
Prefer paper? Download the free printable score sheet (PDF)
Outside the US? A4 version
Page challenge
Close the books
Lay cards onto a pile. At 7 cards it closes into a book: clean (no wilds) +500, dirty +300, or all 2s and jokers for a +1,500 wild book. Add red 3s, going out, and any cards stuck in your hand or foot.
Build a deal worth 2,000+ for a gold star. Best: –
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Who goes first?
Settle it before the Hand and Foot argument starts. Pick how many players, add names if you like, and spin.
Keeping score too? Doodle Score remembers your players and tallies every round.
How to score
There is no single Hand and Foot rulebook. This is the most usual four-player version. Write down anything your table does differently.
- Melded cards count for you. The same cards left in a hand or a foot count against you.
- Jokers are 50. Twos and aces are 20. 8 through king are 10. 4 through 7, and black threes, are 5.
- A finished pile of 7 is extra. Clean, with no wilds, is 500. Dirty, with wilds, is 300. A wild pile, only twos and jokers, is 1,500.
- Each red three laid with your melds is +100. A red three still in a hand or foot is −100.
- Going out is +100, and only the team that goes out scores it.
- The pile bonus and red threes do not count toward the first meld. That first meld is card points only: 50, then 90, then 120, then 150.
- Play four deals. Add them up. Highest total wins. You do not win a deal by reaching a score.
- Some tables count a wild pile as 1,000, or play until a team reaches a target. Those are table rules, not this count.
How to play
- 4 players, partners across. Five decks, two jokers in each. Each player gets a hand of 13 and a foot of 13. Play the hand first, then pick up the foot.
- To go out, that team needs two clean piles, two dirty piles, and one wild pile. Your partner must already be playing their foot, and must agree.
- You go out from the foot, not from the hand.
Hand, Knee, and Foot
Some tables add a knee: a third stack you play after the hand and before the foot. The points on this page do not change. Ask how many cards are in the knee before you deal. Use the same score sheet for Hand, Knee, and Foot.
Set Up in Doodle Score
There is no dedicated Hand and Foot scorecard. Use Paper Score. One row per deal, one column per team. The app does not add the piles.
Download the app, tap New Scorecard, and choose Paper Score.
Common Hand and Foot rules questions
The arguments that come up at the table, answered from the official rules. Where house rules differ, we say so.
Do you have to play your hand before your foot?
Yes. You pick up your foot once you have played every card in your hand.
How many books do you need to go out?
Many groups need at least one clean book and one dirty book before going out.
House rule The number and type of books varies a lot between groups. Some also need a wild book.
How many wilds can a dirty book have?
Usually no more than 3 wilds, with natural cards in the majority.
House rule Wild limits vary between groups, so agree before you deal.
Can you pick up the discard pile in Hand and Foot?
In most rules you need two natural cards that match the top card, and you take the top 7 cards rather than the whole pile.
House rule Pickup rules vary, and some groups take the whole pile.
Do you need permission to go out?
Many tables require you to ask your partner first. If they say yes, you must go out.
House rule This is a house rule, so agree on it before you start.
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