Hand Knee and Foot with 2 players

Q: Can you play 3 Foot hand and knee?

Red 3s can only be played when it is your turn. When a player makes the first canasta and is able to play all cards, she may pick up the knee and continue to play. However, if she cannot play all the cards, she must discard and pick up the knee once her play is complete.

TEAM MAKEUP
Three players playing independently use 7 decks of cards. Four players equals 2 teams of two players, use 6 decks. Six players equals 2 teams of three players, use 7 decks.

Table of Contents Show

Card Game Rules
How to Play
Looking for more card games to play? Check out this article:
40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions
46 comments
Can you play hand and foot with 2 players?
Can you play 3 Foot hand and knee?
Can you play Mao with two people?
How many decks of cards do you need for hand knee and Foot?

DEALING CARDS
Each player draws a card. High card is DEALER of the HAND (15 cards). The player to immediate right is dealer of the KNEE (13 cards). The next player to the right is the dealer of the FOOT (11 cards). Each dealer deals the appropriate number of cards for each of the players (4 or 6) and places them in front of him/her.

First, the dealer of the FOOT distributes each stack clockwise to each player. Each player places their FOOT in front of them.

Second, the dealer of the KNEE distributes each stack clockwise to each player. Each player places their KNEE perpendicular on top of the FOOT. Then the DEALER distributes the HAND clockwise to each player. Remaining cards are placed in the card holder and one card is turned to start play. Card cannot be a wild card, seven, five, black or red three. Second round DEALER is person to left of original dealer and so on.

PLAY
The dealer starts play by picking two cards or may use card from discard pile if they have two like cards in their hand. If cards are drawn from the discard pile, ALL cards in the pile must be taken. Only top card may be used for making their opening meld. Once meld is made any and all cards from the discard pile may be played. At this time, any red “3”s that are in original hand or any drawn may be added to the meld pile for that team and replaced by drawing the same number of cards.

THREES
Red “threes” that are taken out and stacked with books are counted at 100 points, unless a book of seven “threes” is collected and counted as 1000 points. Any player caught with a red three in their hand at the end of the round will have 500 points deducted from their team score.

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.

OBJECT

A “clean” book (RED)(No wild cards) is valued at 500 points.
A “dirty” book (BLACK) no more than 2 wild cards is valued at 300 points.
A book of wild cards is valued at 2500 points.
A book of 5’s is valued at 3000 points.
A book of 7’s is values at 5000 points.

To start mending a card point value must be met. Initially or for any score less than 14,995 the point meld is 50. For a score of 15,000 to 29,995 the point meld is 90. For a score of 30,000 to 49,995 the point meld is 120. Over 50,000 the meld point is 150. Meld is card value only. A completed book does not satisfy meld count.

When a team forms its first book (either a red, black, wild, 5’s, or 7’s) the player making the book may pick up his/her KNEE and continue play. Other players on that team may also pick up their KNEE at that time and play it at their turn. In order to go to your FOOT you must play all the cards you are holding in your hand. You may go directly to your foot if you play all the cards in your hand (no discard) and continue to play. If you discard to empty your hand, you may pick up your foot (looking), but must wait until your next turn to play.

In order to go out, you have to: (1) play all the cards left in your hand with no discard, (2) satisfy the “required books” requirement, and (3) ask approval of your team. It is not necessary for all team members to be able play all their cards to go out. Remaining cards are deducted from score.

BURIED CARDS
Cards may not be buried to the “required books” i.e. original red book, original black book, 5’s, and 7’s. If additional red or black books of the original “required” red or black books are made, cards may be buried to those books. Additional “required” books must be the same color as original “required” books. All non required books are scored at 500 points for a red book and 300 points for a black book. 200 points are awarded to the team that goes out.

CARD POINT VALUE
(4, 5, 6, 7 = 5 points)

(8, 9, 10, J, Q, K = 10 points)

(2, A = 20 points)

(Joker = 50 points)

Home How To Play Hand and Foot Game Rules

Posted by John Taylor on October 04, 2019

(The set up of a traditional Hand and Foot game)

Card Game Rules

Hand and Foot is a popular variation from the rummy type game of Canasta. It can be described as a simpler, easier version of Canasta for beginners. Hand and Foot uses about 5 or 6 decks of standard playing cards and is played with 2-6 players. The objective of Hand and Foot is to be the first to get rid of all of your cards and for your team to have the most points.

For more rummy type games, check out our guides for Classic Canasta and Gin.

If you are looking for playing cards to play Hand and Foot with, check out a standard pack here or one of our recent arrivals here.

Set Up

Before the game begins an initial dealer must be chosen. To do so, every player is given a card from a shuffled deck and whoever receives the highest card becomes the first dealer. Ties are broken by a repeated deal. The initial dealer shuffles the deck and the player to their right cuts it. The dealer then passes two sets of 11 cards one by one clockwise to each of the 4 players. The first set of 11 is called the Hand and the last set of 11 is called the Foot. The remaining cards are placed faced down to form the stock. The top card of the stock is turned upright and placed to the side to form the discard pile. The dealer position rotates clockwise at the end of each round.

Teammates sit across from each other and work together to form the more melds than the other team.

Melding

Melds are formed by matching cards of the same rank. A meld must begin with at least 3 cards. Melds are shared within the teams so, teammates can build upon their own melds.

Wildcards

The Jokers and 2s in the deck are wildcards and can be used to build upon any meld. Melds must have, however, more natural cards than wildcards in them.

(In Hand and Foot, there are two stacks that players must meld to win)

How to Play

The gameplay moves clockwise and begins with the player clockwise to the dealer. At the beginning of their turn they must take a card from either the stock or the discard pile. To take a card from the discard pile, the top card must either begin a meld or build upon one already made. If you take from the discard pile, you must take all of the cards in the discard pile. At the end of your turn, you must discard one card.

Players must start with their Hand pile while their Foot pile is laid face down. Once the play all of the cards in their Hand pile, players move to their foot pile.

Books

In Hand and Foot, a pile of 7 cards is called a book. If none of those cards are wild, it is called a red book. If any of the cards are wild, it is called a black book. When books are made, the pile is tacked faced down and a card with the same color of the book is placed face up on top of the stack.

Going Out

Teams must have made a red book and a black book before they are allowed to “go out”. They must also have played all of their cards in both their Hand and their Foot.

Scoring

After a player goes out, the round has ended, and scores are tallied as follows:

Red books are worth 500 points

Black books are worth 300 points

Wild card books (books made from 2s and Jokers) are worth 1500 points

Jokers are worth 50 points

2s are worth 20 points

Aces are worth 20 points

8s through Kings are worth 10 points

4s through 7s are worth 5 points

Black 3s are worth 5 points

Red 3s are worth 100 points

Going out is worth 100 points

Points from the cards in the team’s remaining hand are deducted from the points from the team’s played cards.

For more information on the game's rules, check out Pagat's article here or Wikipedia's article here.

History

In 1939, Canasta was invented by Segundo Santos and Alberto Serrato who wanted to create a quicker game than bridge. Canasta in Spanish means “basket” and refers to the basket Santos and Serrato normally put their cards in. The game was an instant success in their local card clubs but, became a global sensation in the 1950’s. Countless books were written on the game then, specialty decks were sold and Canasta overtook Bridge aa the popular pastime. While the exact origins of Hand and Foot Canasta are unknown, the game first came about in the 1970s, with its own specialty decks arriving in the 1980s.

For more information on the history of Canasta, check out game developer Philip E. Orbanes' article here.

Variations

Because Hand and Foot is in itself a variation of Canasta, the following games are also variations of Canasta.

Two Player

In Two Player Canasta, 15 cards are initially dealt. If a player draws from the stock, they must draw 2 cards instead of the normal one. Additionally, a player needs to complete two canastas in order to go out and end the round. All other rules of Classic Canasta apply including the 5000 point objective.

Samba

Samba is practically Classic Canasta but, with increased values for everything. Three 52 card decks are in play, totaling 162 cards. Instead of a 5000 point objective, teams have to reach 10000 points. Melds can be made by cards of a kind and cards in sequence. Six red 3’s are worth 1000 points. Melds can only have two wildcards in them. For teams with 7000 points or more, the first meld of a player must be least 150 points.

Looking for more card games to play? Check out this article:

40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions

About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.

Last update date: 08/30/20

Tags: Blog, game rules, Hand and Foot, playing cards, Samba

46 comments

Can you play hand and foot with 2 players?

Hand and Foot uses about 5 or 6 decks of standard playing cards and is played with 2-6 players.

Can you play 3 Foot hand and knee?

Red 3's can only be played when it is your turn. When a player makes the first canasta and is able to play all cards, she may pick up the knee and continue to play. However, if she cannot play all the cards, she must discard and pick up the knee once her play is complete.

Can you play Mao with two people?

Rules of play The size of the deck also varies; it is good to have approximately one 52-card deck for every two or three players, but missing or extra cards are not important to gameplay.

How many decks of cards do you need for hand knee and Foot?

What do I need to play Hand, Knee, and Foot card game? Once you've gathered enough players, the only thing you'll need to play is a huge amount of cards. The game requires around 324 cards, which works out about 6 decks.