Hand and Foot is a rummy-style meld-building game based on Canasta. It can be played between two teams or two individuals and uses a large number of playing card decks (typically one or two more than the number of players).

Objective

Like in Canasta, the objective is to make melds (at least seven cards of the same rank). When one player has no cards in their hand, the round ends. Each card played is worth a certain number of points. At the end of four rounds, the team with the highest score wins.

In Hand and Foot, you must make 5 complete melds of different types before anyone on your team can go out. Two of the melds must be "natural" (consisting of no wild cards). Two of the melds must be "dirty" (have wild cards in them) and one must consist entirely of wild cards.

Setup

Each player is dealt two sets of 13 cards. One is set aside and placed facedown. This is the "foot". The other set is played as your "hand".

The undealt cards are stacked into a "draw pile". Next to it will be a "discard pile where accumulated discarded cards are placed.

Gameplay

Play goes clockwise around the table, alternating between teams. On your turn, a player can either:

• Draw two cards from the deck
• Take the contents of the discard pile. The player can only take the discard pile if:
• Made their team's initial meld.
• Must be able to make or add to a meld with the top card of the discard pile and two cards in the player's hand. These cards cannot be wild cards.
• The top card is not a black 3

Takes two cards into their hand. They then attempt to make melds. When finished, the player discards a single card. If this single card is the last remaining in hand, the player picks up the "foot" and begins playing with that.

Initial Meld

At the start of a round, when no melds have been made, a team can only place melds if the total score of the cards played reaches a certain number (see below for card values). The more points a team has, the higher the threshold. This allows a team to "catch-up" if they are too far behind to have a chance at winning. The points can be spread across multiple melds, but the melds must consist of at least 3 cards.

Scoring

Card Values

Each card played earns points for the team. Each card left in a player's hand (or foot) is counted against the team (subtracted from the score).

End of Round Points

Points are awarded to the team that goes out and ends the round. If the round ends by the draw pile being exhausted, no team gets points.

Completed melds earn points, depending on the type of meld.