🎯 Objective

Hand & Foot is a partnership card game played with Rook cards. Teams of two compete to be the first to reach 10,000+ points through strategic card play and meld creation.

🃏 Setup

Players: 4 players minimum (even numbers required) - partners sit across from each other
Cards: Each player gets 22 cards total: 11 hand cards + 11 foot cards
Decks: 4 decks per 2 players (e.g., 4 players = 8 Rook decks)
Starting: Oldest player goes first, then clockwise

🎴 Card Values

1,3–7: 5 points each
8–13: 10 points each
14: 20 points each
2 (wild): 25 points each
Rook (wild): 50 points each

⚠️ Red 3s: -150 points each (penalty applies even if melded or in books!)

🎮 Turn Structure

1. Draw one card from the draw pile
2. Play zero or more cards (if team has gone down and rules allow)

Important Turn Rules:
• No drawing from discard pile - only from draw pile
• Multiple players may draw before anyone discards
• Partners cannot both be in drawn-but-not-discarded state

👥 Hand & Foot

Entering the Foot:
• Playing last hand card: Player immediately picks up foot and continues turn
• Discarding last hand card: Player picks up foot at start of next turn
• Players must finish their hand before accessing their foot

🏗️ Melds & Books

Basic Meld Rules:
• Minimum meld size: 3 cards of the same rank
• Melds belong to the team - shared by both partners
• Players may only play on their team's melds
• All natural cards in a meld must be the same rank

Clean vs Dirty Melds:
• Clean meld: Contains no wild cards
• Dirty meld: Contains any wild cards
• All-dirty meld: Contains only wild cards (special case)

Wild Card Rules:
• Wild cards: Only Rooks (50 points) and 2s (25 points)
• Wilds ≤ natural cards in any meld
• All-dirty melds: Minimum 3 wild cards, no naturals
• Red 3s cannot be melded - always count as -150 penalty

📖 Books (Completed Melds)

Completion:
• Books complete at exactly 7 cards
• Cannot add more cards once complete
• Books are displayed rotated 90 degrees

Book Bonuses:
• Clean book: +500 points
• Dirty book: +300 points
• All-dirty book: +1500 points
• Unfinished all-dirty book: -1000 penalty (plus card face values)

📈 Going Down (Initial Meld Requirement)

Teams must meet minimum point requirements in a single turn to start melding:

• 0–3,499 points: 60 points required
• 3,500–5,499 points: 90 points required
• 5,500–7,499 points: 120 points required
• 7,500+ points: 150 points required

• Points calculated from card face values only (including wilds worth 25 and 50)
• Must be achieved in one play action
• After going down, team can meld freely on subsequent turns

🚪 Going Out

Requirements:
Teams must have completed at least:

• 2 clean books (7 cards each, no wilds)
• 1 dirty book (7 cards each, with wilds)

Execution:
• One player must have all cards played (both hand and foot empty)
• Going out may occur on a discard
• Going out bonus: +300 points to the team

🏆 Scoring

Add to team score:

• Face value of all played cards in melds
• Clean book bonuses (+500 each)
• Dirty book bonuses (+300 each)
• All-dirty book bonuses (+1500 each)
• Going out bonus (+300)

Subtract from team score:

• Face value of cards left in hands or feet
• Red threes penalty (-150 each)
• Unfinished all-dirty meld penalty (-1000)

Winning:
• First team to reach 10,000+ points wins
• Game ends immediately when a team goes out
• Final scores calculated for the round

🎯 Strategy Tips

• Partnership coordination - melds are shared between partners
• Point management - balance between going down early vs. accumulating points
• Book completion - prioritize getting required books for going out
• Timing - when to go down, when to go out
• Risk vs. reward - holding cards for better melds vs. reducing penalty risk

Common Mistakes:

• Forgetting Red 3s are always -150
• Playing too many wilds in early melds
• Not coordinating with partner on book completion
• Going out without required book types