Player help

When to Go Out in Hand and Foot (and when to stay in)

August 2026 · By Ian

Going out is the cheer at the table — and sometimes the quiet mistake of the round. Emptying your foot feels like winning. It is, when the books are right and the rest of the table is still holding count. It is not, when you still have a hot hand that could have scored.

At our cruise table we used to race for the door. Then Linda would look at what was still in front of her, shake her head, and keep playing. She was usually right.

The door: one clean book, one dirty book, last card

The round does not end just because your foot looks empty. To go out you need all of this:

• One clean book — seven cards of a rank, no wilds. On our table that is the red book.
• One dirty book — seven of a rank with twos or jokers helping. That is the black book.
• Your last card discarded. If melding used the last foot card, the game lets you finish with No discard. From the hand, an empty pile just picks up the foot — that is not going out.

That is the rule we play, and it is what the site enforces. Special books (a pile of twos, a seven-card straight) are lovely when they happen. They do not replace the clean-and-dirty pair.

The full wording lives in Books and going out on the rules page.

Going out is only a hundred points

The going-out bonus is +100. A clean book is +500. A dirty book is +300. Cards still in someone else’s hand and foot come off their score. So the real prize is rarely that hundred — it is catching the table with count, or finishing one more book before you close the door.

Stay in when the extra turn would lay more than it risks. Go out when waiting would let someone else dump their count and leave you holding yours.

When to stay in for the points

Keep playing if any of these are true:

• You are one card from another book. That book is worth more than going out.
• Your foot still has aces, twos, or jokers you can meld. Those points belong on the table, not in a story about how quickly you emptied the pile.
• Nobody else is close. If the rest of the table is still in their hands, you can afford a turn. Use it.

The series goes to 10,000. One impatient out in a fat round is how a comfortable lead turns into “how did they catch us?”

When to slam the door

Patience is a strategy, not a personality. Four signals say go out now:

• An opponent just picked up the pile. A fat discard pile is ammunition. Close the round before they turn those cards into books.
• The stock is running low. Your plans end when the deck does. Cards you are still holding turn into penalties. Get out while you still can.
• Someone is a discard away, with the books already up. Emptying a foot is not the same as being able to go out. If they have the red and the black and a last card, win the race.
• It is a late round and they have not melded. In round four the minimum is a steep 150. If an opponent has not put anything down, every card they hold is pure penalty.

Stay in if you still have a book to finish. Close it if your own table is already scored and they are sitting on a pile of count.

It is about their cards, not yours

Every signal above is about the other players. The go-out decision is barely about your own hand at all. Around a physical table, “how many cards are you holding?” is a fair question, and half the banter. Online, the counts sit on screen at all times, so the only question left is whether this is the turn.

How not to go out

Staying in is not only “do I want another book?” It is managing the last few cards so the discard does not empty your hand by accident.

Say you already have the red book and the black book. In hand you have three Kings and a three. If you meld those Kings, the three is the only card left, and you have to discard it. Hand empty. You are out. You did not decide to go out. You locked yourself in.

If you wanted another turn or two, leave something you can still hold. Meld two Kings and keep one, or keep a card that is not a legal last discard yet. The last few cards are a small puzzle: stay in on purpose, or you will walk through the door because you had nothing left to throw.

That is why picking up a discard pile with a few threes in it can be smart. You get the cards to complete books, and you do not have to hunt for a discard. Keep laying those threes until the books are full. The pile bought you turns. The threes spend them without emptying the hand.

Do not go out with a hot hand that still has count

This is the one we still say out loud. You can go out — clean book, dirty book, a discard in hand — but your foot is stuffed: a six-card pile, a pair of aces, a joker you were about to park. Going out now means those cards never score. The hundred points for the out does not cover a book you did not finish, and it does not cover the face values that would have counted once they were melded.

If the table is slow, take the turn. Meld the count. Then go out. If someone else is on their last card, that is different — dump what you can and close the door before they do.

The expensive minute

If another player is about to go out and you are still in your hand, that is the expensive minute. Get down, pick up the foot, and get the high cards onto the table. Every ace left in an unplayed foot is a gift to whoever ends the round.

The other side of the same coin: if you are the one who can go out, and you can see they are still holding a hand and a foot, do not wait for a prettier book. Catch them. That is what going out is for.

A last look before you discard

Red book, black book, last card. Then look at the table. If your own cards still have work to do, stay in. If theirs do, go out. It is not a race. It is the same judgement we used on sea days — only now the server will not let you go out without the books, which saves the argument and leaves you with the only question that matters: is this the turn, or the next one?

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