Hand & Foot — Help

Using the app

This is an online multiplayer game. One server runs the whole table — it deals the cards, tracks turns, and enforces the rules. You only see your own hand.

Before you start

• Enter your name and email on the home screen. Your email identifies you when rejoining or resuming a saved game — use the same email on every device.
• Everyone opens the same game link the host shared (the website address in the browser bar).

Starting a new game

1. One player (the host) clicks Create New Game, enters the house password, and chooses any rule options (see variations).
2. Share the room code with friends.
3. Each player enters the code and clicks Join Game.
4. When at least two players are connected, the host clicks Start game.

Your turn — drawing cards

The status bar shows whose turn it is. Buttons on the right are only active on your turn.

• Take 2 from stock — draw two cards (normal turn).
• Take top discard + 1 from stock — opening turn of the round only.
• Take discard pile — pick up the whole pile if you can legally use the top discard in a meld (new meld or, when enabled, an existing meld on the table).

After drawing, you have two options: meld some cards (explained next) or finish your turn by discarding a card (see ending your turn).

Your turn — melding

A meld is a group of cards you lay on the table in front of you. There are two kinds:

• Set — three or more cards of the same rank (e.g. three Kings). Jokers and 2s count as wild cards in sets, up to half the cards (rounded down).
• Straight — three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, from 4 upward (if straights are enabled). No wild cards in straights.

Your melds appear under Your melds on the green table. Opponents' melds are shown below the table.

Melding is optional. If you have one or more legal melds you do not have to play them — you choose when and how to lay them down. But remember: if another player goes out, every card left in your hand and foot counts against you.

Starting a new meld

1. Tap or click three or more cards in your hand that form a valid set or straight.
2. Click Meld selected (or Lay new meld after you have gone down).

Your first meld of the game

When you make your first meld in a game it is referred to as going down. To go down you must reach the minimum meld points (shown as Go down: X/90 pts or X/120 pts in the status bar). On your first go-down from hand, melds work differently:

• You can build several melds in stages — lay a set of three Kings, then a set of three Aces, and so on. Each stays in a building pile until you finalize.
• Individual building piles do not need to meet the minimum on their own; the combined value of all building melds must reach the threshold.
• When ready, click Finalize — go down. Your building melds are laid on the table and you are officially down.
• While you still have building melds, you cannot discard — finalize or use Abandon this turn's melds first.
• Abandon this turn's melds puts every card from this turn's melds back into your hand exactly as before, so you can try a different layout. You cannot abandon after melding away your entire hand and picking up your foot in the same turn.

After you have gone down

Each new meld lays down immediately when you click Lay new meld — no finalize step.

Adding cards to an existing meld

1. Click one of your meld piles on the table to select it (it highlights).
2. Select one or more cards from your hand that legally fit that meld (same rank for sets; next card in the run for straights).
3. Click Add to selected meld.

You can keep adding to a meld until it becomes a book of seven cards. Completed books may accept more cards if the game allows extending clean books (see variations).

Ending your turn

• Select one card in your hand and click Discard selected.
• If you took the discard pile, you must meld the top discard before you can discard something else.
• While playing from your foot, if melding uses your last foot card you may end without a discard — the button shows No discard. This cannot happen from your hand: an empty hand picks up your foot immediately (see below).
• Use Sort by suit or drag cards to rearrange your hand.

Picking up your foot

• Once you have gone down, if melding empties your hand completely you pick up your foot straight away and carry on in the same turn, playing from the foot as usual.
• If you are left with one card in your hand after melding, discard it as usual. Your hand is then empty but your turn ends — you pick up your foot on your next turn and play from there.

Between rounds and series end

When someone goes out, you see round scores and cumulative totals. The host can start the next round. The series ends when a player reaches 10,000 points.

Games auto-save at the end of each round (shown as ★ in Saved games).

Rejoining

• If you drop off briefly, reopen the site and Join Game with the same room code and email.
• If the round was long and the group needs a break, the host should click Pause game (see pause & save).
• On phones, Leave & reload at the bottom returns you to the start screen if the app gets stuck.

Game overview

Hand and Foot is a rummy-style card game for 2–8 players, each playing for themselves. Players meld sets and runs, build books of seven cards, and try to empty hand and foot while scoring the most points over a series of rounds.

• Decks: one standard 54-card deck per player, plus one extra deck (jokers included).
• Deal: 11 cards to your hand and 11 to your foot (face-down until your hand is empty).
• Series: play multiple rounds until someone reaches 10,000 points.

Turn basics

Each turn has three parts: draw, optionally meld, then discard.

1. Draw — two from stock; on the opening turn of a round you may instead take the top discard plus one from stock; or take the whole discard pile if you can meld the top card straight away.
2. Meld — lay cards face-up in front of you as sets (matching rank) or straights (same suit, consecutive from 4 up). Wild cards (jokers and 2s) may substitute in sets only. You may start a meld with three cards and add more later in the same turn or on later turns. Seven cards in one meld make a book. The first time you play from your hand you must reach the minimum point total across your building melds before finalizing; see melding in the app for how the buttons work.
3. Discard — one card from your hand ends your turn (unless you have legally emptied your hand by melding).

Black 3s may be melded only in separate groups of exactly three (0 points). Red 3s cannot be melded into sets; behaviour depends on the red-3 option at game creation. Twos and jokers are wild in other ranks (up to half the cards, rounded down). They may also form a wild-card pile of their own: pure 2s, pure jokers, or any mix (e.g. two 2s and a joker, or two jokers and a 2, or three jokers).

Hand and foot

• With Choose hand from bottom card on (default), after the deal you see the bottom card of two face-down piles and pick which is your hand; the other is your foot. Turn that option off at create game to be dealt a hand and foot with no choice.
• Play from your hand first. You must go down (meet the minimum meld) before playing your foot.
• When your hand is empty after going down, you pick up your foot and continue.
• If you meld away your entire hand in one turn, you pick up the foot immediately and keep playing.
• If you discard your last hand card, your turn ends; you play from the foot on your next turn.

Books and going out

• A book is seven cards in one meld — clean (no wilds) or dirty (with wilds).
• To go out and end the round you need at least one clean book and one dirty book, and your last card must be discarded.
• Special books: clean book of 2s or of jokers (+2000), mixed wild-card book of 2s and jokers (+1000), and seven-card straights score extra (see scoring).
• With Disallow same-rank melds on (default), you may have only one open wild-card pile — pure 2s, pure jokers, and mixed wilds all count as the same “rank”. You cannot start a second wild pile (so you cannot finish both a clean book of 2s and a clean book of jokers in the same round).

Rule variations (game options)

The host chooses these when creating a game:

Traditional red 3s

Off by default. When on, red 3s auto-lay for +100 and are replaced from stock. Red 3s left in your foot at round end still cost −100 each.

Choose hand from bottom card

On by default. After the deal, each player peeks at the bottom card of two 11-card piles and chooses which pile is the hand (played first). The other becomes the foot. Off = hand and foot assigned automatically with no choice step.

Allow straights

On by default. Same-suit runs of 3+ cards from 4 upward (ace high). No wilds in straights.

Allow adding to clean books

On by default. Completed clean books (7 cards, no wilds) can receive more matching cards. Dirty books can always be extended.

Disallow same-rank melds

On by default. You may have only one open set of each rank — add to that pile instead of starting another. This also applies when going down (you cannot lay two separate king melds for double the go-down points). Wild-card piles count as one rank: pure 2s, pure jokers, and mixed 2s+jokers share a single open pile — you cannot start a second wild-card book. If a book is closed and cannot grow (for example a clean book when “allow adding to clean books” is off), a new set of that rank is allowed.

Count individual cards on game over

On by default. Each melded card also scores its face value at round end, in addition to book bonuses.

Minimum to go down: 90 points across building melds (120 if you have over 3,000 total score).

Scoring

Card values: 4–7 = 5, 8–K = 10, A and 2 = 20, Joker = 50. Black 3s = 0 everywhere.

Pause, save and resume

• ★ Auto-save — at the end of each round, scores and roster are saved. Resume from Saved games on the home screen; the next round is dealt when everyone reconnects and the host continues.
• ⏸ Pause game — host only, during an active round. Saves the full deal so you can stop mid-round. Everyone rejoins via Saved games (or the room code if the server is still up).
• Only players on the original roster (same emails) can load a saved game.
• Inactive games are removed from server memory after about three hours; disk saves remain.

Video chat (optional)

Join video opens a separate video chat alongside the game. Video is a table feature controlled by the host: if the host is subscribed (or inner-circle), everyone may join; on a free trial the host turns on one free video round for the whole table. It is optional — the card game works without it. You can mute the mic or turn off the camera at any time.