by Betty Bourquein

Created on: June 30, 2009

Hand and Foot is a card game of skill and luck. Strategy is important, but if one doesn't have the necessary cards, it is almost impossible to win. With skilled players, the winning usually balances out but there are times when it seems to be impossible to win or other times when it is impossible to lose. As in most card games, it is often the luck of the draw.

Many variations of Hand and Foot are available. Sometimes we kiddingly say there are the Florida rules and the Indiana rules. The Indiana version is described here. Even the Indiana rules can have variations. Since the variations are not that significant, one can easily adjust to the new rules.

Begin with a deck of cards for each player, 4-8 players. Shuffle all of the cards together. After the cards are divided and shuffled, scatter the cards and mix them manually on the table.

Everyone now should draw two stacks of eleven cards each. Then, without looking at the cards, he passes the cards to the player on the left.

Divide the remainder of the cards into a stack of cards for each player and place them in the middle of the table with room for a discard pile in the middle. Note that during the game players may draw off any pile; they are not limited to drawing off their own pile.

Without looking at the cards, everyone now picks up one set of cards. The set of cards which the players pick up is now called the "Hand." The set the players left on the table is called the "Foot," hence the name of the game.

The cards in the player's hand are now arranged so that they are grouped by similar number cards. All 5's are together, all Kings are together, etc. The object is to lay down books or canastas of similar cards. A clean book/canasta occurs when all of the cards, regardless of color, are the same. A dirty book/canasta means that wild cards have been used.

In order to go out or to win the game, the team must have a minimum of two clean and two dirty books. Obviously based on point value, it is better to have as many clean books as possible. This may necessitate holding cards instead of playing them immediately. However, the trick is to determine whether it is better to hold cards in order to better be able to pick up the discard pile , to make clean books, or to lay them down so that one's partner can play on them. This cannot be discussed with the partner.

To begin play, the person to the left of the scorekeeper goes first by drawing two cards from any of the stacks of cards on the table. If this

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