by Kristen Bevilacqua

Created on: July 13, 2009

Uno is an entertaining card game that can be enjoyed by players of all ages - young and old. The object of the game is to get to Uno (one card remaining) and finishing playing all your cards first. As a kid I was first introduced to Uno by my older cousins. Even with the four year age difference, Uno was a game we could all play together.

The Deck

The Uno deck includes a variety of cards that keeps the game interesting with every turn! There are cards with numbers from 0 to 9 in four different colors - red, blue, green and yellow. In addition to the number cards there are also: "Skip" (causes the next player to skip a turn), "Reverse" (reverses the direction of players' turns), "Draw Two" (next player has to draw two new cards from the deck and loses his turn), "Wild" (player get to choose new color) and "Wild Draw Four" (player gets to choose new color and the next player must draw four cards and lose his turn).

How to Play

Each player is dealt 7 cards. The remaining stack of cards is placed faced down in the center and the top card is turned face-up to begin the fun. The first player must play a card from his hand based on the face-up card. He can match either the card number or the card color, but does not need to match both. For example, if the first card is a yellow colored four, the first player can play any color four card, or any yellow card including numbers, "Skip", "Reverse" or "Draw two" cards. He may also play a "Wild" or "Wild Draw Four" card to change the color in play. If the player has none of these playable cards, then he must draw a card from the top of the deck and either play it (if it is playable) or add it to his hand and lose a turn.

Considerations to Increase the Fun

Uno is a game that can be played with just two players, however it is much more fun with three or more players. When there are only two players and the "Skip" and "Reverse" cards are used, it is kind of like the one player is playing alone as the other player keeping missing his turn. That is by far not the the most fun that can be had with Uno.

Also remember the "Draw 2", Skip", "Reverse" and "Wild" cards are what make the game unpredictable and so much fun! Things can change quickly in the game. It's possible to go from having "Uno!" to 5 cards in one hand. But don't be afraid to use the sometimes cruel cards. I can remember thinking twice about using my "Wild Draw 4" card when my mom was the next player, but not when it was my brother!

Uno is a game of timeless enjoyment. Even now over 20 years after playing my first game of Uno, it is still one of my favorite games. Friends and I still keep a deck close by. Uno can turn a night of dinner, wine and cards into hours of laughter.

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