How is Hand and Foot scored?

Card point values

Card points are what the cards in your melds are worth. A book is a meld too, so its cards count here as well as earning the book bonus. The common values are below. Your table may use different ones.

Common card point values

Card	Points
Joker	50
Two or ace	20
King down to eight	10
Seven down to four	5
Black three	5

To get a team's card points for the round, add up the cards in its melds, then subtract the cards each partner still holds in hand and foot when the round ends. Jokers and twos are the usual wild cards.

Books: clean and dirty

A book is seven cards of one rank, though in a dirty book wild cards stand in for some of them. Partners build them, play through the hand and then the foot, and one side goes out.

• A clean book is seven natural cards of one rank, with no wild cards. A clean book of 7 is worth 500.
• A dirty book is a mixed book: natural cards plus one or more wild cards (usually jokers and twos). A dirty book of 7 is worth 300.

Many tables limit how many wild cards a dirty book may hold, and the limit varies, so set yours with the rest of your house rules.

Red threes

Each red three is worth 100. Black threes are not bonus cards; they count as 5 card points, the same as a seven down to a four. Many tables also take 100 off for a red three still in hand when the round ends. That is a house rule, so check it with your table before the first deal.

The going-out bonus

The side that goes out earns a 100 bonus. How many clean and dirty books a side needs before it may go out is one of the things tables decide for themselves. One of each and two of each are both common.

Opening meld minimums by round

The first meld a side lays down in a round has to reach a minimum number of points. The common minimums rise each round.

Common opening meld minimums by round

Round	Opening meld minimum
1	50
2	90
3	120
4	150

A fifth round's minimum is a house rule, so a table that plays one writes its own number into its house rules.

How a round total and a running total are computed

1. Count book points. Add each clean book, each dirty book and each red three at your table's values, plus the going-out bonus if your side went out.
2. Count card points. Add the cards in your melds, including the cards in your books, then subtract the cards each partner still holds in hand and foot.
3. Add them. Book points plus card points is the round total.
4. Carry it across. Add the round total to the running total from the rounds before. Note the point difference between the teams if you like to watch the gap.
5. Compare at the end. After the last round, the higher running total wins.

An example round. Using the common values, suppose a team goes out with one clean book, one dirty book and one red three. Its book points are 500 + 300 + 100 + 100 for going out = 1,000. Its melds, including the cards in its two books, add up to 285 card points, and the partner who did not go out is still holding 35 points in hand and foot, so the team's card points are 285 − 35 = 250. The round total is 1,000 + 250 = 1,250, added to the team's running total.

An example finish. If one team ends a four-round game on 7,465 and the other on 7,165, the point difference is 300 and the team on 7,465 wins.

Common house-rule variants

These are variants that tables commonly use, listed so you can decide which are yours. None of them is a ruling.

• How many books it takes to go out. One clean and one dirty, or two of each.
• Wild cards in a dirty book. How many wild cards a dirty book may hold.
• Red threes in hand. Some tables count them against you and take 100 off for each one.
• A fifth round. Some tables stop after four rounds and some play five, with their own opening meld minimum for round 5.
• Three teams of two. Six players can play as three pairs instead of two teams. The point difference is then the leader's running total minus the runner-up's.
• Different values. Any number above, from the book values to the opening melds, can be replaced with the one your family uses.

Keep score on a pad you own

The Game Night Score Sheets & Season Standings pack has printable score pads for seven card and domino games, including Hand and Foot with four rounds, five rounds and three teams. Each pad has a house-rules box for your own numbers. The workbook adds a Hand & Foot scorer that calculates with the values your table sets, and tracks the season. It is a pad and a workbook you keep, not a scoring app you rent.

To try it first, the free Hand and Foot score pad starter is a pad pre-filled with a worked round, plus a two-night standings sample.