Two or more players.
Normal playing cards including the jokers. One more deck than the number of people playing - i.e. three decks of cards for two people, five decks for four people, etc.
All the cards are shuffled together and placed in the middle of the table in TWO piles. A gap is placed between the two piles for the discard pile.
Each player deals his own cards to himself. Each player picks up a small pile of roughly 22 cards from either of the two piles. Each player then deals his cards in front of him into two piles of eleven cards each. If the player picked up EXACTLY 22 cards on the first try then he gets 100 bonus points added to his score. If he has less than 22 cards, he picks up more, as needed, from either of the two main decks. If he has more than 22 cards, then the extra are returned to the main piles.
Each player now has two piles of eleven cards each in front of himself. The left hand pile is the player's HAND and the player picks up this pile. The right hand pile of cards is passed to the player on his right. This pile becomes the other player's FOOT. The FOOT piles stay face down until later in the game.
The object of the game is to get the most points. There are four rounds to the game and on each round each player tries to get rid of all his cards while putting the most points he can on the table.
Red Three's 500 points (these ALWAYS counts AGAINST you. read on.) Joker 50 points Two's and Aces 20 points Eight through King 10 points Four through Seven 5 points Black Three's 5 points
Picking up 22 100 points For "Going Out" 100 points Each "Clean" pile 300 points Each "Dirty" pile 100 points
Jokers and Two's are wild cards. In the game you make "sets" of cards which are three or more of the same card - three Kings, five eights, etc. The suit of the cards make no difference. You cannot make a set of Jokers or Two's - these can only be used as wild cards. YOU CANNOT MAKE A SET OF THREE'S (REGARDLESS OF THE COLOR). Cards "down" on the table count for you and are added to your score. Cards left in your hand or in your Foot count against you and are subtracted from your score.
Since you cannot make sets of Three's, a Three can only count against you. Discard red Three's immediately.
On each round you have to have a minimum number of points the first time you "put down" points onto the table. Once a player has the minimum points down, the player has no minimum for the rest of the round.
Round 1 50 points Round 2 90 points Round 3 120 points Round 4 150 points
On each player's turn he picks up cards, optionally put cards down on the table for points, and then discards. On each turn a player picks up TWO cards from the main piles. He can pick up both cards from the same pile or one card from each pile. He plays his turn and then discards one card. Instead of picking up two cards a player may pick up the top card on the discard pile but he must pick up the TOP SEVEN cards in the discard pile. The player can only pick up from the discard pile if 1) there are at least seven cards in the discard pile, 2) the player has at least two other cards of the same type IN HIS HAND, and 3) the player must put the top card and the other two cards from his hand down as points on the table. Wild cards cannot count for the two cards in his hand. You cannot pick up a top discard of two's, three's, or Jokers because you cannot make a "set" from those cards. Remember that if this is the first time the player is "putting down" cards for that round he has to have a minimum to put down the first time.
When a player gets rid of all his cards from his Hand, he picks up his Foot and continues play from there. If someone "goes out" before a player gets into his Foot, all the points in his Foot counts against him (including any dreaded red three's). There are two ways to "get into your Foot". One is to put down all your cards except one discard card (which you discard). Your turn ends, you have no cards, you pick up your Foot. You can begin using your Foot on your next turn. The other way to get into your Foot is to completely use up all the cards in your Hand (by putting them down as points on the table). If you can put down all your cards without discarding, then you can immediately pick up your Foot and begin using the cards during the same turn.
During the game you attempt to get piles of seven or more of the same card. If a pile has seven or more cards and there are NO WILD CARDS in pile then the pile is called a Clean Pile. If there are seven or more cards in the pile and there ARE WILD CARDS in the pile, then the pile is called a Dirty Pile. By convention, once a pile reaches seven cards they are pulled together into a neat stack and either a red or black card from the pile is moved to the top of the pile. A red card on top signifies that the pile is a Clean Pile. A black card on top signifies a Dirty Pile. A Clean Pile is worth 300 points and a Dirty Pile is worth 100 points. These points are in addition to the points from the cards themselves (each King is worth 10 points for example).
In any set of cards you must have at least one more normal card than wild cards. For example, if you have three five's you can add up to two wild cards to the set. You can't add a third wild card until there are four five's down. Note that any wild card in a set makes the entire set dirty. You cannot have more than one set of the same card. For example, you can't have a pile of two five's and a wild card and then start a new pile of five's.
In order to "go out" you must get rid of all the cards in your Hand and your Foot and have at least one Clean and one Dirty pile. You must also have a discard card. You can have as many clean and dirty piles as you want but you must have at least one of each in order to "go out". Players get points for clean and dirty piles even if they are not the player that goes out. Once a player "goes out", play ends for that round. The points on the table are added to your score. Points in your hand or your Foot are counted against you and are subtracted from your score.
Click here for a text file version.
The game was taught to me by Rob Groz, rgroz@nectech.com. You can send him all the questions. :-)
Directions written by
Steve Simpson ssimpson@mediaone.net