Home / Hand and Foot / Strategy
Hand and Foot strategy
Three habits mattered most in our tests: take the discard pile every time you legally can, play your hand out fast so you reach your foot, and keep your wild cards off melds that could still become clean books. A computer player that dropped any one of those habits won only 102 to 166 of 400 games against one that kept them all.
How we tested
We gave our strong computer player one change at a time, a habit taken away, and had it play 400 full games (four rounds each) against the unchanged strong player, one on one, with the seats swapped every other game. If a habit doesn't matter, the changed player should win about half. Here's what happened:
| Habit taken away | Games won without it | Average points lost per game |
|---|---|---|
| Taking the pile when it's allowed | 102 of 400 | 901 |
| Playing the hand out fast to reach the foot | 124 of 400 | 861 |
| Keeping wild cards off would-be clean books | 166 of 400 | 391 |
| Not discarding cards the next player can pair | 160 of 400 | 357 |
| Throwing black 3s first | 184 of 400 | 28 |
These are computer players, not people, so read them as a ranking more than exact odds. The last row is close enough to half that it may be luck.
1. Take the pile
Taking the pile was worth more than anything else we tested. The player who never took it won 102 of 400. It makes sense: you get a meld on the table and up to six more cards, and Hand and Foot is a game where cards are material. Every book needs seven of them.
In our one-on-one games the pile was taken about 1.6 times a round, and each time the taker got about 6 cards. With four players it was taken 2.3 times a round. To be ready:
- Keep natural pairs in your hand. You need two natural cards of the top card's rank. A pair you melded can't help you take the pile.
- Plan your opening around it. Before your side is down, the top card and your pair count toward the minimum. In round 3 a pair of aces and an ace on the pile is already 60 of the 120.
- Think twice late in a round. Our strong player, once it's in its foot, skips the pile when someone on the other side is nearly out and the pile is full of loose cards, because those cards would count against it.
2. Get into your foot
Your foot is a second hand of cards you can't use until your first hand is gone, and you can't go out until you've played from it. Our strong player plays its whole hand out whenever every card can go on the table (keeping at most one to discard). Without that habit it won only 124 of 400.
That includes using a wild card to make a pair into a meld when it empties your hand. A foot full of unseen cards is worth more than holding out for a perfect meld.
3. Guard your clean books
Clean books are the hard part. In our one-on-one games a side made 0.9 clean books a round on average, against 3.8 dirty ones. With the standard rules asking for two clean and two dirty to go out, the clean books are what hold you back. With four players it was 1.8 clean and 5.2 dirty per side.
- Don't put a wild card on a meld that could still finish clean, as long as your side needs clean books.
- Use wild cards to finish books that are already dirty, or the ones you still need dirty.
- When the round is about to end, wild cards in your hand cost 20 or 50 each, so put them down anywhere they fit.
The player that spent its wild cards freely all round won 166 of 400.
4. Discard with the next player in mind
Every discard can hand the next player the pile. Our strong player counts how many cards of each rank it hasn't seen, works out the chance that the next player holds a natural pair of the card it's thinking of throwing, and weighs that by how big the pile is. Dropping that care cost it: 160 wins of 400.
- Safe discards: a rank that's been discarded recently, or one where most cards are already on the table.
- Risky discards: a rank nobody has shown, on top of a big pile.
- A black 3 on top blocks the pile for one turn. Use it when the pile is big. In our test, throwing them first made little difference on its own.
5. Going out, and when to say "not yet"
Going out is worth only 100, but it ends the round while the other side still holds cards. In our one-on-one games the side that went out won that round 93% of the time. With four players it was 85%, and the other side was caught holding 178 points of cards on average.
Most one-on-one rounds don't end that way, though. Only 38% of them ended with someone going out; the rest ran the stock dry, likely because one player alone struggles to finish two clean and two dirty books. With partners, 88% of rounds ended with a player going out.
When your partner asks "May I go out?", count what you're holding. If it's a lot of points, the round is young and the other side isn't close, a "not yet" gives you a turn to meld it. If the other side is nearly out, say yes. Our strong partner says yes when its cards are worth 150 or less, when the stock is low, or when the other side looks close to going out. Later in a round it also says yes with up to 250 points in hand.
What a round is worth
| From our games | One on one | Four players |
|---|---|---|
| Average round score per side | 2,451 | 3,552 |
| Clean books per side, per round | 0.9 | 1.8 |
| Dirty books per side, per round | 3.8 | 5.2 |
| Rounds ending with someone going out | 38% | 88% |
| Times the pile is taken, per round | 1.6 | 2.3 |
| Best round for one side | 4,600 | 7,265 |
Method: 500 one-on-one games and 200 four-player games between copies of our strong computer player, four rounds each, standard rules, October 2026. Against our easy player, the strong one won 588 of 600 one-on-one games and 200 of 200 partnership games. People play differently from programs, so treat these as one careful benchmark.
Practice with hints
Our online Hand and Foot has a Hint button that shows what the strong player would do: draw or take the pile, which cards to meld, or which card to throw and why. You get 6 hints a round. Use them on the turns you're unsure about, then see whether the computer's choice matches yours. To keep score at a real table, use the Hand and Foot score sheet.
Sources
- Our simulations, October 2026, using the same code as our game (scripts/hand-and-foot-sim.test.ts).
- John McLeod, "Hand and Foot", pagat.com (rules, and its tactics notes on keeping pairs to take the pile).
Keep playing
- Play Hand and FootAgainst the computer, with a computer partner, or one on one with a friend.
- How to playThe deal, melds, books, the pile, the foot and going out, step by step.
- Score sheetKeep score for a real game, or print a sheet for the card table.
- CribbageFifteen two, fifteen four: another classic for two, counted for you.
- Spite and MaliceA two-player card race, against the computer or a friend.
- Gin RummyMake sets and runs, knock low or go gin, against the computer or a friend.
- Mexican TrainDouble-twelve dominoes: build your train and go out first.