What are the instructions for the Hand and Pie card game? This version of canasta is played with two sets of cards, one hand and one foot, unlike the traditional canasta which is played with only one hand. Here are your basic game rules.

In Hand and Foot, you choose a partner and sit across from them. You will work as a team to beat the other team. First shuffle five or six decks, including jokers, and deal 11 cards to each player. This becomes your hand. Deal 11 more to each face down player, this will be their foot and cannot be looked at until all the cards in their hand are played. Place the rest of the cards in the center of the table and turn over the first card.

The player to the dealer’s left will pick 2 cards from the draw pile and place one in the discard pile at the end of their turn. Alternatively, he can pick up cards from the discard pile instead of picking up two new cards from the draw pile, but he must be able to use the bottom card and it must be used during that turn.

The object of the games is to get rid of all the cards in your hand and then all the cards in your foot. This is done by merging. A meld is a set of three to seven cards of the same value placed face up on the table. A combination cannot have less than three cards.

After laying down a meld of three or more cards, keep adding it until there are seven. Then it becomes a Book. You can combine cards of any rank from A, K, Q… up to 3.

On hands and feet, the Deuces and Jokers are wild. They can be used in melds as long as there is at least one more royal card than one wild card in the meld. You cannot have a combination of wilds only. There are two types of mergers. A clean meld has no jokers and can turn into a red book. A dirty meld has jokers and can turn into a black book.

The melds are placed face up for all to see, while the full books are stacked face down and a card is placed on top, face up to show type, a red card for a clean red book, a black card for a dirty black book. Cards of the same rank can be played in full books, but jokers cannot be played in books.

You earn points for cards in melds and books. If you didn’t go out, you lose points for cards in your hand and foot at the end of the game. Hands and feet card games end when someone gets rid of all the cards in their hands and feet.