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Success is in the 'cards' for this Granbury couple

'Hand and Foot' Card Game is Fun for People of All Ages

They were living in Balikpapin, Indonesia when they first learned how to play the game.

It was an outpost, a backward country without the luxuries of daily television programs and movie theaters, but that didn't stop Durwood and Joyce Miller from finding ways to entertain themselves.

As an oilfield drilling consultant, Miller is often uprooted and transferred from country to country. The Miller's have resided in Australia, Holland, Libya and Indonesia. They currently reside in deCordova Bend where they have lived since 1977, except for 5 years in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Card playing became their favorite pastime, and one card game "Hand and Foot", seemed to be the most popular among those in the area.

The only problem with the game was that each group of people the Millers would play with had their own set of rules. Incredibly, many times the rules would change in the middle of the game.

"It Finally came to the point when we had to ask for the house rules before we started to play the game," said Joyce.

"We took the game with us to Jakarta, Indonesia, when we moved, and people began to write us and ask us about the rules," she continued. "That is when I decided to write out the rules to the game myself," she said.

One day while returning home to Texas from a trip to Sacramento, she sat in the car and began to write the rules on a legal pad.

They condensed and rewrote the rules several times before they were satisfied that they were as simple and self-explanatory as possible. It was then that they searched and found that the game had never been trademarked or copywritten. The Millers wrote for a copywrite and began the lengthy process of finding someone to print the cards.

Two years later they had their first package of "Hand and Foot," a 262-card game that is played similarily to Rummy and Canasta. The purple and gold cards are printed in Texas and packaged in sturdy cardboard boxes.

The face cards in the deck are medieval characters Lord, Lady, Joker, Jester and Villain. Each player picks 22 cards off of the deck, 11 cards are his hand and 11 are his foot. The hand must be played before the foot can be picked up but the strategy the player uses in playing his hand is sometimes based on what he thinks he has in the foot. Players can play partners, and two to six players can play the game.

"It is a real family game," said Miller. "Generally families with children ages 10 and up can play it, and every hand is different. It is truly a challenge to play."

The Millers teach the game to small or large groups, church groups, community organizations, clubs, retirement centers and campers. "The game is very easy to learn," Miller explained. "After playing about two rounds, you can play like a pro. The only difficulty might be keeping score, and we have special cards (four in each game) designating the value of each card and the scoring system," she said.

Married since 1951, the Millers do not play as partners very often. "People won't usually let us play as partners," she confessed. "I can tell just by the way he plays what he is holding in his hand.

Durwood is a native of Stamford and Joyce is from Haskell. They met when they were young (she was a dental assistant and he was an oilfield driller) and were married two months later. They have two children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

When asked what else she thought they might get their hands into, she replied,"He's the troubleshooter and I'm the troublemaker. I like to just sit and think about what else I can get into."