Keeping All Your Ducks In A Row

With so many cards in play in games of Hand 'n Foot, sometimes keeping track of what is what can be a little bit difficult.  Unlike your typical card game where you are playing with one or two decks at the most, in Hand 'n Foot you have a total of 262 cards in play.  That's five full decks that are being played at one time.  Not to mention the fact that you have two stacks of cards that you are responsible for playing as well.  It adds up to a lot of points, and a lot of cards to keep track of.

In this game it pays to be organized.  When you create your groups, it helps to put them in numerical order on the table so that you can find them easily.  It can also be difficult to remember what stack is what, since melds become groups.  For groups that have six cards and include one wild card, it is recommended that you put a card crosswise on the top of the deck to signal that you only need one more card to complete a dirty group.  Furthermore, to distinguish dirty groups and clean groups it helps to put a wild card crosswise underneath the stack.

It is also possible for teams to have more than one group that has the same value.  Teams are allowed to have two groups that are the same numerical value, so feel free to start that second group of threes.  Likewise, it is fine for opponents to have groups that have the same rank.  Remember, there are five decks in play, and a lot of cards to get out onto the board.