Hand rules

Hand is a rummy-family card game. In every round the goal is to get rid of all your cards before your opponents, by forming legal melds (runs and sets) or by adding to melds already on the table once you have met the opening requirement, and then discarding your last card.

The match winner is the player (or team) with the lowest cumulative score after the agreed number of rounds (3, 5, 7 or 9). In Hand, points are penalties: the fewer, the better.

Hand comes in four variants that share most rules and differ in player count, partnerships and how the opening works:

There is no fifth player. The host chooses the number of rounds before the match starts: 3, 5, 7 or 9. It cannot be changed once the match has begun.

• Two standard 52-card decks, i.e. 104 cards.
• Two Jokers.
• A total of 106 cards.
• Every card exists twice (for example two 9♥), and the two copies are treated as two separate physical cards.

• Each player is dealt 14 cards.
• The player on the dealer's right receives a fifteenth card and starts the round.
• The remaining cards are placed face down as the draw pile (stock).
• The player holding 15 cards begins by discarding one card to the fire pile; normal turns then follow.
• Play goes counterclockwise.
• The first dealer is chosen at random and fairly; in later rounds the deal moves to the next seat in a fixed order.

A normal turn has three steps:

1. Draw one card: either from the draw pile or the top card of the fire pile (the discard pile).
2. Do whatever you wish that is allowed: lay down melds, add to melds, or replace a Joker.
3. Discard one card to the fire pile to end your turn, unless the round has legally ended because you got rid of all your cards.

Only the top card of the fire pile is available. The fire pile is visible to everyone.

You may not throw back, in the same turn, the card you have just taken from the fire pile (that would be a free pass).

• If you are not opened (or your team is not opened): taking the fire card obliges you to make a legal opening in the same turn. You may not end the turn (discard) before meeting the opening requirement.
• If you are already opened: you take the top fire card and continue your turn normally, with no new opening requirement.
• When you take it while unopened, the taken card becomes part of your hand and can be used in the opening.

Run

• 3 or more cards of the same suit in consecutive ranks.
• Valid: 5♥ 6♥ 7♥. Invalid: 5♥ 6♦ 7♥.

Set

• 3 or more cards of the same rank in different suits.
• Example: 9♠ 9♥ 9♦.
• Playing with two decks does not allow two copies of 9♥ to count as two different suits in the same set; suits inside a set must all differ.
• A set holds at most 4 cards (one per suit).

You can form more than one meld in a turn. Any addition to a meld must result in a fully legal meld, not merely a legal added card on its own.

• A Joker stands in for a missing card inside a run or set.
• At most one Joker is allowed per meld. In a run the Joker may sit at either end.
• Inside a meld the Joker is worth the value of the card it represents, and the game records which card it represents.
• Joker replacement: once you have opened, you may take a Joker out of a meld by putting the correct natural card in its place; the Joker returns to your hand and can be used again in the same turn. In a run the card must be exactly the card the Joker represents; in a set it must be a suit missing from the set.
• If the Joker is in a set of two natural cards of the same rank, it can be recovered only once the set's required legal state is completed, and the move must never leave the table in an illegal state.
• A Joker left in your hand at the end of the round counts 15 points.

• The opening is a player's (or team's, depending on the variant) first legal lay-down. The total value of the new melds you lay down must reach the required threshold.
• You may open with several melds in the same turn.
• All opening melds submitted together are accepted together or rejected together. If one meld is illegal you stay unopened and the table is unchanged.
• Before opening you may not add to melds or replace Jokers.
• After opening the requirement is not imposed again: you may form new legal melds, add to any legal meld on the table (your own, your partner's or the opponents'), replace Jokers, and take the fire card and play normally.

The opening value is the sum of card values in the melds (see 'Card values'). A Joker counts as the card it represents. The threshold for each variant is given in the variant sections below.

These values are used for the opening total and for the cards left in hand at the end of a round.

The round ends immediately when a player's card count becomes zero after a legal move; no later moves are accepted. Then:

Each round's points are added to the player's cumulative total. Every round result is kept in detail (opened or not, value left in hand, type of finish, multiplier).

A Hand happens when you lay down all your cards in a single turn without adding to other players' melds. In detail: you played nothing in your earlier turns of the round, you put nothing on another player's meld (no extension and no Joker replacement), and you go out in this turn (the final discard counts).

If the draw pile runs out: the top card of the fire pile stays where it is, and the older fire cards are shuffled into a new draw pile (up to 3 times). If the round still cannot continue, it is declared a no-contest: every score is zero.

• The chosen number of rounds is played (3, 5, 7 or 9).
• The winner has the lowest cumulative total.
• If there is a tie for the lowest total after the last scheduled round, a deciding round is played, and deciding rounds repeat until the tie is broken.

The ERAM app gives you a prepared area above your hand to arrange melds before laying them down; it does not change the rules.

• Drag cards from your hand into the area, build several candidate melds, rearrange, move a card between melds, return any card to your hand, and clear one meld or the whole area.
• Green = the meld is valid, red = invalid, neutral = still incomplete.
• Before opening a counter shows, for example, 47 / 51 with 'you need 4 more points'; in the Saudi variants, for example 61 / 65.
• Cards in the area remain in your hand until you press Submit and the check accepts it.

• Taking a fire card while unopened obliges you to open in the same turn; make sure your hand reaches the threshold before you take it.
• A player who has not opened by the end of the round pays +100, far more than any single card; so do not delay opening without reason.
• The round ends the moment someone goes out, so every high card left in your hand is a potential penalty once you have opened.
• A Joker left in hand costs 15 points; use it in a meld or replace it legally.
• Watch the melds on the table: after you open you can add to any meld, including the opponents'.
• If you can go out in a single turn without adding to anyone else's melds, you score a Hand and get −60.
• Use the prepared area and watch the green/red colours and the opening counter.

• Draw pile / stock — the face-down cards you draw from.
• Fire pile — the visible discard pile; only the top card can be taken.
• Opening — a player's or team's first legal lay-down.
• Meld — a run or set laid on the table.
• Run — 3+ consecutive cards of the same suit.
• Set — 3+ cards of the same rank in different suits.
• Extension — adding a legal card to an existing meld after the opening is done.
• Hand — going out from a full hand in one turn without adding to other players' melds.
• Prepared area — a space to prepare melds before submitting them.
• Opened — a player (or team) has completed the opening.
• Deciding round — an extra round played to break a tie.