Hand and Foot Scoring, Explained

Hand and Foot's scoring looks like ordinary card-point counting until you reach the threes, which behave nothing like the rest of the deck — one color is pure bonus, the other is worth nothing at all even when it's actively hurting your position on the table.

Card point values, the foundation

Jokers score 50. Aces and 2s score 20 each. 8s through kings score 10 each. 4s through 7s score 5 each. Black threes are a special case covered below — they are never simply "worth 5" the way other low cards are.

Worked example 1: an ordinary book scored card by card

A team completes a black book (seven cards, mixing naturals with wild cards) made up of four 9s and three jokers: 4 × 10 (the 9s) + 3 × 50 (the jokers) = 40 + 150 = 190 raw card points, plus the 300-point mixed-canasta bonus (since it includes wild cards), for 490 points from that one book alone.

Worked example 2: red threes scored as pure bonus, separate from any book

A team declares three red threes across both partners' hands during the round (the fourth red three never appears in this particular deal). Each declared red three scores 100 points on its own, entirely separate from any book — 3 × 100 = 300 points, added straight to the team's total regardless of what else happens in the hand.

Worked example 3: all four red threes landing on one side

In a different hand, one team's two partners are dealt all four red threes between them. Rather than scoring 4 × 100 = 400, the all-four bonus applies instead: 800 points, double what four separately-scored red threes would otherwise total. This is worth watching for specifically, since it's easy to under-total a hand by defaulting to the simple 100-per-three math when all four happen to land on the same side.

Worked example 4: a black three left in hand costs nothing — and nothing is exactly the point

A player ends the round still holding one black three, unable to meld it and unable to go out because of it. Unlike every other card left in a losing hand, that black three is NOT counted at its own value against the team — it scores a flat zero, neither a bonus nor a penalty. This regularly surprises players who assume any unmelded card counts against them by default; a black three is the single exception, doing real damage to a team's ability to finish the round while contributing nothing at all to the final subtraction once the round is actually scored.

Worked example 5: a full hand totaled end to end

A team's hand for the round breaks down as follows: a seven-card natural canasta of aces (7 × 20 = 140, plus the 500-point natural bonus, for 640); one declared red three (100); the 100-point going-out bonus, since this team's player emptied both hand and foot first; and, working against them, one unmelded 9 left in a partner's foot at the round's end (10 points, subtracted). Total: 640 + 100 + 100 - 10 = 830 points for the round.

Worked example 6: comparing two teams' totals after the same round

The team above finished at 830. Their opponents, who didn't go out, completed one mixed (black) canasta of sevens (7 × 5 = 35, plus the 300-point mixed bonus, for 335) and had no red threes to declare, but were left holding a queen (10) and a black three (0, per the rule above) in an unfinished foot at the round's end: 335 - 10 - 0 = 325. The gap between the two teams — 830 versus 325 — comes almost entirely from the natural canasta bonus and the going-out bonus, not from the raw card values, which were fairly close between both hands.

Why red and black threes need to be scored by two completely different methods

Red threes are counted as an independent bonus line, entirely separate from melds, and apply whether or not the round otherwise went well for that team. Black threes, by contrast, never contribute a card-point value in either direction — their entire role is structural, blocking a team from going out until they're cleared into a meld, and once cleared, they score at their normal book value like the other cards inside that meld. Trying to score a black three still sitting in hand using the same "count its face value" method used for every other leftover card is the single most common Hand and Foot scoring mistake.

Worked example 7: why going out early can score less than playing on

A team could go out this turn, banking the 100-point bonus, but doing so would lock in an unfinished mixed canasta worth only its raw card points with no canasta bonus attached at all — say, five 8s totaling 40 points with no 500 or 300 bonus available since it's short of the seven-card minimum. Waiting two more turns to complete that canasta into a full mixed book would add a 300-point bonus on top of the same 40 raw points, for 340 instead of 40 — comfortably more than the 100-point going-out bonus would have been worth by finishing early instead. Teams sitting on an almost-finished canasta regularly choose to delay going out specifically because of this gap.

The fastest way to total a hand

1. Total raw card points inside every completed book first, using the standard value table.
2. Add canasta bonuses per book — 500 natural, 300 mixed — as their own separate line.
3. Add 100 per declared red three, or 800 flat if one team holds all four.
4. Add the 100-point going-out bonus if applicable.
5. Subtract the value of every other unmelded card left in hand or foot — except black threes, which score zero rather than their face value.

For the hand-and-foot pile structure and exactly what blocks a team from going out, see the full Hand and Foot rules and the dispute page for the foot-peeking and black-three rules argued most often at the table.