Phase 10 Rules

Phase 10 replaces the free-form meld-building of ordinary Rummy with a rigid checklist: ten specific combinations, attempted strictly in order, and completing this hand's phase means nothing at all if you're not currently working on the correct one — a beautiful set of four matching cards is worthless to you on a hand where you're stuck trying to complete a run of seven instead.

Setup

Two full standard decks (108 cards including jokers, or dedicated Phase 10 cards depending on edition) are shuffled together. Each player is dealt 10 cards, and the rest becomes a draw pile with a discard pile started from the top card.

Playing a Turn

On your turn, draw one card — either from the top of the draw pile or the top of the discard pile — then, if you're ready, lay down that hand's required phase combination face up on the table. Once your phase is down, you may also "hit" — add extra qualifying cards onto your own already-laid phase, or onto another player's laid phase of the same type, for the rest of that hand. End your turn by discarding one card, unless doing so would empty your hand entirely.

The Ten Phases, In Fixed Order

Every player works toward the same phase number as everyone else during a given hand, but each player advances individually based on whether they actually complete it that specific hand. The sequence runs: two sets of three, one set of three plus one run of four, one set of four plus one run of four, one run of seven, one run of eight, one run of nine, two sets of four, seven cards of a single color, one set of five plus one set of two, and finally one set of five plus one run of three. A player only moves to the next phase in this list on the very next hand if they completed their CURRENT phase this hand — falling short means repeating the exact same phase again next hand.

Skipping vs. Attempting a Phase

If your hand genuinely can't complete the current phase, you're not required to try — you can simply play out the hand normally (drawing and discarding) without ever laying anything down, and you'll attempt the same phase again on the next hand. This is often the correct choice rather than forcing a bad partial attempt, since there's no partial credit for an incomplete phase; either you've completed and laid the whole combination that hand, or you haven't advanced at all.

Scoring Each Hand

The round ends the instant one player empties their hand completely. Every other player then totals the point value of whatever cards remain in their hand (number cards at face value, most face cards and skips worth more, wilds worth the most), and that total is added to their running score. Because scoring is based purely on leftover cards, being stuck mid-phase with a wide, unplayable hand at the moment someone else goes out can be costly even if you're actually ahead in phases completed.

Winning

The game continues, hand after hand, until one player has successfully completed all ten phases in order. That player wins immediately, regardless of who has the lowest cumulative score at that point — reaching Phase 10 first, not accumulating the fewest penalty points, is the actual win condition, which occasionally produces a genuinely different winner than whoever's been scoring best throughout the game.

Where Phase 10 Came From

Phase 10 was created in 1982 by Kenneth Johnson, based on a Rummy variant (specifically Liverpool Rummy, which already used a fixed sequence of required melds) that he'd grown up playing with his brothers. Johnson personally managed manufacturing and distribution himself for several years, famously assembling and shipping early copies from his parents' basement with the help of local teenagers, before eventually licensing the game to Fundex Games; Mattel acquired the license outright in 2010.

The Arguments This Game Actually Produces

The most common dispute is whether a player can rearrange or add cards to a phase they laid down in a PREVIOUS hand once a new hand starts (they can't — laid-down phases only remain addable within the same hand they were played in; a new hand starts everyone fresh). A second common argument is exactly which cards count as valid "hits" onto an already-laid run versus set. The full dispute breakdown settles both, the scoring deep-dive lists every card's exact penalty value, and a printable phase-tracking sheet helps a table keep track of who's attempting which of the ten phases without asking every round.

Questions People Still Ask Mid-Game

Can you complete two different phases in the same hand to skip ahead? No — only the current hand's assigned phase counts toward advancing; laying down an unrelated combination doesn't let you jump ahead in the sequence.

Do jokers and skip cards work the same way in every phase? Wild cards can substitute for any card needed in a set or run in most phases, but the "seven cards of one color" phase specifically requires genuine color matches, not wild substitutes, in most published rule sets.

What happens if two players finish all ten phases on the exact same hand? Whoever's cumulative score is lower at that point wins the tiebreak, since completing phase ten alone isn't automatically a win if a rival matches it in the same hand.