Phase 10 rules: the ten phases, Skip cards and scoring

Phase 10 is a commercial rummy published by Mattel. You are not collecting one meld and going out once. You have to complete ten specific phases, in order, one phase per hand at most. Miss the phase and you attempt that same phase again next hand.

The usual retail deck has 108 cards:

• 24 red, 24 yellow, 24 blue and 24 green, which is two of each number 1 through 12 in each color (96 cards).
• 8 Wild cards.
• 4 Skip cards.

Reference cards that list the phases stay out of the shuffle. Leave them where everyone can read them.

Choose a dealer. Deal 10 cards to each player, one at a time. The rest of the deck is the draw pile, face down. Turn one card up beside it to start the discard pile. If that upcard is a Skip, several Mattel sheets skip the first player's turn automatically. If it is a Wild, the first player may take it.

The player to the dealer's left starts. A turn is:

1. Draw one card, either the top of the draw pile or the top of the discard pile.
2. If the cards in your hand now complete your current phase, you may lay that phase face up.
3. If you have already laid your phase this hand, you may hit cards onto phases already on the table.
4. Discard one card to end the turn.

You draw at the start of the turn even if you think you can already make the phase. You do not discard the card you just drew unless you want to. When the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile, leave its top card as the new discard, and turn the shuffled cards face down as the new draw pile.

Phase 10 belongs with the other matching games in the games of chance hub. The sets and runs are cousins of rummy.

You work up this list. You may attempt only your current phase. Laying Phase 4 while you are still on Phase 2 does not count, and you do not get to skip ahead.

You must hold the whole phase before you lay it down. You cannot lay a set of 3 now and the other set of 3 on a later turn and call that Phase 1. Both sets hit the table on the same turn, before you discard.

You may lay more than the minimum if the extra cards attach to what the phase already requires. Three 5s and three 7s make Phase 1. Two more 5s in the same hand may go down with that set on the same turn. A third, unrelated set may not, because Phase 1 asks for two sets, not three.

Each player makes at most one phase per hand. When somebody goes out, anyone who has laid their phase moves to the next number. Anyone who has not laid it repeats that phase next hand. Falling behind by two or three phases is normal in a six-player game, because only one player goes out and the others have to have laid already.

Definitions, from the Mattel sheet:

• A set is two or more cards of the same number. Colors may mix. Three 6s can be red, blue and blue.
• A run is consecutive numbers in one color, such as green 3, 4, 5, 6. A run does not wrap from 12 to 1.
• Phase 8 is any seven cards of one color. Order does not matter. Two green 4s both count.

Each number exists eight times, two per color, so a set of 5 fits in the deck.

A Wild stands in for any number, or for any color when you need a color for Phase 8 or for a same-color run. You may use more than one Wild in a phase. You must also use at least one natural card. A phase of eight Wilds is not a phase.

Once a Wild is in a laid phase, it stays. You do not later swap in the natural card it represents and take the Wild back. If you used a Wild as a green 5 inside green 3, 4, Wild, 6, that Wild remains the 5 for the rest of the hand. Other players may extend that run with a green 2 or a green 7.

Skip cards

A Skip has one job: it makes another player lose a turn. It is never part of a set, a run or Phase 8. You use it by discarding it and naming the player who will miss their next turn. You may discard a Skip on the turn you drew it, or you may hold it.

A Skip on the discard pile cannot be picked up. Some printings allow only one Skip against each player per hand. Newer boxes sometimes place the Skip in front of the chosen player, and that player's turn is only to drop it on the discard. A Skip left in your hand scores 15.

Hitting

Hitting is how you empty your hand after the phase is down. On a later turn, or on the same turn after you lay, you may add cards that fit any phase on the table, yours or anyone else's.

• On a set, add another card of that number, or a Wild.
• On a run, add the next number on either end, in the same color, or a Wild used as that end.
• On a Phase 8 color group, add another card of that color, or a Wild.

You may not hit until your own phase is on the table. You may not rearrange someone else's cards to make your hit fit. You may not pull their Wild out.

The hand ends when one player goes out: they have laid their phase and then gotten rid of every remaining card, either by hitting or by discarding the last card. That player scores 0 for the hand. Everyone else scores the cards still in their hand. Cards already laid down do not score.

You cannot go out while your phase is still in your hand. Those cards have to be laid as the phase, or they are still points waiting to be counted.

Worked turn

You are on Phase 1, which is two sets of 3. Your hand is 5, 5, 5, 9, 9, 2, 4, 4, 11, Wild. You draw a 9. You now have three 5s and three 9s. Lay both sets. You may also lay nothing else yet, because the 4s are only a pair and Phase 1 does not ask for them. Discard the 11, which is worth 10 if it is still in your hand when someone else goes out. Your phase is complete. Next hand you will be on Phase 2, even if you never go out this hand.

Next turn you draw a 4. The two 4s were never laid, so they stay in hand and will score 5 each if someone goes out. You may hit a 5 or a 9 onto the sets you did lay. Hit one 5, then discard.

A run with a Wild

Phase 2 needs a set of 3 and a run of 4. You hold green 6, green 7, green 9, and a Wild, plus three 2s. The Wild becomes green 8. Lay green 6, 7, Wild, 9 together with the three 2s. Later, anyone who has laid their own phase may add green 5 or green 10 to that run. They may not add a blue 5. The color is part of the run.

Keep a running total. Lower is better. After each hand, the player who went out writes 0. Every other player adds up only the cards left in hand:

A hand of Wild, Skip, 12 and 4 is 25 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 55. Laid cards score nothing, which is why a Wild you cannot place is the expensive card, and a held Skip is 15 if someone goes out.

The game ends when a player completes Phase 10 by laying it before the hand ends. If only one player does that, they win even with a higher point total. If two or more complete Phase 10 on the same hand, the lowest score wins. If those scores also tie, they replay Phase 10 and the first to go out wins. Deal passes left. Phases 4, 5 and 6 are the runs players most often repeat.

Phase 10 is mostly the cards, with a few real decisions.

Take the discard when it completes the phase or when it is a number you already have two of and you are collecting a set. Leave a discard that helps the player who is one card from a long run, especially if they have already laid and are hitting. You can see their run. A green 9 on the discard, with green 8 showing at the end of their run, is a gift.

Lay as soon as the phase is complete. Extra hits can wait. A 3 left in hand is 5 points. A Wild left in hand is 25. Use a Wild when it finishes the phase. A Wild saved for later still scores 25 if you never lay.

Skip the player closest to going out. One lost turn is often the difference between laying Phase 6 and repeating it. Spinoff boxes such as Phase 10 Masters change the phase list. This page is the 108-card game.

If adults stake the game, 18+ applies and the stake should be agreed before the shuffle. A coinflip is a separate even bet you can check from published seeds. Phase 10 is won by the player who lays Phase 10, or by the lowest score if several finish it on the same hand.

Canasta is the other big commercial-style melding game in this cluster, played with standard decks and a different contract. Gin rummy is the two-player version of laying sets and runs without a ten-phase ladder.

See also tonk and skip-bo.