In this article, I will introduce you to the basic rules of card game Uno and show you how to play. The object of the game is to be the first player to 500 points. The object of each round is to be the first person to play all the cards in your hand.
Setup
Deal seven cards to each player. After dealing, the dealer flips over the top card of the deck. Beginning clockwise from the dealer, players play one card each turn. A legal play is a card that either matches the color, number, word or symbol or it’s a wild. After shuffling, if the first card flipped over by the dealer is a draw for wild, the card is placed back in the deck and another card is drawn. If it’s a wild card, the player left of the dealer picks a color and plays. If it is a draw-two card, the player left of the dealer may draw two cards and may skip their turn. And, if it’s a reverse card the dealer goes first.
About Cards
Some of the special cards are as follows:
Skip – the next player forfeits their turn.
Reverse – changes in the direction of play.
Draw-two – the next player draws two cards and forfeits their turn.
Wild may be played on any color and allows you to pick a color that the next card played must follow.
Draw-four wild does the same thing as a wild but in addition, the next player must draw four cards and forfeit their turn. However, a draw-four wild may only be played when you don’t have a card in your hand matching the color played.
Wild cards represent no color until someone plays them. If you believe the player before you played his draw four illegally the player drawing the four cards, and only that player, may challenge him. The player reveals his hand and if the draw four was a legal play then the Challenger draws two additional penalty cards. If the player played illegally then the player returns the draw four wild to their hand. They play the correct card and they draw four penalty cards. If you can’t play you draw one card, if that card can be played you may play it immediately otherwise your turn is forfeited. You may also choose not to play on your turn but instead draw a card. If you can play that card, you may immediately play that card and only that card or in your turn.
Call Uno
When you get down to one card in your hand you must call Uno (meaning one). If you don’t call Uno by the time your second-to-last card touches the discard pile any other player may catch you on this. If they do before the next player plays you must draw two cards. Also, if the round hasn’t ended and the draw deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile and it becomes the new draw deck. When a player plays the last card in their hand the round ends. If that card is a drawcard you still fulfill the drawing. Players then score points. The player who goes out receives points for every unplayed card in other player’s hands.
All cards 0 through 9 are worth face value. Draw-two, reverse, and skips are worth 20 points. Wilds and draw-four wilds are worth 50 points. If a player makes a suggestion to any other player on what card to play he must immediately draw 4 penalty cards. If a player doesn’t have 500 or more points at the end of the round, reshuffle and deal and play again. The winner of each round becomes the dealer of the next round. The first player to get at least 500 points wins.