Uno (card game)

For the video game adaptation, see Uno (video game).
Uno
Type Shedding-type
Players 2 – 10[1]
Skill(s) required Saving important cards; knowing when to put down those cards, concealing your hand.
Age range 7+[1]
Cards 108
Random chance easy

Uno ( /ˈuːnoʊ/; from Italian and Spanish for 'one') is a card game played with a specially printed deck (see Mau Mau for an almost identical game played with normal playing cards). The game was originally developed in 1971 by Merle Robbins in Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. It has been a Mattel product since 1992. The game's general principles put it into the Crazy Eights family of card games.

Contents

Official rules

The deck consists of a total of 108 cards of four colors: red, green, blue, and yellow. The ranks in each color are 0-9, with two of each number per color, except 0 which only appears once per color. If a player has any two or more cards of the same number and colour, he can play it together. There are two each of three "action" cards in each color, labeled "skip", "draw two", and "reverse". There are also special black action cards, "wild" and "wild draw four", of which there are four each. In older versions, only the 6 is underlined to distinguish it from the 9, which is not marked; newer versions have both the 6 and the 9 underlined to further distinguish the two ranks.If you have two cards of the same number and color you can place both cards in the pile.

Before playing, a dealer must be selected. This is accomplished by drawing cards. The person with the card of the highest face value is the dealer. Only number cards are used for this purpose. Any other cards are then put back into the deck.

After the dealer has been selected, seven cards are dealt to each player, and the top card of the stock is exposed to start the discard pile. If the exposed card has a special ability, it is treated as if the dealer played that card, and the special effect occurs (i.e., skip, draw two, reverse, or wild). If the exposed card is a wild draw four, however, it is returned to the deck and the next card is exposed. Play begins with the person to the left of the dealer, i.e. clockwise.

At each turn, a player may play a card from their hand that matches either the color or rank (or both) of the top exposed card, or play a wild or wild draw four.

If the player does not have a card to match the one on the DISCARD pile, he/she must take a card from the DRAW pile. If the card picked up can be played, the player is free to put it down in the same turn. Otherwise, play moves on to the next person in turn. A common house rule variation is that the player must keep drawing until they can put down a card.

Alternatively, the player may choose not to play a playable card from his/her hand. If so, the player must draw a card from the DRAW pile. If playable, that card can be put down in the same turn, but the player may not use a card from the hand after the draw.

After playing a single card or drawing, the next player clockwise takes a turn, or counter-clockwise when a reverse is in effect. If the stock is emptied, the discard pile is shuffled and turned over to replenish the stock.

When a player plays down to only one card, that player is required to say "Uno!" to warn other players. If the word is not said, and another player points out the error, the original player is busted and has to draw two cards from the DRAW pile. The hand is over when one player has discarded all of their cards.

After a player plays all their cards, the other players count the number of points pertaining to the values of the cards in their hands. Number cards are face value, colored special cards worth twenty, and wilds worth fifty. The first player to go out receives points for the cards left in his/her opponents' hands. The first person to reach a certain point value (officially 500) wins.

Special Cards

Draw Two: The next player must take two cards.

Skip: The next player must skip their turn.

Reverse: The order of play is reversed from clockwise to counter-clockwise, or from counter-clockwise to clockwise. If the initial exposed card in the discard pile is reverse, then the dealer makes the first play, and play continues in a counter-clockwise direction. A player that has UNO may not go out on this card, as it is considered an action card.

If there are only two players, the Reverse card is treated as a Skip card: the next player must skip their turn.

Wild: The player playing it chooses a colour, and the next legal play must be that colour unless another wild is played.

Wild Draw Four: Acts like a wild, but the next player must take four cards and skip their turn. This card may only be played if the player holding it does not have any card matching the current colour. See penalties for more information about this card.

The newer style English Uno action cards bear symbols which denote their action, except for the Wild cards which still bear the word "Wild." Before the design change, such cards in English versions of the game bear letters. Especially old English versions can be denoted by the absence of the white rim that surrounds the edge of most Uno cards. Other versions also use symbols and images in both old and new designs, especially those with Wild cards that do not bear the word "Wild." The Xbox 360 version of the game uses the new English style of the cards in gameplay. There are also language-free versions of the newer styles Uno action cards that do not bear the word "Wild" but have the same styling.

Penalties

Strategy

A basic strategy involves playing the legal card with the highest point value. This is a simple way to minimize points held in the hand at the end of the round, but fails to account for the utility of holding wilds and draw fours near the end of the game.

Playing a 0 is more likely to prevent the color from changing than playing any other card of a given color, since the deck contains only one 0 card of each color (instead of two for values 1-9).

Little has been published on the optimal strategy for the Uno game. Simulations of Uno games may shed some light on the matter, but the game solution is likely to be very complex. This is because attempts to reduce point count in the player's hands can be "read" by other players if too transparent. This information can be exploited by other players, and it follows that a mixed strategy may be more appropriate.

Some work has been done into the psychology of Uno as it relates to individual and group behavior.[2] Players may exhibit physical tells,[3] in which a subtle, often repeated, visual cue inadvertently reveals their state of mind during a game. Alternatively, they may change their playing style; switching from an aggressive card-shedding strategy to a more subdued one, or vice versa

Uno World Championship

The Uno World Championship (UWC) is held annually in Moscow, Russia. Over 71 countries participate in the tournament, and it is often regarded as one of the fiercest competitions in the card-playing community. Players in the UWC are known especially for their high levels of endurance and concentration. In August, 2011, the UWC was won by Grace Kellogg (USA), who played Jon Velberg (NL) in a record long game of five hours and sixteen minutes. The 2012 competition will be held August 8 - August 12.

Theme packs

There are some different themes of Uno. These theme games may come with slightly different directions and special cards.

Special Uno games

Video games

Similar games

Uno is a member of the shedding family of card games. The shedding family of card games consists of games where the objective is to get rid of all your cards while preventing the other players from getting rid of their cards.

References

  1. ^ a b UNO instruction sheet, 1983, International Games Ltd.
  2. ^ http://www.unotips.org/multiplayer.html
  3. ^ http://www.unotips.org/tells.html
  4. ^ Wei, R. H.. Gamebits: Peanuts at Play. Games. Issue 196 (Vol. 27, No. 10). Pg.4. December 2003.

External links