<h1>Problem #1 - No clear answer</h1>
<p>There are a wide variety of variations on Hand and Foot. The versions I've played with people who &quot;know the game&quot; have always allowed a clean and a dirty of the same rank, and never allowed wild canastas. (The two variations I've learned both use the term Canasta for a completed meld; some versions of the written rules use the term books.)</p>
<p><strong>For clarity - some terms:</strong><br>
<strong>Clean Canasta</strong>: No wild cards, 7 cards (or more)<br>
<strong>Dirty Canasta</strong>: some wild cards, 7 cards (or more)<br>
<strong>Wild Canasta</strong>: 7 Wild Cards.<br>
<strong>Extending</strong> aka <strong>Burying</strong>: adding cards to a completed canasta<br>
<strong>Clean/Dirty/Wild Meld</strong>: a group of cards that will become a canasta of the same type when built upon further<br>
<strong>Build</strong>: to add cards to a meld in order to make it a canasta.<br>
<strong>Book</strong>: synonym for canasta, also, to collect the completed canasta into a smaller pile, &quot;closing&quot; it.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.pagat.com/rummy/handfoot.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pagat.com</a>, however, says only one meld of a given rank per patnership, and allows wild canastas, and extending.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.gocampingamerica.com/blog/learn-how-to-play-the-card-game-hand-and-foot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gocampingamerica.com</a> makes no restriction either way on melds, and shows no scoring for wild canastas, and disallows extending a canasta, but allows larger than 7 cards melded before booking the canasta. <em>It also notes the lack of standardization in Hand and Foot Rules</em></li>
<li><a href="http://www.rummy-games.com/rules/hand-and-foot-canasta.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">rummy-games.com</a> does not allow multiple melds of the same rank, but allows wild canastas, and not extending.</li>
<li>The versions I learned both allow a second meld (see below), extending, and disallow wild canastas. They differ on shuffling protocol, burying of wild cards and wilds per dirty meld. (One allows 3 wilds in a dirty meld, and burying wilds; the other requires a meld to always have more naturals than wilds.)</li>
</ul>
<h1>In the Versions I learned</h1>
<p>Yes, you can have a second meld of a given rank, provided:</p>
<ol>
<li>the first one is dirty</li>
<li>you need a clean canasta in order to go out</li>
<li>you have your partner's explicit verbal permission to make the new meld.</li>
</ol>
<p>Usually, this happens right after someone goes to their foot.</p>
<h1>In versions with no extending and no oversize canastas</h1>
<p>You can close a canasta and immediately start a new meld of the same rank (provided you have the 4+ cards of specific ranks to do so).</p>
<h1>In your situation</h1>
<p>Tactically, unless you needed the clean canasta, or the extant needs a single card to complete, they should have melded those 5's into the extant 5's.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-19T21:44:40.227Z
2014-02-19T21:44:40.227Z
2020-06-17T09:01:24.697Z
aramis
<p>Can you put down 2 melds of the same card? For instance, a friend accidentally started 2 piles of 5's. Should they have been combined?</p>

<hand-and-foot>
Multiple melds for the same card
Cindy
# Multiple melds for the same card

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-19)

Can you put down 2 melds of the same card? For instance, a friend accidentally started 2 piles of 5's. Should they have been combined?

**Tags:** hand-and-foot


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-02-19. Score: 1

# Problem #1 - No clear answer

There are a wide variety of variations on Hand and Foot. The versions I've played with people who "know the game" have always allowed a clean and a dirty of the same rank, and never allowed wild canastas. (The two variations I've learned both use the term Canasta for a completed meld; some versions of the written rules use the term books.)

**For clarity - some terms:**  
**Clean Canasta**: No wild cards, 7 cards (or more)  
**Dirty Canasta**: some wild cards, 7 cards (or more)  
**Wild Canasta**: 7 Wild Cards.  
**Extending** aka **Burying**: adding cards to a completed canasta  
**Clean/Dirty/Wild Meld**: a group of cards that will become a canasta of the same type when built upon further  
**Build**: to add cards to a meld in order to make it a canasta.  
**Book**: synonym for canasta, also, to collect the completed canasta into a smaller pile, "closing" it.

* [Pagat.com](http://www.pagat.com/rummy/handfoot.html), however, says only one meld of a given rank per patnership, and allows wild canastas, and extending.
* [Gocampingamerica.com](http://www.gocampingamerica.com/blog/learn-how-to-play-the-card-game-hand-and-foot) makes no restriction either way on melds, and shows no scoring for wild canastas, and disallows extending a canasta, but allows larger than 7 cards melded before booking the canasta. *It also notes the lack of standardization in Hand and Foot Rules*
* [rummy-games.com](http://www.rummy-games.com/rules/hand-and-foot-canasta.html) does not allow multiple melds of the same rank, but allows wild canastas, and not extending.
* The versions I learned both allow a second meld (see below), extending, and disallow wild canastas. They differ on shuffling protocol, burying of wild cards and wilds per dirty meld. (One allows 3 wilds in a dirty meld, and burying wilds; the other requires a meld to always have more naturals than wilds.)

# In the Versions I learned

Yes, you can have a second meld of a given rank, provided:

1. the first one is dirty
2. you need a clean canasta in order to go out
3. you have your partner's explicit verbal permission to make the new meld.

Usually, this happens right after someone goes to their foot.

# In versions with no extending and no oversize canastas

You can close a canasta and immediately start a new meld of the same rank (provided you have the 4+ cards of specific ranks to do so).

# In your situation

Tactically, unless you needed the clean canasta, or the extant needs a single card to complete, they should have melded those 5's into the extant 5's.


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