Uno

I first played Uno with Hector and Aon when the three of us visited Hector's family property outside of Del Rio, Texas. We stayed up late into the night using a flashlight! We even had some pickled Quail eggs in Langtry, Texas! Yummie!

The Uno cards we bought then are still around today! They appear in the images at the bottom of this page.

In recent years, we developed some new rules to complement the standard rules of the game.

Our rules include...

• We start the game with however many cards we feel like dealing out. We don't go lower than 6 cards and don't go higher than 9 cards.

• You can play another Draw Two or Wild Draw Four on any Draw card and play passes to the next player.
  If that player has a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four, he can play them other wise, he draws the TOTAL of the Draw cards played!

  For example, suppose I play a Yellow Draw Two and then Aon plays a Green Draw Two and Hector plays a Blue Draw Two. If I do not have another Draw Two or Wild Draw Four card, I have to draw 6 cards! If multiple Wild Draw Four cards are played when this happens, it can add up fast!

• After a Wild Card or Wild Draw Four card is played, the next player can match the number card that was last played.

  For example, suppose I play a Green 5 and the Hector plays a Wild Card and changes the color to Red. Aon could then play any Red Card or a 5 of any color.

• When you cannot play a card out of your hand and are forced to draw, you can keep drawing cards up the number of the numbered card. Word cards and the Zero cards count as 10.

  For example, suppose Hector plays a Blue 6 and then play passes to me. If I cannot play and have to draw, I can draw up to 6 cards. If I draw a card that I can play before I reach 6, then I stop drawing cards and play that one. I'm left with the cards that I drew that I couldn't play.

• A player can play two numbered cards of the same color that add up to the number card on the top of the play stack even if the top card of the play stack is a different color.

  For example, suppose Aon plays a Yellow 7. Hector can then play a Blue 3 and a Blue 4 or a Green 6 and a Green 1 or a Red 5 and a Red 2.

• If your last card was a Draw card and you play it and all the other players have Draw cards and play them, you have to draw the total number of cards even though you went out.

  For example, suppose Hector's last card is a Red Draw Two and he plays it. Aon then plays a Wild Draw Four and changes the color to Blue but I play a Green Draw Two. Hector then must draw 8 cards and is back in the game! He should have thought ahead!

• We don't keep score, if you go out of the game, the remaining players continue to play. When it gets down to 2 players left, the player who is left with cards when the other one goes out is considered the loser. Too bad!

  For example, Hector plays a Yellow 5 calls Uno! Aon then plays a Yellow 9 and then Hector plays a Yellow 2 and goes out. Poor Aon has lost!

To hopefully avoid any hassles, Uno is a trademark of International Games, Inc., which is now part of Mattel, Inc.