Uno (card game)

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For the video game adaptation, see Uno (video game).
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Uno
Uno new set.jpg
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 (pron.: /ˈuːnoʊ/; from Italian and Spanish for 'one') is an American card game which is 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

History [edit]

Merle Robbins, an Ohio barbershop owner, loved to play cards. One day in 1971, Merle came up with the idea for UNO and introduced the game to his family. When his family and friends began playing UNO more and more, Robbins and his family spent $8,000 to have 5,000 games made. At first Robbins sold UNO from his barbershop. A few friends and local businesses sold it as well. Later Robbins sold the UNO rights to a funeral parlor owner and UNO fan from Joliet, Illinois, for $50,000, plus royalties of 10 cents per game. International Games Inc. was formed to market UNO, and sales skyrocketed. In 1992, International Games became part of the Mattel product line.[2]

Official rules [edit]

A deck of English Uno cards from 1994. This particular deck uses the older card design, where letters appear on the action cards instead of symbols.

The deck consists of 108 cards, of which there are 25 of each color (red, green, blue, and yellow), each color having two of each rank except zero. The ranks in each color are 0 through 9, "Skip", "Draw Two," and "Reverse" (the last three of these being classified as "action cards"). In addition, the deck contains four each of "Wild" and "Wild Draw Four" cards.

To start a hand, seven cards are dealt out to each player, and the top card of the deck is flipped over and set aside to start the discard pile. If it is not an action card, the player to the dealer's left goes first. A player takes a turn by discarding one card that matches the top one on the pile in color and/or rank. A player who has no matching cards must draw the top card from the deck and play it if possible; if not, the turn ends. Play proceeds clockwise around the table.

Action and Wild cards have the following effects:

Card Effect during hand Effect as first discard
Skip Next player in sequence loses a turn Player to dealer's left loses a turn
Draw Two Next player in sequence draws two cards and loses a turn Player to dealer's left draws two cards and loses a turn
Reverse Order of play switches directions (clockwise to counterclockwise, and vice versa) Dealer plays first; play proceeds counterclockwise
Wild Player declares next color to be matched (may be used on any turn) Player to dealer's left declares first color to be matched, then plays normally
Wild Draw Four Player declares next color to be matched; next player draws four cards and loses a turn (may only be used if player does not have any cards of the current color) Return card to deck, shuffle, flip top card to start discard pile
  • If a player needs to pick up a card when in need, they may pick one card up and skip their turn.
  • If the entire deck is used during play, the top discard is set aside and the rest of the pile is shuffled to create a new deck. Play then proceeds normally.

A player who is about to use his/her last card must call "uno" as a warning to the others.

The first player to get rid of his/her last card ("going out") wins the hand and scores points for the cards held by the other players. Number cards count their face value, all action cards count 20, and Wild and Wild Draw Four cards count 50. If a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four card is played to go out, the next player in sequence must draw the appropriate number of cards before the score is tallied.

The first player to reach 500 points is the winner.

Penalties [edit]

  • If a player lays down his/her next-to-last card, fails to call "uno," and is caught before the next player's turn, he/she must draw two cards. The player takes no penalty if he/she remembers to call "uno" or is not caught before the next turn.
  • If a player is caught laying down a non-matching card, he/she must take it back and draw two more.
  • A player who makes any suggestions to others regarding which cards to play must draw two.
  • When a Wild Draw Four is played, the next player in sequence (who has to take the four cards) may challenge if he/she believes that a card in the current color could have been played. The challenged player must then privately show his/her hand to the challenger. If the challenge is valid, the challenged player must draw the four cards; if not, the challenger must draw them, plus two extra, and loses one turn.
  • If a player shouts "UNO", but they do not have one card left, that player must draw 3 cards

Strategies [edit]

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 and action cards).

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.[3] Players may exhibit physical tells,[4] 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.

Card and Deck Styles [edit]

The new 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" in 40th Anniversary sets. 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.

Uno World Championship [edit]

The Uno World Championship (UWC) is held annually[5] in Moscow, Russia[citation needed] and in Britain Sheffield loyola house middlefloor room 4. Over 71 countries participate in the tournament.[citation needed] In August 2011, the UWC was won by Brendon Wickham(AU), who played not Shannon Oliver (NL) in a record long game of five hours and sixteen minutes[citation needed], in August 2012, the USW was won by Johannes Frilling(Chinese). The 2012 competition will be held August 8 - August 12 and the 2013 competition was held March 2–3 in Blacksburg, VA. The 2013 UWC was won by George Ashworth (USA), who played Diana Luc (USA), Jenny Ngo (HKG), and Kevin Zeng (USA) in a match lasting three hours and twenty-five minutes.[citation needed]

Theme packs [edit]

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

Note: * indicates HIT Entertainment character, by which Mattel acquired HIT in 2012.

Themed video games [edit]

Versions available on the Xbox 360 version of Uno:

Themed sports teams [edit]

Several sports teams each have 112-card sets, featuring players from those teams. The special cards in each deck vary depending on the card set itself. The following teams have confirmed Uno sets.

Special Uno games [edit]

Video games [edit]

Similar games [edit]

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 [edit]

  1. ^ a b UNO instruction sheet, 1983, International Games Ltd.
  2. ^ "30 Anvesery Rule Book". Mattel. 2001. Retrieved 2013-02-09. 
  3. ^ "How to Play UNO in Large Groups". UNOtips.org. Retrieved 2012-08-08. 
  4. ^ "Tells". Unotips.org. Retrieved 2012-08-08. 
  5. ^ "UNO World Championships". 
  6. ^ - which features the "friendship" card, where the player can swap his/her hand with another player.
  7. ^ - feature a Joker, when you discard this card you can choose 1 to 3 players to draw 1 to 3 cards
  8. ^ -"On the Go Card: Swapping Cards with the player to your left or right depending on the person that played the card.
  9. ^ two different packs. One a heart shaped tin, one a lunch box style. Features "Care-a-lot" card, when played allows all players to discard any card in their hand to the discard pile without causing any consequences to other players.
  10. ^ Packaged in a round barrel designed to fit in a car's cup holder
  11. ^ - "Cheese Touch Card: If this card is played, all players need to show their yellow cards if they got the cheese touch.
  12. ^ - "Evil card: the player holding this card can steal the top card from the DISCARD pile at any point in the game, even if it's not his/her turn."
  13. ^ - Features the Dragon Card, when played, all players must discard a prince card (regardless of color or number) to kill the dragon before continuing play. If a player does not have a prince card in their hand, they must pick up cards until they find a prince card.
  14. ^ - Deck features many of the characters on the Disney Channel.
  15. ^ - The deck features pictures of various dogs on each of the cards, and contains a Fetch Wild Card.
  16. ^ (Released in Japan)
  17. ^ - "Vegas" Command Card. This card can only be played on another Vegas card or on the same color of play. When this card is played, the next person in the direction of play has to draw 1 card off of the draw pile and flip it over. If the card flipped over is 0-9, then the player has to draw that many cards and keep the card they flipped over. If the card flipped over is a skip command card, then the next player in direction of play has to draw 10 cards, and the player who flipped over the skip keeps only that card. If the card flipped over is a Reverse command card, then the player who laid the Vegas card has to draw ten cards. If the card flipped over is a wild, draw 2, or a draw 4 wild, then the next player has to draw 10 cards, plus the extra 2 or 4 from the wild.
  18. ^ - in which players can try for world domination, à la Stewie Griffin, with the exclusive "Dominate" card and rule.
  19. ^ - Includes the Travel card (featuring Traveling Matt), which allows the player to 'travel' to another player's spot and view his/her entire hand.
  20. ^ - "Sue Sylvester's Sabotage Card allows you to select an opponent whose hand you wish to view, then allows you to swap a card you don't want with one you desire from the hand of the opponent you selected."
  21. ^ - "Best of Both Worlds Card, when this used a player can decide whether to use this as "Miley's 'Ya Think' Rule" or "Hannah's Gotta Secret Rule". This former causes every other player to draw a single card, while the latter can block a "Wild Draw Four" Card."
  22. ^ - Yogi Bear adds to the fun with the exclusive "pic-a-nic" card – the player with this special card gets to steal the top card from the discard pile at any point in the game.
  23. ^ - "Mambo! card: the player who plays it must give each opponent one card from his/her hand, and then places a card on the discard pile to start the next round."
  24. ^ - which features a Draw Three (instead of Draw Two) card; also features a "howler" wild card where, if played, the player who uses the card may select another player to say all of their cards aloud; also features an "invisibility" wild card where, if played, the player can block any card placed down (such as, a card that forces them to draw cards)
  25. ^ - "Love Me Not" card and rule that when laid, person who laid the card picks a color and everyone has to lay down a card from their hand of that color and say 'Love Me' as they discard. If a person doesn't have a card of that color, they must draw until they get one while saying 'Love Me Not'. The color called is now the color in play after everyone has laid their card, and the game continues.
  26. ^ - features 27 additional or modified cards
  27. ^ - Gamma Card: Makes a player discard all their cards in their hand and draw the same amount discarded.
  28. ^ - Features farm equipment graphics and a "Harvest" card-The player who plays the harvest card selects another player to draw from the DRAW pile until he/she draws a green card, which will allow them to complete the harvest (or, until they draw 5 cards, whichever comes first).
  29. ^ - "Battle" card
  30. ^ - power card: draw 6 cards. Same thing as Nintendo Uno.
  31. ^ - "Mayhem card: the player who plays it causes everyone to swap hands. The direction of the swap is determined by the player playing the card."
  32. ^ card sets only have 36 cards designed for children at least 3 years of age. These sets come in several variants, based on titles for children (such as Winnie-the-Pooh, Sesame Street, and Clifford the Big Red Dog).
  33. ^ - "My Uno: Uno card game with your own personal pictures."
  34. ^ - Has pictures of various Nintendo characters on each card and has writing in classic 8-bit style. Also contains the Power card; this card can be used as a regular Wild card at any time, but can also be used to block a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 card played against the player after which it acts as a regular Wild card.
  35. ^ - Artwork contains scenes from the University of Notre Dame, mostly football-related. Includes a special "Irish" card which can be played as a wild card or to block a draw two or four.
  36. ^ - Released in Japan. The gameplay is the same as normal, but all card's artwork is made into One Piece related artwork.
  37. ^ - "Red Baron" card: this is a wild card; the player playing the card chooses to look at someone else's hand and then designates the color of play. "Good Grief" card: this is a wild card; the player playing the card may select an opponent to continue drawing cards until one depicting Charlie Brown is drawn.
  38. ^ Wei, R. H.. Gamebits: Peanuts at Play. Games. Issue 196 (Vol. 27, No. 10). Pg.4. December 2003.
  39. ^ - Happy Holidays Card
  40. ^ - The Black Pearl card and special rule lets the player who lays it down choose one opponent and that opponent must draw until he/she gets a Capt. Jack Sparrow card or a Capt. Barbosa card.
  41. ^ - Features third-generation and previous Pokémon on the back of cards
  42. ^ - features an exclusive "Recipe for Chaos" card.
  43. ^ - features a exclusive "Eeeeeediot" card where the person playing this card chooses someone to be the "Eeeediot" and turn their hand around so it is facing everyone else and continue to hold their hand that way until someone discards a card with a Stimpy on it.
  44. ^ - Features a Grouch card, which allows players to give up to three un-needed cards in their hand to another player, so it removes their "garbage". The character featured on it is Oscar the Grouch. There are 4 Grouch cards in the 112-card deck.
  45. ^ - In a Shrek-faced package
  46. ^ - features a Draw Three card. It also includes a "Blinky" card which requires all players to pick up cards from the draw pile until all players pick up a card of the colour named by the "Blinky" player. This feature can considerably add to the game time. At least one other version contains the Doh! card. This is a wild card where everyone has to draw 2 cards including the person who placed it down!
  47. ^ - which features a "GREAT SCOT" card, with Groundskeeper Willie, where a player selects another player and gives that player two of the former's cards.
  48. ^ - features a Witchcraft; the player who plays this card can use it to block any Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 played against him/her.
  49. ^ - The special card is called "Dead Kenny". When you play this card, you decide which player will share Kenny's bad luck. You may choose any player's hand to "kill" by having that player draw cards from the DRAW pile. The chosen player must keep drawing cards until he/she draws any card with Kenny on it.
  50. ^ ' This set has a special Racer X card. The player who uses this card draws a card from the draw pile onto the discard pile and the depending on the number, the next player must place a card that follows the number drawn before. For example, player A draws the racer X card and draws a card with the number 3. The next player must place a card with the number 4 (regardless of colour) and the next player must place a card with the number 5 and so on. If they reach 9, they must start over with 0 until a player is unable to place a card and he/she must draw three cards.
  51. ^ - The special card is called "Spider Sense" card, where this card is a wild card and allows you to view an opponent's hand.
  52. ^ Super Absorbency (#1) Uno - which features the Super Absorbency card, a wild card which requires the next player to draw one card from all other players' hands at random. There is controversy as to what happens when the Super Absorbency card is played as the player's penultimate card. Some contend that the person playing the card would win as the next player would be required to take that card from him/her. However, some say that there is an exception whereas the Super Absorbency requires a card to be drawn from all players' hands except those who are in the uno stage. Clarification can be found on the back of the SpongeBob metallic tin.
  53. ^ Secret Recipe (#2) Uno - Secret Recipe - Allows the player to look at another player's hand. The player can also select a new color just like a wild card.
  54. ^ - Lost In Time (#3 Uno) - Daredevil - Can be played to counter a Draw 2 or Draw 4 card. Can also be used as a wild card.
  55. ^ Two Editions, both based on Star Trek: The Original Series
  56. ^ with special cards, each of which appears once per pack: Double Tribble card - The player who plays this card chooses the color of play, then next player doubles the amount of cards in their hand and forfeits their turn; Beam Me Up, Scotty card - This can played to stop any command card (a "Draw 2" card, for example) and allows for the color of play to be chosen; Mind Meld card - This commands the next player to show the person who played this card their hand; Live Long & Prosper card - This can be played at any time to discard the players hand and pick up an entirely new one, then allows him/her to choose color of play.
  57. ^ which simplifies the special WILDs to one kind: 4 "Beam Up WILD" cards that can negate the effects of any DRAW 2 or DRAW 4 WILD cards played against a player. That player can then call a new color, and play resumes as if they had played a regular WILD. (It can also be used as a regular WILD if desired.)*Superman Uno - This version features a battle card. When this card is played, the player who plays it selects another player to "battle". The player who played the card chooses to be either Superman or Bizarro, and the player he/she selected is the other character. Superman must discard a blue card since Bizarro is vulnerable to blue Kryptonite, and Bizarro must discard a green card since Superman is vulnerable to green Kryptonite.
  58. ^ - This deck has a "claw" card that when a player lays it down, everyone has to lay down a card of any color with an alien on it.
  59. ^ - This specialty deck features characters from the Toy Story 3 universe. One special card includes the Lotso card, which functions as a Wild card, but with a penalty. The person playing the Lotso card calls out a color. All other players must immediately show a card of that color. Any player who does not have a card of that color must draw 3 cards. If all players have the chosen color, then the person who played the card must draw 3 cards.
  60. ^ - A special deck made to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the first edition of Uno released in the United States in 1971. In this deck, there are specialty "35" cards, when, if the card is in play, only 3s or 5s of any color must be played after the card is dealt.
  61. ^ - A deck sold at the end of 2010 and throughout 2011 with the cards and box design resembling the original International Games-era product.
  62. ^ - A deck with transparent water-proof cards. It includes 4 (2 of which are +1 2 of which are +2 downpour cards) black action cards called "wild DownPour" cards; when played, all the other players must pick up the number specified on the card and may choose the next color of play these cards replace two of the wild cards and two of the wild draw four cards out of the original deck, and also double as wild cards.
  63. ^ - Features a special "whirlpool" device that has you shake the Magic 8 Ball-like item to reveal what you must do such as Wave Left or Wave Right
  64. ^ with erasable score pad
  65. ^ - Includes a special "Over The Rainbow" card where the person playing this card chooses someone hand to look at, also acts as a wild which then the person chooses the color of play.
  66. ^ - Includes the "Mutate" card, which when played, allows the player to exchange all but one of their cards with new cards from the draw pile. Alternatively, the player can choose to force another player to do the same.
  67. ^ - In this game, the cards show different characters from the Street Fighter II video game. This deck contains a special Hadouken card, which allows the user to choose 1 player to draw cards until they have drawn a Skip or a Reverse card. Play then continues on as normally.
  68. ^ - In this game, the cards are drawn like cars seen in the Project Gotham Racing series of video games. In this game, the rules include a card called the "Gotham Live" card, which is the same name used as the replay feature in Project Gotham Racing 3. This card allows a player to look at the hand of any of the other players.
  69. ^ - This pack was released on November 1, 2006. This is a custom deck with artwork from the Kameo game. In addition, a special play card allows you to swap your hand with the hand of another player in the game.
  70. ^ (Uno Extreme in the UK and Canada)

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