Ready to play UNO?

The history of UNO

UNO was created in 1971 by a guy named Merle Robbins. He ran a barber shop in a small town in Ohio but besides of his day job, he was a great enthusiasts of card games. Not only Merle Robbins himself, but his entire family were greatly into playing cards. One day, Robbins and his son had a dispute over a rule of card game called 'Crazy Eights'. Not like any other father, a huge geek Robbins tried to resolve a disagreement by creating a new card game by himself. The very first UNO cards were made on Robbins family dining room table by hand, which is a humble origin story of UNO!

At first, UNO was simply for Robbins family to enjoy but it became clear to Robbins family that the game had major potential. Robbins family started sell UNO games at the barber shop and soon, the popularity of the game became obvious. With a great deal of faith in the creation, the family sold out the barbershop, even their house to finance to manufacture the first 5,000 games of UNO. bought a camping trailer and traveled Ohio, Texas, Florida to promote the card game and educate people. They successfully sold 5,000 copies and got enough funds to produce another 10,000 copies of the game. The business was growing further and it was only matter of time the opportunity of being introduced internationally showed up. How cool it was!

How to play UNO

The goal of the game is to be the first player who discards all of cards in your hands!

In a UNO deck, we have:

19 Blue, Green, Red, Yellow cards for each colors
8 skip cards: when you play this card, the next person lose his/her chance to discard a card!
8 reverse cards: this card reverses direction of play.
8 draw 2 cards: when you play this card, the next person should draw 2 cards in his/her turn!
4 draw 4 cards: now the next person should draw 4 cards in his/her turn! How dare you!
4 wild cards: when you play this card, you can now choose a color of playable card!

How to set up?

Each player draws a card, the player with the highest point card is the dealer. The dealer shuffles a deck, and each player has 7 cards at the beginning. Place the remaining cards facedown to form a draw pile. Turn over a top card of the pile to begin a discard pile.

How to play?

Player to the left of the dealer starts first. Match the top card on the discard pile either by number, color, or word. If you don't have anything that matches, you must pick a card from the draw pile.
Before you play your last card, you must say “UNO”. If you don't say it or another player catches you, you must pick 4 more cards from the draw pile as a penalty. When the victory is on the horizon, you'd better be sneaky!
If no one is out of cards by the time the draw pile is depleted, reshuffle the discard pile and continue play.

Once a player has played all of cards and hands empty, he/she wins the game and the round is over. In order to rank the others, points are calculated based upon the remaining cards that are in the hands of other players.

Wild or Wild draw 4 cards: 50 points each.
Wild swap hands or wild customizable: 40 points each.
Draw 2, reverse, a skip card: 20 points each.
All numbered cards retain its face value.

Pro tips for beginners

Pay attention to your opponents

Make others gaining cards by all means! Always count the number of cards of your opponents. When a player has a lot of cards and but he still changes to a certain color, be careful! He is soon about to get rid of tons of cards. Similar, when your opponent has to keep drawing cards on a color, stick to the current color; don't let them get that chance!

Keep +2 and +4 for emergencies

Keep the blows until the right time! If you play them too early, you have nothing left in case of an emergency later. When you see players having two or fewer cards, it's for sure time to use these cards.

Avoid someone from going out

If some player is down to one card, you need to do whatever you can to stop him/her. Use action card like +2 or +4, reverse the play order, change the color, at all costs! Check also if people forget to say Uno when they have one. Make sure they get the sweet penalty they deserve.

Quickly get rid of matched numbers

For instance, if you have a yellow 4, a green 4, and a red 4, get rid of at least 2 of them. Do not make your hands heavy with repetitive cards.

Play series of similar color cards first

Select all the same color cards in your hand so that you prevent the next player from having a turn and playing them first. Use your draw 2 card, skip card, or reverse card in a row. You might lose your best friend by doing this, but it will increase your chances of winning anyway!