Phase 10

What you need

Two to six players, each playing for themselves, and one Phase 10 deck of 108 cards. Phase 10 is a Mattel game. Kenneth Johnson published it in 1982, Fundex sold it for years, and Mattel bought it in 2010, so the box on the shelf today carries the Mattel name.

The deck has three kinds of card. Number cards run 1 to 12 in four colors, two of each, for 96 cards. Eight wild cards stand in for any number or any color. Four skip cards make another player miss a turn. The colors are the suits, and nothing else marks them. They change with the edition: the 2010 deck is red, blue, yellow and green, and newer decks print orange in place of blue.

The box also holds reference cards that list the ten phases, one for each player, and you want a pencil and paper for the running score. The sheet at the end of this page does that job. You play hand after hand, and the game ends when somebody completes the tenth phase.

The ten phases

A phase is a combination of cards: sets, runs, cards of one color, or sets and runs together. Everyone starts on phase 1 and chases the ten in order. You cannot work on two phases at once, and you cannot skip ahead.

Phase	What you lay down
1	Two sets of 3
2	One set of 3 and one run of 4
3	One set of 4 and one run of 4
4	One run of 7
5	One run of 8
6	One run of 9
7	Two sets of 4
8	Seven cards of one color
9	One set of 5 and one set of 2
10	One set of 5 and one set of 3

Three definitions carry the whole table. A set is two or more cards of the same number in any mix of colors. Three 7s and three 10s make phase 1, and so do three 10s and three more 10s. A run is four or more cards in numerical order, in any mix of colors: 3, 4, 5, 6 is a run of four. Cards of one color are what they sound like, seven cards of the same color in any order.

What you lay down counts only for the phase you are on. A run of nine cards laid down while you are on phase 4 is a run of 7 with two extra cards. It does not clear phases 5 or 6 for you.

The deal

Pick a dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals ten cards, one at a time and face down, to each player. The rest of the deck goes face down in the middle as the draw pile, and its top card is turned face up beside it to start the discard pile. If that first card is a wild, the first player may take it. If it is a skip, the first player sits out the first turn.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first and play moves clockwise. After each hand the deal passes to the left.

The turn

Every turn has the same four steps, and the middle two happen only when you can.

1. Draw one card: the top card of the draw pile or the top card of the discard pile. A skip on the discard pile stays there.
2. Lay down your phase, if the whole thing is in your hand. Once per hand.
3. Hit, if your phase is already on the table: add cards to any phase that will take them.
4. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile. That ends your turn.

Laying down a phase

You need the whole phase in your hand before any of it goes down, and you lay it down face up before you discard. You may put down more than the minimum, but only cards that fit directly onto the phase itself. Say you hold three 5s, three 7s and two more 5s: all eight go down together as phase 1, a set of five 5s and a set of three 7s. Say instead you hold three 6s, three 8s and three 10s. The 6s and 8s go down, and the 10s stay in your hand, because phase 1 is exactly two sets.

You get credit for a phase the moment it is on the table. You do not need to win the hand, and in most hands several players finish their phase. One phase per hand is the limit, so once yours is down the rest of the hand is about emptying your hand.

Hitting

Hitting is how you empty it. Once your own phase is down, you may add cards from your hand to any phase on the table, yours or another player's, as long as each card fits. One more 4 goes on a set of 4s. A 2 goes on the front of a run of 3, 4, 5, 6, and a 7 and an 8 go on the back. A green card goes on seven green cards. A wild goes on any of them. You hit only on your own turn, with as many cards as will fit, and a player whose phase is not down cannot hit at all.

The wild card

A wild is any number or any color you need. A 3, a 4 and a 6 become a run of four with a wild as the 5, and six green cards and a wild make phase 8. You may use as many wilds in a phase as you like, provided one card in it is a real card. Once a wild is down it is that card for the rest of the hand. Nobody swaps it out for the real one and uses it elsewhere. A wild can be taken from the discard pile like any number card.

The skip card

A skip does one thing: it makes another player miss a turn. On your turn, discard the skip in place of your usual discard and name the player who sits out. Playing it ends your turn. You may play a skip the turn you draw it or hold it for later. Three limits apply. A skip never counts toward a phase, a skip is never picked up from the discard pile, and you may skip each player once per trip around the table. The skipped player does nothing on that turn, and play moves on.

Finishing a hand and moving on

After your phase is down, you want to go out: empty your hand through hits and discards. The first player to do it ends the hand for everyone and wins it. Then the table sorts itself. Every player whose phase is on the table, the winner included, moves to the next phase. Every player whose phase is still in hand stays on it and tries again next hand. Two hands in, one table might hold a player on phase 3, two on phase 2 and one still on phase 1. That is the game working as intended.

Each player counts the cards left in their hand and writes the points down. The cards are gathered, the deck is shuffled, and the player to the left of the old dealer deals the next hand.

Between hands: shuffling 108 cards

Card sizes and finishes are covered in what cards work with a card shuffler.

How to use Lotus for Phase 10

The whole Phase 10 deck, 108 cards, goes through a Lotus card shuffler as one load. The dealer for the next hand shuffles between hands.

At the table	With Lotus
The pack	108 Phase 10 cards: 96 number cards, 8 wilds and 4 skips.
Loads	One. Phase 10 cards are poker-size stock, and the 108-card deck loads whole, the same way a canasta pack does. A second sensor inside reads how many cards are loaded, so there is nothing to select.
Who shuffles	The dealer for the next hand. One touch on the sensor on top starts each pass. No buttons, nothing to grip.
When	After each player has counted the cards left in hand and the scores are written down.
Passes	Drop the squared deck into the center tray and touch the sensor. Lotus deals the cards into two piles. Stack one pile on the other, and that is one pass. A pass takes about five seconds. Run several passes. A finished hand comes back as laid-down phases: sets of one number, runs in order, seven cards of one color. The passes are what break them up.
The discard pile	It goes back in with everything else. Gather the laid-down phases, the discard pile, the draw pile and every hand, face down, into one deck.
The deal moves	To the left after each hand. Lotus runs on a 9V battery with no cord, so it slides along to the next dealer.

Another boxed deck: Skip-Bo. Every game is in the game table.

Scoring

Scores are points against you. The winner of the hand scores zero, and everyone else adds up the cards still in their hand. Cards on the table cost nothing.

Card values, for cards left in hand

Card	Points
1 to 9	5
10, 11, 12	10
Skip	15
Wild	25

The totals carry from hand to hand, and they decide only the finish. The first player to complete phase 10 at the end of a hand wins the game. If two or more players complete phase 10 in the same hand, the lowest total wins. If they are tied on points as well, those players replay phase 10, and the first to go out takes the game.

A worked hand. Four players, first hand. Priya lays down phase 1 and goes out, so she scores zero. Marcus laid his phase down two turns earlier and is caught holding a 3 and a 12: 5 and 10, so 15. Kwame laid his down on the turn before Priya went out and holds a wild and a 2: 25 and 5, so 30. Dana never made her phase and still holds ten cards: a 1, two 4s, a 7, an 8, a 9, a 10, a 12, a skip and a wild. Six cards from 1 to 9 are 30, the 10 and the 12 are 20, the skip is 15 and the wild is 25: 90. The sheet reads Priya 0, Marcus 15, Kwame 30, Dana 90. Priya, Marcus and Kwame move to phase 2. Dana tries phase 1 again.

How other tables play

Mattel's own sheet changed the skip card between editions, and the Masters Edition changes the order of the phases, so settle these before the first deal.

Rule	This page	Other tables play
Naming the skipped player	Discard the skip to the pile and name the player	The skip goes face up in front of the player, who returns it to the pile on the turn they lose
Skips on one player	One per player per trip around the table	None while a skip already sits in front of them
Phase order	1 to 10, in order	Masters Edition: pick any phase you have not yet made, hand by hand
A save pile	None	Masters Edition: once a hand, discard into a private pile, and later draw from it instead of the stock
Game length	Until someone completes phase 10	Ten hands with everyone advancing each hand, lowest total wins; or an agreed target of five or seven phases; or the even phases only
The phase list	Mattel's ten	A house list, such as runs of 6 through 9 before the sets, or ten more phases after the tenth
Wild cards	Eight wilds at 25 points each	One wild marked super wild counts as two wilds and 50 points

Rules as recorded by pagat.com, Commercial Card Games: Phase 10, the Mattel instruction sheet it links, and pagat.com, Phase 10 Variations.

Common questions

How many cards are dealt in Phase 10?

Ten to each player, from a deck of 108, for two to six players. The rest is the draw pile, with its top card turned up to start the discard pile.

What are the 10 phases in Phase 10?

In order: two sets of 3; a set of 3 and a run of 4; a set of 4 and a run of 4; a run of 7; a run of 8; a run of 9; two sets of 4; seven cards of one color; a set of 5 and a set of 2; a set of 5 and a set of 3.

Can you skip a phase in Phase 10?

No. The phases are made in order from 1 to 10, and a player who fails a phase tries the same one again next hand. The Masters Edition is the exception: there you choose which unfinished phase to attempt each hand.

What is a wild worth in Phase 10?

25 points against you if it is still in your hand when someone goes out, the most of any card. A skip is 15, a 10, 11 or 12 is 10, and a 1 through 9 is 5. A wild on the table in a phase costs nothing.

How do you win Phase 10?

Be the first to complete phase 10 at the end of a hand. If two or more players complete it in the same hand, the lowest running total wins. A tie on points sends those players back to replay phase 10, and the first to go out wins.

Score sheet

Phase 10 scores each player on their own, up to six at the table, so this page carries a printed sheet instead of the two-team keeper on the canasta and pinochle pages. The sheet has a row for each player and a column for each of twelve hands. In every cell you write the phase that player is on and the points they took, and the last column keeps the running total. The card values and the ten phases are printed on the sheet, so the box can stay closed.

Print the score sheet

Print this page and the sheet is what comes out, one landscape page.