The world still thanks America for its gifts from the 70s. And one of the most remarkable among them is UNO, a card game that has redefined “fun” at all gatherings. It is played with a deck of cards, including number cards and special action cards.
At the start of the game, each player gets seven cards from the shuffled deck. The rest of the cards form the Draw pile, which is placed face down. Players aim to discard the cards in their hands. They may have to draw more cards from the Draw pile during the game.
How many cards do players have to draw throughout the game? And when do they have to draw the cards? Keep reading to learn more about UNO.
UNO Rules In A Nutshell
UNO’s popularity has reached such a height in five decades that you’ll find many spinoff versions of this shedding game. These include UNO Flip, UNO Attack, Uno Splash, and more!
Whether you play one of the spinoff UNO games or the classic version, you’ll need to follow a few common rules, including how it starts. Let’s consider the current version of the classic UNO game, released in 2018, with 112 cards in the deck.
UNO Cards List –
| Card Name | Card Color | No. of Cards | Points |
| Number (1-9) | Blue, Red, Yellow, Green | 72 (2 in each number, 18 in each color) | Face Value |
| Number (0) | Blue, Red, Yellow, Green | 4 (1 in each color) | 0 |
| Skip | Blue, Red, Yellow, Green | 8 (2 in each color) | 20 |
| Reverse | Blue, Red, Yellow, Green | 8 (2 in each color) | 20 |
| Draw 2 | Blue, Red, Yellow, Green | 8 (2 in each color) | 20 |
| Wild | Not Applicable | 4 | 50 |
| Wild Draw 4 | Not Applicable | 4 | 50 |
| Wild Shuffle Hands | Not Applicable | 1 | 40 |
| Customizable | Not Applicable | 3 | 40 |
But if you own a deck manufactured before 2018, you won’t find the last two. 2-10 players can play the game, and everyone aims to get rid of the cards they are dealt.
The player who manages to do it is the winner of the round. But before playing the last card, the player must shout, “UNO.” The game continues in rounds until one player scores 500. After each round, the score is the sum of points of the opponents’ cards.
Here’s a video that helps you understand how to play UNO.
How Many Cards Do You Get In UNO 2022?
The game of UNO begins with the dealer distributing seven cards to each player. The remaining cards are stacked up to form the Draw pile. This pile is placed in front of everyone with the cards facing down.
The last card from this pile is turned up and placed beside the Draw pile. This starts the Discard pile. The players have to play a card from their hand to match the color or number of the Discard pile.
They can play a number card, one of the Action cards, or a Wild card, except the Wild Draw 4 card. The last card can only be played if the player does not have a playable card.
Rules of Drawing Cards
What makes the game of UNO exciting is the rule of drawing cards. It makes it harder for players to achieve the aim of getting rid of the cards in hand.
You may have to draw according to the cards in your hand and in the Discard pile. You may also end up with more cards due to a Challenge.
a) Number of Cards You Get During Regular Gameplay
The cards you get while playing depend on your hand – and the Discard pile. The number of cards you draw is as follows –
- You may not have a playable card to match the Discarded card’s color/number. In that case, you must draw one card from the Draw pile.
- If the player before you plays the Draw 2 card, you need to add two cards from the Draw pile to your hand.
- If the player before you plays the Wild Draw 4 card, you will get four cards from the Draw pile.
You must note that the new version of UNO has Customizable cards, and the players decide the Action of this card. It can involve drawing any number of cards.
So if the player before you plays the Customized card, you will have to draw cards according to the pre-decided rule.
b) Number of Cards You Get While Playing
A player is allowed to play a Wild Draw 4 card only when they have no other playable card in hand. When this card is played, a suspicious opponent may challenge the player to show the cards in hand.
This is to prove that the player hasn’t played Draw Wild 4 wrongfully, i.e., they are not hiding a playable card. Clearly, either the Challenger or the Challenged is always wrong. And that player will have to draw cards as follows –
- If the Challenger is right, the Challenged player who played the Wild Draw 4 wrongfully must draw four cards.
- In the Challenger is wrong, i.e., the Challenged doesn’t actually have any other playable card, the Challenger must draw four cards, along with two extra cards as a penalty for throwing a wrong Challenge.
c) Number of Cards You Get for Not Saying UNO
When you have two cards left in your hand, you must say “UNO!” out loud while playing the second-last card. If you fail to do that, your opponents can Challenge you.
You’ll have to draw two cards from the Draw pile when other players catch you with only one card in hand without saying UNO.
Do you get 5 or 7 cards in UNO?
A game of UNO starts with seven cards dealt to each player. They may have to draw one card if they don’t have a playable hand – or two/four cards to respond to the last Discarded card. There is no provision for drawing five cards in the classic UNO game.
But UNO Flip’s Dark side has a Draw 5 card. If the player before you plays it, you’ll get five cards per UNO FLip rules. In UNO Attack Mega Hit, where a Draw card can be blocked with another Draw card, you may get five cards resulting from a Mega Hit stack.
b) Do you get 6 or 7 cards in UNO?
After starting a game of UNO with seven cards, the players don’t face any Action card that requires them to take six cards. It can only happen if you Challenge a player for playing Wild Draw 4 while holding other playable cards. If you are wrong, you’ll get six cards.
Another possible reason you may get six cards in UNO is if the player before you resorts to Stacking. They may try to block a Draw 4 card with a Draw 2 card, which means you’ll have to take a double hit. However, Stacking is strictly not allowed in UNO.
UNO rule
Tweet Source: UNO
Do you get 9 or 7 cards in UNO?
While players must always start UNO with seven cards, there’s only one situation where they may get nine cards instead. This is due to a Draw 2 card. If the first card turned up to start the Discard pile is Draw 2, the first player to the dealer’s left gets two more cards.
But the same rule doesn’t apply to Wild Draw 4, which is returned to the deck if turned first. Similarly, a player may get two extra cards during the first round if the opponent plays this card before them. In both these cases, the players start playing with nine cards.
Final Words
The classic version of UNO and the other spinoff games follow a few standard rules. And one universal rule is that all UNO games must start with seven cards given to each player – unless your luck doesn’t favor you and you have to draw more cards.