How To Play UNO, Because You’ve Probably Been Playing It Wrong The Whole Time

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If you’re like me, you probably grew up playing UNO — and still play today. After all, it’s ageless, right?

You’ve probably had to “Draw Two” more times than you wanted to, and let’s not forget about the “Wild Draw Four” card.

Of course, there are also the fun moments. You get excited to blurt out “UNO!” when you only have one card remaining — knowing you just may win this thing.

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UNO’s Popularity

Though the game was invented in 1971, it didn’t really take off among the masses until 1978, when K-Mart started selling the game nationally. Since 1971, over 100 million UNO games have been sold, averaging about three million units sold per year, according to the “Game Inventor’s Guidebook.”

Wow. That’s a lot of Draw Twos and Draw Fours.

If you play UNO the way I do, and probably everyone else you know, you match a card in your hand to one that’s been discarded, based on the number or color, then follow what the card says, if applicable, like Draw Two.

Whoever gets rid of all their cards first wins … right?

a 10 year old gilr playing uno cards
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MORE: Uno unveils new game with rules for up to 16 players

In fact, some people say UNO is like Crazy Eights, wherein players need to get rid of the cards in their hand via the discard pile — and they do so through matching the suit or number of the previously discarded card.

With Crazy Eights, the winner is also the first person to get rid of all their cards and the players who still have cards score penalty points, like 50 points for an eight. Yep, the card games sound pretty similar to me!

But if you play UNO via the above method, you’re playing wrong … at least according to the official UNO instructions on Mattel’s website.

Young people play the game uno. They have cards in their hands. They are all friends and they are very cheerful.
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How To Score Correctly

The official UNO instructions include a scoring section. Apparently, you’re supposed to get points for all the cards your opponents are still holding, as follows in the “Scoring” section.

Here’s the breakdown of how much each card is actually worth according to Mattel’s website (and your UNO instructions, if you haven’t lost them as I have).

  • All number cards (0-9) – Face Value
  • Draw 2 – 20 Points
  • Reverse – 20 Points
  • Skip – 20 Points
  • Wild – 50 Points
  • Wild Draw 4 – 50 Points
  • Anniversary – 100 Points

The scoring section also states that the true winner is the first player to reach 500 points.

Check out the instructions below for a full explanation of how the scoring works.

image (1)
Mattel

So, assuming you play multiple rounds of UNO with your friends or family, you could rack up a ton of points.

This makes me wonder how many games all of us have actually lost instead of won since we were probably determining the winner incorrectly.

We’ll definitely be keeping this scoring method in mind during our next UNO match! And maybe you can teach your opponents a thing or two about the correct way to play UNO.

Curiosity, Tips & Advice
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About the Author
Natalia Lusinski
In addition to Simplemost, Natalia is an ongoing writer for Bustle (sex, dating, relationships, and money), HelloGiggles (pop culture and news), The Delite (feel-good stories), and Don’t Waste Your Money (yep, money issues!). You can also find her writing in the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune's RedEye, xoJane, Elite Daily, Scary Mommy, Elephant Journal, and Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies, among other publications. She has a Ph.D. in couch-surfing, having spent four years sleeping on over 200 L.A.-area love seats and sectionals, all in an effort to whittle down her student loan debt. She still loves couch-surfing in other cities, too (hint, hint).

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