Can you hide your cards so other players can't see how many cards you have left? So if you don't remember to say UNO, others can't know if you had only one card left.
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19
The official rules of most games tell you what is allowed, and usually only tell you what isn't allowed when it seems that it would be possible otherwise.
For instance, there is no rule that says I can't add four cards to your hand whenever I feel like it. (feel free to add your own ridiculous rule here)
Should this be allowed because the rules don't specifically prohibit it? No! Of course not! The rules can't possibly list everything that's not allowed.
It's an important part of Uno that you can easily tell how many cards your opponents have so that they can be penalised for not calling "Uno" on their last card. The only way they can get out of this penalty is if the other players don't say anything about this before they can play their last card.
So, no, while it isn't specifically prohibited, it's not legal to hide your cards to gain an unfair advantage.
Of course, if you have a house rule that says you can do this (and all the players have agreed before the game began), it is allowed. However, you're not truly playing Uno anymore, just a game that's very similar to Uno.
CJ Dennis
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2"It's an important part of Uno that you can easily tell how many cards your opponents have so that they can be penalised for not calling "Uno" on their last card." Technically that only makes it relevant to correctly show whenever there's 1 or 0 cards left. The difference between 3 and 8 cards is quite irrelevant in this context, no? – Mast Mar 02 '20 at 09:38
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1@Mast How do you know if they have 3 cards or 1 card if they're hiding their hand? – CJ Dennis Mar 02 '20 at 09:49
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1@CJDennis How about hiding part of the hand? It's possible to make 6 cards look like 3. – Mast Mar 02 '20 at 09:52
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The question in the title is slightly different from the question in the body. – Mast Mar 02 '20 at 09:53
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@Mast It really doesn't matter. My answer has covered my position and is highly upvoted. The basic question is "is dishonesty allowed" to avoid the penalty of having to pick up if you don't say "Uno" on your final card. The rules are clear that this is not allowed. It's only the lack of attention of the other players (or their deliberately turning a blind eye) that allows you to win without saying "Uno". Trying to deliberately deceive them is against the rules. – CJ Dennis Mar 02 '20 at 09:58
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Absolutely, the question seems to be about "if you don't remember to say UNO, others can't know if you had only one card left.", which is indeed illegal. – Mast Mar 02 '20 at 10:01
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To be fair most people don't play uno, just a game similar to it, since Uno has some common house rules people tend to assume are actual rules, much like how monopoly works. – Andrew Mar 02 '20 at 20:05
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@Andrew The last game of "Monopoly" I played was actually "Jane Wins". "Jane" made up rules to suit her during the game and no-one stopped her! – CJ Dennis Mar 02 '20 at 20:10
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"... is indeed illegal" It is not illegal. Actually the rules state it clearly: "If the player is not caught in time [...] no penalty applies to that player". If you want to catch a player, you can count their cards. How I hold my cards is not subject to any rule. – Luke Skywalker Aug 19 '23 at 05:57
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@LukeSkywalker How can you count a player's cards if it's legal for them to hide them or otherwise prevent the number of cards in their hand from being known to the other players? – CJ Dennis Aug 23 '23 at 02:26
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@CJDennis I don't understand the question. When you play Uno, all the cards the player puts down or takes are visible. It's up to you to count. That's how it works on many types of card games. The way a player holds their game is not relevant. – Luke Skywalker Aug 23 '23 at 15:33
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@LukeSkywalker I see no rule that says all other players must monitor how many cards another player picks up and puts down. It's perfectly legal for a player to only pretend to pick up cards as long as the other players don't catch them. – CJ Dennis Aug 24 '23 at 01:08
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It's absolutely illegal and specified in the rules. – Luke Skywalker Aug 25 '23 at 19:21
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@LukeSkywalker Where does it say players aren't allowed to trick other players? – CJ Dennis Aug 28 '23 at 06:20
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While there is no rule stating that you can't hide your number of cards, it is definitely against the spirit of the game to attempt to bypass the rule that requires you to say "Uno".
Personally, if someone did this consistently against me I would stop playing the game with them.
Ken Herbert
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Well I wound't want to play a game with people making rules as they go. The spirit of the game is elusive and subject to interpretation. For example, the rules says that if you do not say "uno" on you last card and you are not caught, you don't get a penalty. This shows that the "spirit" of the game is to be playful with the uno rule. If the rule had said that "you get a penalty if you didn't says uno on you last card" then the spirit would indeed be what you say. In any case it's all subject to interpretation and thus should be treated with leniency. – Luke Skywalker Aug 19 '23 at 05:53
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This is not banned by the rules - and does not remove information from the game
From the official rules: https://service.mattel.com/instruction_sheets/42001pr.pdf
There is no rule stating how a player must hold their hand. The only relevant section, is that you must declare UNO when you are down to 1 card, and that if you are caught - you must draw 4 cards.
As such, it is "legal" to hide the cards.
That said, most people play UNO with friends for fun. In such a setting, you would absolutely be breaking social norms - and I would be surprised if many people want to continue playing with you, as such behaviour would be considered against the spirit of the game by many.
However, the reason it does not matter from a game perspective - is hiding your cards does not change the game mechanics at all.
In UNO, players have enough knowledge at all times, to calculate the number of cards any other player is holding. There are no hidden cards, or cards that are not played to the center of the table, and likewise, all players start with 7 cards - as such, by following the cards that have been played, it is always possible to track the (number of) cards somebody must be holding.
As such, the game does not change at all by hiding your hand on a fundamental level - but as with any attempt to rules-lawyer in a game designed to be casual fun; you will very quickly gain ill-sentiment and people will simply stop playing with you.
Bilkokuya
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Actually hiding cards may change the game mechanics. After all, I play my game by stinging the person with the lowest cards regardless of whether or not they've called Uno. So hiding your cards may actually make you more of a target if players suspect you have less than you are holding. E.G you have six cards remaining but your hand covers three. I now suspect you have three cards and I'll most likely attempt to stop you from "winning". – GhastlyCode Mar 02 '20 at 16:45
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1@GhastlyCode Purely mechanically, you do not lose any information about how many cards a player has by not seeing them visibly; you would still be able to make the same decisions whether you visibly see the cards or have just memorized the number of cards being held (e.g. a blind player can play equally effectively as another, while only being informed of which cards are being played to the table). – Bilkokuya Mar 02 '20 at 17:07
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You can but it is, at best, pointless. People are just going to end up calling Uno on you all the time, only for you to show that you have more than 1 card left. There is a chance that people will get complacent if you do this all the time and forget to call Uno on you. There is a much greater chance that you will annoy people and they won't want to play with you anymore.
Kevin
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