Chicken Foot Strategy: 8 Tips for a Lower Score
Luck decides which tiles you're dealt, but your choices decide how many points you're stuck with at the end of a round. None of these tips require counting cards or doing math in your head. They're habits that pay off over ten rounds.
1. Play Your Heavy Tiles First
When you have a choice, play the tile with the most dots. Every dot still in your hand when someone goes out counts against you. A 9–8 is 17 points of risk; a 1–0 is one point. Shedding the heavy tiles early means that when a round ends suddenly, you're holding small change instead of big bills.
2. Never Get Stuck With the Double Blank
The 0–0 has no dots, yet it costs 50 points if it's in your hand at the end of a round. That's more than any other tile. Whenever there's an open blank on the table, play the 0–0 on it, even if a heavier tile also fits. And remember that playing it makes a chicken foot, which everyone then has to fill with blanks.
3. Hold a Double Until It Hurts Someone
Playing a double forces the next three tiles onto it. If an opponent has only one or two tiles left, a double can stop them cold: unless they happen to hold a matching toe, they draw instead of going out. That said, doubles are among the hardest tiles to place, because they only fit one number. Don't hold one so long that it ends up stuck in your hand.
4. Use the Chicken Foot to Set the Pace
A chicken foot you can fill yourself is a gift. If you hold the 5–5 and two other 5s, playing the 5–5 means you'll have toes to play on your next turns while others scramble or draw. Look at your hand before playing a double and ask: can I feed this foot?
5. Keep a Variety of Numbers
A hand full of 6s looks strong until every 6 is covered. Try to keep tiles with different numbers so you have more ways to match. When two tiles are equally heavy, play the one whose numbers you have the most of, and keep the one that gives you a number nobody else is showing.
6. Count the Numbers on the Table
In a double-nine set, each number appears on exactly ten tiles. If you can see eight 4s already on the table, there are only two left in all the hands and the chicken yard put together. An open 4 end is probably staying open, and a 4 in your hand will be hard to get rid of later. Play it while you can.
The table also tells you about the other players. When someone has to draw, they had nothing for any open end, and if a chicken foot was waiting, they have none of that number. If West draws while a 6 foot is open, West has no 6s, so leaving a 6 end open just before West's turn is a fine way to make them draw again.
7. Watch the Chicken Yard
When the chicken yard runs low, the round is likely to end blocked, with everyone holding tiles. In a blocked round the lowest hand does best, so the last few turns before the yard empties are the time to dump your heaviest tile, even if a lighter one would open a better spot.
8. Think a Turn Ahead
Before you play, glance at what the end will show after your tile is down. Playing a 3–7 on a 3 leaves a 7 open. If you hold another 7, you've just made yourself a spot for next turn. If the player after you is down to one tile, try not to open a number they might be holding.
Putting It Together
A simple order of priorities works well: play the 0–0 if you can, then a double if it blocks or helps you, then the heaviest tile that fits. The Normal computer players in our game follow roughly that recipe, so if you want to beat them, start with the tips above and add the counting from tip 6.
When you are ready for more, switch the computers to Hard in Settings. Hard players do the counting from tip 6 and notice who had to draw, and they try to leave ends the next player can't match. They still never see your tiles. To practice, tap Hint on your turn to see what a sensible player would do and why, or tap Why? next to a computer's move. After a round, Show All Hands shows what everyone was holding, and Replay This Deal lets you play the same tiles again to try a different plan.