Phase 10

Phase 10 is a card game created by the American designer Kenneth Johnson in 1982, built on the mechanics of contract rummy and today published by Mattel after it acquired the license from Fundex Games in December 2010. It is typically played by two to six people using a specialized deck of number and special cards rather than a standard deck. Over the course of the game each player works through ten increasingly demanding combinations of sets and runs, called phases, playing one specific phase per hand in strict numerical order regardless of what other players are doing. A player who completes their phase for the hand may then get rid of remaining cards by discarding them onto phases already laid down by any player, a move known as hitting. The first player to complete all ten phases, and then to be the first to empty their hand once every phase is finished, wins the game.