Looking for a specific UNO Elvis Presley rule? | Set Up | Playing the Game | Card Meanings | Winning a Hand | Winning the Game | Alternative Scoring | Two Player Game | Partners | FAQ | Components |
Objective
The objective of UNO Elvis Presley is to be the first player to score 500 points by getting rid of all of the cards from your hand before the other players.
Set Up
- All of the players randomly draw a card. The player that draws the highest number card becomes the dealer.
- The dealer shuffles all of the cards and deals seven cards facedown to each player. Players can look at their own cards, but they shouldn’t show them to the other players.
- Place the rest of the cards facedown on the table to create the Draw Pile. Turn over the top card from the Draw Pile to create the Discard Pile. Should you reveal an Action card, see the corresponding card’s section below to see what you do with it. If you turn over a Wild Draw Four or a Vegas card, you will return it to the deck and draw a new card.
- The player to the left of the dealer starts the game.
How to Play UNO Elvis Presley
On your turn you will try to play a card from your hand to the Discard Pile. To play a card to the Discard Pile it has to match the top card in one of three ways:
- Color
- Number
- Word
If you have a card that matches the top card on the Discard Pile, you can play it. If you play an Action card, you will take a special action. See the corresponding section below for details on what you do.
Should a player ever suggest a card that another player should play, the player who suggests it has to draw four cards.
After you play a card, your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order. Play order moves clockwise/left to start the game, but can change to counter-clockwise during the game.
Drawing a Card
If you do not have a card in your hand that you can play (none match the card on the top of the Discard Pile), you have to draw the top card from the Draw Pile.
If you can play the card you draw, you can play it immediately. Otherwise you will add the card to your hand.
Should you have a card in your hand at the beginning of your turn that you can play but you don’t want to play it, you can choose to keep it in your hand. In this case you will draw a card. The only card you can play for the rest of your turn is the card you just drew.
If the Draw Pile runs out of cards, shuffle the Discard Pile to form a new Draw Pile.
UNO Elvis Card Meanings
Numbers
Number cards have no special action. You can only play them if they match the color or the number of the top card on the Discard Pile.
Draw 2
The Draw 2 card forces the next player in turn order to draw two cards. They also lose their next turn.
You can play a Draw 2 on top of another Draw 2 or a card that matches its color. If you are forced to draw two cards due to a Draw 2 card being played against you, you cannot play your own Draw 2 card to pass the punishment onto the next player.
Should a player turn over a Draw 2 card to start the game, the player to the left of the dealer has to draw two cards and they lose their turn.
Reverse
When you play a Reverse card, the players will switch the direction of play. If play was moving clockwise/left, if will now move counter-clockwise/right. If it was moving counter-clockwise/right, it will now move clockwise/left.
You can play a Reverse card on top of another Reverse card or a card that matches its color.
Should a Reverse card be turned over to start the game, the dealer plays the first card and play moves counter-clockwise/right to start the game.
Skip
The Skip card makes the next player in turn order lose their turn.
You can play a Skip card on top of another Skip card, or a card that matches its color. If a Skip card is played against you, you cannot play your own Skip card to avoid the punishment.
If a Skip card is turned over to start the game, the player to the left of the dealer loses their turn. The player to their left starts the game.
Vegas
The Vegas card is unique to UNO Elvis Presley. The Vegas card can be played on top of another Vegas card, or a card that matches its color.
When you play the Vegas card the next player in turn order flips over the top card from the Draw Pile. The card they turn over determines what happens next.
Should the player flip over a number card, the player draws a number of cards equal to the number on the card. They will add all of these cards along with the card they flipped over to their hand. For example you flip over a five card. You will draw five cards and add them to your hand. You will also add the five card to your hand.
When you flip over an action card, you will have to draw ten cards and then follow a specific rule depending on what card was flipped over.
Skip: The player that flips over the Skip card, adds the Skip card to their hand. They also skip their turn. The next player in turn order adds the ten drawn cards to their hand. That player also loses their turn.
Reverse: When a Reverse card is flipped over, the player who played the Vegas card has to draw the ten cards. The player that flipped over the Reverse card adds it to their hand. You will also reverse turn order.
Draw 2, Wild, Wild Draw 4: When a player flips over one of these three cards, the player who flips it over has to draw ten cards in addition to the card (Draw 2, Wild, Wild Draw 4) that they flipped over.
Wild
Wild cards match any other card in the game. Therefore you can play them at any time even if you have another card in your hand that you can play. When you play a Wild card, you will choose the color for the Discard Pile. You can choose any of the four colors including the color it was when you played the card.
If a Wild card is turned up to start the game, the player to the left of the dealer chooses the color for the Discard Pile. They will then take their turn normally.
Wild Draw 4
The Wild Draw 4 matches all of the cards in the game so you can play it on top of any other card. There is a catch though. You may only play a Wild Draw 4 card if you have no other cards in your hand that match the color of the top card on the Discard Pile. The rules do not say whether Wild cards are considered matches in this scenario.
When you play a Wild Draw 4, the next player in turn order has to draw four cards and they lose their turn. The player who plays the card also gets to choose the color for the Discard Pile. The color they choose has no impact on any potential challenge.
Challenging a Wild Draw 4
If the next player thinks the Wild Draw 4 was played incorrectly, they can challenge the play of the card.
The player that played the card has to show the challenger all of the cards in their hand. The challenger is looking to see if there is a card in the player’s hand that matches the color of the Discard Pile from before they played the Wild Draw 4.
If the player played the card correctly (they had no cards that matched the color), the challenger has to draw six cards.
If the player played the card incorrectly (there was a card that matched the color), the player who played the Wild Draw 4 has to draw the four cards. The challenger does not have to draw any cards, and they don’t lose their turn.
Calling UNO
Once you play the second to last card from your hand (you only have one card left in your hand), you must call out UNO Elvis. This is to alert the other players that you only have one card left and are close to winning the game.
If you do not say UNO Elvis and another player catches you, you have to draw five cards from the Draw Pile. The players have to catch you before the next player starts their turn. A player starts their turn when they start to play a card, or they draw a card from the Draw Pile.
Winning a Hand
The first player to play their last card wins the hand. If the last card they play is a Draw 2 or a Wild Draw 4, the next player in turn order still has to draw the corresponding number of cards.
The winner of the hand then takes all of the cards left in the other players’ hands. They will score points for each card they collect as follows:
- Number cards – face value
- Draw 2, Reverse, Skip – 20 points each
- Wild, Wild Draw 4 – 50 points each
- Vegas – Count up the number of cards you collected and multiply it by ten.
The winner writes down their score on a piece of paper. If the player has not scored a total of 500 or more points in the game, another hand is played.
Winning the Game
The first player to score 500 or more points wins the game.
Alternative Scoring
An alternative way of playing UNO Elvis Presley is to have each player score points for the cards left in their own hand at the end of each round. You will score each card in the same way as above.
The game ends when one player has scored 500 or more points. The player who has scored the least points wins the game.
You may also use an additional variation when using the alternative scoring. If you choose to use these rules, whenever a player scores 500 points, they are eliminated from the game. You will keep playing until there are only two players left. The final two players play using the two player rules below. The last remaining player wins the game.
Two Player Game
The two player game is mostly the same as the normal game with a couple small changes.
If you play a Reverse card, it acts like a Skip card. When you play the Reverse card, it becomes your turn again.
Whenever you play a Skip card, you immediately take another turn.
Draw 2 and Wild Draw 4 cards force the other player to draw the corresponding number of cards. The player that played the card then takes another turn.
The Vegas card works a little differently when a Skip or Reverse card is flipped over. The player that plays the Vegas card has to draw the ten cards while the other player only adds the Skip/Reverse card to their hand.
Playing the Partners Game
If there are four players you can choose to play with another player as your teammate. The teams will alternate positions around the table.
Each hand ends when one of the players plays the last card from their hand. The winning team collects all of the cards left in the other team’s hands. They will score points for all of the cards.
You may also choose to play the partners game where you play four hands with each other player as your partner. You will play a total of twelve hands. Each player keeps track of the points they score throughout the game. The player that scores the most points wins the game.
If there are eight players, you will use the rules in the previous paragraph except that you will play two games at the same time. Four people will play in each game. Each player will play a total of 28 hands.
UNO Elvis Presley FAQ
If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.
Components
- 19 Blue Cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
- 19 Green Cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
- 19 Red Cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
- 19 Yellow Cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
- 8 Draw 2 Cards (two of each color)
- 8 Reverse Cards (two of each color)
- 8 Skip Cards (two of each color)
- 4 Vegas Cards (one of each color)
- 4 Wild Cards
- 4 Wild Draw 4 Cards
- Instructions
Year: 2000 | Publisher: Mattel | Designer: Merle Robbins
Genres: Card, Family
Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-10 | Length of Game: 30-60 minutes
Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High
For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.