If no other method is agreed upon the players cut the deck and the player who cut the highest ranked suit card deals first. For other hands the dealership passes clockwise. In these rules the word clockwise is always with respect to a point of view facing downwards, so the second hand's dealer is the player to the left of the first hand's dealer. A hand begins with the dealer shuffling the entire deck and dealing eight cards, one at a time, to each player, including herself, beginning with the player to her left and proceeding clockwise. The remaining cards are placed faced down, to form the graveyard .
Some rules of play require that cards be placed on the graveyard during the course of the hand.
These cards are always placed face down. Cards placed on the graveyard never reenter play during a given hand. The cards dealt to each player are called that player's hand . Each player may look at the cards in her hand whenever she wishes. No player is allowed to look at the cards in another player's hand unless the other player reveals them.