Setup
Typically, each deck can be played by 2 to 3 players. If there are more players, an extra card set is added for each additional player. For example, for 4 players, a deck (112 cards) and an extra card set (28 cards) is used.
For the first game, a dealer is chosen by an arbitrary method. A typical method is for everyone to draw randomly one card from a face down pile to compare ranks, with the highest rank being the dealer. For subsequent games, the winner of the previous game will be the dealer, and the player to the left of the winner will do the job of mixing the played cards to set up the draw pile.
The dealer is in charge of the cards getting shuffled and a hand of 20 cards dealt to each player. This is not as easy as it sounds; the cards can't really be riffle-shuffled and have a tendency to fly out of the hand when attempting to overhand shuffle. In general, the cards from the previous game are all rearranged in the center, moved around a bit, and face-up cards are turned over a la mahjong. Special care must be taken so that no card gets bent during the process. The dealer then collects all cards into a nice little stack, does a few overhand cuts, then metes out the hands in packets of 5. Alternatively, the dealer gives himself 6 cards on the first packet, so that he can discard the first card to start the game.
The rest of the cards are called the Draw Pile, and is placed in a central location, usually fanned a bit to the side instead of stacked neatly. Future draws are always taken from one end of the Draw Pile.
A player holds their cards in a fan. Inexperienced players are usually discouraged from the difficulty of holding the long and slim cards, but sometimes they are allowed to put their cards face down on the ground. Some players take pre-existing melds that they do not plan to touch and put them in one big facedown stack next to them.
Read more about this topic: Four Color Cards