How to Play Shanghai Rummy

Objective

In every round, collect the exact combination of books and runs the contract asks for, lay it down, then get rid of the rest of your cards. A book is three or more cards of the same rank, in any suits. A run is four or more cards of the same suit in order, such as the 6, 7, 8 and 9 of clubs.

When one player goes out, everyone else counts the cards left in their hand as penalty points. Scores add up over all seven rounds, and low score wins.

Setup

Shuffle the decks and jokers together. Pick a first dealer; the deal passes to the left each round. Deal eleven cards to each player, one at a time, in every round. Put the rest face down as the stock and turn the top card face up to start the discard pile.

Keep a score sheet, plus two coins per player to track buys. Every contract fits inside an eleven-card hand, climbing one card a round:

Round seven is the hardest. After your draw you hold twelve cards, and you must play all of them to the table on the turn you go down, so you go down and go out at the same time.

How to play

The player to the dealer’s left goes first. On your turn, you may take the top discard or draw from the stock. If you take the discard, it is simply your draw and nobody else can have it.

If you pass on the discard, other players may buy it before you draw from the stock. A player who buys takes the discard plus the top two cards of the stock as a penalty, and does not meld or discard until their own turn. If two people want to buy, the one who would play sooner wins it. Each player may buy only twice per round.

Once your contract is in your hand, you may go down by laying it face up on the table. A joker can stand in for any missing card, but no book or run may hold more than one joker. You may not use two books of the same rank, and two runs in the same suit may not join end to end, such as 6-7-8-9 and 10-J-Q-K.

After you go down, you may add cards to any meld on the table, yours or anyone else’s, on that same turn or later. You may not start new melds. Every turn ends with a discard, except in round seven. You go out when your last card is gone, either played to the table or discarded, and the round ends at once.

1. 1Take the top discard, or let others buy it and draw from the stock
2. 2Go down when your hand holds the round’s full contract
3. 3Once down, add cards to any meld on the table
4. 4Discard one card; go out when your hand is empty

Scoring

When a player goes out, that player scores zero for the round. Everyone else adds up the cards still in their hand, whether they went down or not, and adds the total to their score.

After round seven, the lowest total wins. Card values vary from table to table, and some groups count jokers as 25 and aces as 15, so settle the numbers before the first deal. If the stock runs out, shuffle the discard pile, except its top card, to make a new stock.

Variations

The Shanghai call: many tables add a rule that gives the game its name. If you discard a card that fits a meld on the table, you can call “Shanghai” to stop anyone taking it. If you forget, another player can call it, add your discard to the meld, and hand you a card from their own hand.

Ten-round Shanghai: some groups play ten contracts, adding longer runs such as a book of 3 with a run of 10. The later contracts need more cards than you are dealt, so those games allow more buys.

Contract Rummy and Liverpool Rummy: close relatives with the same seven-round shape, usually dealing ten cards in the early rounds and twelve in the later ones.

Tips from the table

Save your buys for cards you truly need. With only two per round, and two penalty cards each time, a careless buy leaves you holding extra points if someone goes out early.

Plan round seven from your first draw. Three runs of four use every card, so drop stray books and loose high cards early in the round.

Once you are down, dump high cards first. Aces and jokers cost the most if the round ends while they are still in your hand.

Frequently asked