Shanghai Rummy Rules

What you need

• Two standard 52-card decks plus four jokers, 108 cards in all
• Pencil and paper, or the free score keeper

Players and time

3 to 5 players. About 60 to 90 minutes for all seven hands.

The goal

Shanghai Rummy is a contract rummy game played over seven hands. Each hand has its own contract, a combination of sets and runs you must lay down before you do anything else.

Going out scores nothing. Everyone else scores penalty points for the cards left in their hands. After seven hands, the player with the lowest total wins.

Setup

1. Deal 11 cards to each player, one at a time and face down.
2. Put the rest of the cards face down as the stock, and turn the top card over to start the discard pile.
3. The contract for the hand is fixed by the hand number (see the list below). Play all seven hands in order.
4. A set is three or more cards of the same rank. A run is four or more consecutive cards of the same suit. Aces are high only in a run, so Q-K-A is a run and A-2-3-4 is not.

A turn

1. On your turn, draw the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile.
2. If you have not yet laid down your contract and you hold it, you may lay it down. You must lay down the contract exactly, in one go. Until you have done so, you may not lay down anything else or add cards to other melds.
3. Once your contract is down, you may add cards to any meld on the table: your own, or another player's. In Shanghai you can do this in the same turn you laid your contract down, and in later turns.
4. End your turn by discarding one card face up. The hand ends when a player has no cards left. The other players then count the cards in their hands.
5. In the seventh hand you do not discard. You have to lay down all your cards in a single turn, and the hand ends at once.
6. Between hands, shuffle all the cards and deal 11 again. The deal passes to the left.

Special cards and combinations

The seven contracts

Hand 1: two sets. Hand 2: one set and one run. Hand 3: two runs. Hand 4: three sets. Hand 5: two sets and one run. Hand 6: one set and two runs. Hand 7: three runs, with no discard. When you lay down a contract, a set needs three cards and a run needs four.

Hand 7: three runs and no discard

You hold 11 cards and draw one, which is 12, exactly three runs of four. You must lay out all your cards in one turn and you may not discard. Cards you picked up from buying make the runs longer.

Melding rules

You cannot lay down two sets of the same rank in your contract, so six 8s are one set, not two. You cannot lay down two runs of the same suit that follow each other, such as 6-7-8-9 and 10-J-Q-K, as part of your contract. A run can become consecutive later when cards are added to it.

Jokers

A joker stands in for any missing card. A set or run may contain at most one joker. A player may lay down several jokers as long as they are in different melds.

"May I?" (buying)

When someone else discards, you may call "May I?" and take that discard out of turn. You also take the top two cards of the stock. Each player may do this at most twice in a hand. If two players want the same card, the one whose turn comes sooner gets it. Play then returns to the player whose turn you interrupted.

"Shanghai"

If you discard a card that fits a meld on the table, you may call "Shanghai" as you discard it. This stops the next player taking it. If you discard a fitting card without calling it, any other player, even one who has not laid down a contract, may call "Shanghai", add the card to a meld, and draw one card from the discarder's hand. A Shanghai call beats a "May I?" for that discard.

Scoring

The player who goes out scores 0 for the hand. Every other player adds up the cards left in their hand and scores that total. Keep a running total over all seven hands.

Cards 2 to 7 count a flat 5 points each, not their face value. The values below are Pagat's, and The Rummy Rulebook lists the same ones.

Keep score with the Shanghai Rummy score keeper

How to win

After the seventh hand, the player with the lowest total score wins.

The sources do not say how to break a tie. Agree beforehand, for example by playing one more hand.

Common house rules

These are house rules. They are not part of the official rules, so agree on them before you start.

Ten-hand version (variation) House rule

Pagat lists a ten-hand variation. Its contracts are two sets of 3; a set of 3 and a run of 4; two runs of 4; three sets of 3; a set of 3 and a run of 7; two sets of 3 and a run of 5; three runs of 4; a set of 3 and a run of 10; three sets of 3 and a run of 5; and three runs of 5. The score keeper is built for the seven-hand game.

Different buying limits (variation) House rule

The two buys per hand come from Pagat. Other versions allow three buys per hand, and some allow only one extra card per buy. Agree on your buy limit and how many stock cards you take before you start.

No discard when going out in any hand (variation) House rule

One variation on Pagat says that when you go out you may never discard: all your cards must be played on the table.

No Shanghai call (variation) House rule

The Shanghai call is skipped in some versions. Agree whether it is in play before you start.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Pagat: Contract Rummy, Shanghai Rummy section (The seven contracts, decks, 11-card deal, melding rules, jokers, "May I?", the Shanghai call, card values and the lowest-total winner.)
• The Rummy Rulebook: Shanghai Rummy (Cross-check of the seven-hand list, the Shanghai call, melding rules and the penalty values.)