How to Play Shanghai (Contract Rummy)

The complete rules of Shanghai, also called contract rummy: the seven contracts, sets and runs, jokers, buying the discard, and how scoring works. Written plainly, with pictures.

Shanghai in one paragraph

Shanghai — you may know it as contract rummy — is played over seven rounds. Each round names a contract: the combination you must lay down before you can play any other card. You draw one card and throw one card away on each turn. The first person to get rid of every card ends the round, and everybody else adds up what is left in their hand as penalty points. After seven rounds, the lowest total wins.

Sets and runs

There are only two things you can build.

Nine of heartsNine of spadesNine of clubs
A set — three of the same number, any suits.

A set is three or more cards of the same number. Suits do not matter.

Five of clubsSix of clubsSeven of clubsEight of clubs
A run — four or more in a row, all one suit.

A run is four or more cards in sequence, all in the same suit. The ace is low: A-2-3-4 is a run, and Q-K-A is not.

The seven contracts

The seven rounds. Each one asks for something harder than the last.
RoundYou must lay downCards dealt
12 sets11
21 set + 1 run11
32 runs11
43 sets12
52 sets + 1 run12
61 set + 2 runs13
73 runs13

You cannot lay anything down until you can lay down the whole contract at once. Until then you draw and throw, and you wait.

A turn

  1. Take a card

    Either the top of the face-down pile, or the card the last player threw away.

  2. Lay down, if you can

    If your hand contains this round's contract, put it on the table. Once you are down you can also add single cards to anything already on the table — yours or anyone else's.

  3. Throw one away

    Every turn ends with one card going onto the discard pile.

Jokers

Jokers stand in for any card. Two rules keep them honest: a combination can never contain more jokers than real cards, and a joker is worth 20 penalty points if you are caught holding one at the end of a round. They are powerful and they are dangerous.

Buying the card that was thrown away

This is the part that makes Shanghai Shanghai. When somebody throws a card away, you can ask to buy it — even when it is not your turn. If more than one person wants it, the person closest to playing next gets it. Buying costs you the card you wanted plus one extra card off the pile, so your hand grows by two. You get a limited number of buys for the whole game, so spending one is a real decision.

Scoring

When somebody goes out, everyone else counts the cards still in their hand:

  • Ace — 1 point
  • 2 to 10 — face value
  • Jack, queen, king — 10 points
  • Joker — 20 points

Those points are against you. Lowest total after seven rounds wins, which catches people out: the person at the top of the scoreboard is the one with the fewest points.

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