by James Wallace Harris, 2/11/23
[Over the past two years over 37,600 people have visited this page. Evidently, I am not the only one who fondly remembers a card game they learned decades ago and wants to play again.]
We recently decided to play Shanghai when my sister came to visit. It’s a card game I first learned back in the 1960s. However, we couldn’t remember the exact rules so I looked them up on the internet. Several sites gave slightly different rules and they called the game Shanghai Rummy. As we played the game trying out different rules I decided to consolidate on one set of rules. I made a crib sheet to help remember the requirements of each hand (see below). My goal was to blend how we used to play with the rules published on the internet to maximize the fun and challenge of the game.
Each hand or round requires a different combination of cards to make a meld, and I noticed that the complexity of each combination was related to the number of cards required to complete the meld. The game gets harder with each new hand. I settled on the sequence of 10 hands (rounds) based on the rules at Wikipedia and Bar Games 101.
But our family had one last hand that I’m adding as a bonus round. It requires 17 cards to make the meld. With 11 cards dealt, and 6 cards acquired in three buys. This requires making a perfect hand, meaning you go out on all the other players before they can meld. It’s very hard but lots of fun. Because that hand required 17 cards to meld, I thought there should be a 16-card meld, so I created another bonus round. I just liked the symmetry of 12 hands of increasing complexity going from 6 cards in the meld to 17.
Here are the sites I consulted:
Players: 3-5 with 2 decks, 6-8 with 3 decks.
The Deal: 9-11 cards depending on the round. It can always be 11, but fewer card in the early rounds speeds up the whole game.
The Draw Deck: The undealt cards face down.
The Discard Pile: Start by flipping over the top card of the draw deck.
Melds: Composed of a combination of Sets/Books and Runs. A set/book is cards of the same value. Usually, it’s 3 cards. A run is a sequence of cards of the same suit. Usually, it’s 4 cards. Aces can be low or high. Jokers are wildcards. We called sets books when I was growing up, so our family uses the word book, but the internet has settled on set.
Buys: 0 to 3 depending on the round. A buy is a way to acquire cards out-of-turn. See below. Buying is very strategic to the game. Buying cards helps and hurts because they add two cards to your hand in a game where you are trying to get rid of cards. We always played by allowing 3 buys for every hand but limiting the buys in the early rounds makes the round more challenging and speeds up that hand. Be careful buying cards you don’t need, but sometimes strategy requires making a buy to get extra cards to have a discard.
Gameplay: Turns go clockwise. A player draws one card, either from the deck or the discard pile. They must discard one card. Before the next player takes a card, the other players have an opportunity to buy the discard. They must also take one card from the deck. This adds two cards to their hand, and they don’t discard a card while buying. After the buy, the gameplay returns to normal.
The goal is to gather the required meld and lay down. Then get rid of all the other cards in your hand. Generally, the first person to lay down will have extra cards and the gameplay will continue. As other players make their meld and lay down their cards, they can play their extra cards on any sets and runs currently on the table – but only before they discard. Players who have made their meld can lay down on melds only during their turn. Players who haven’t made their meld can’t play on the melds that have been laid down. Each meld can be from Ace to Ace only. Cards cannot be swapped in melds.
Players can not make more than the required number of sets and runs. However, you can make larger sets and runs. So instead of a 3-card set of 3 queens, you could have 5 queens. Or a run of 2-3-4-5-6-7 of the same suit.
Strategy: It’s easy to order your cards and know what you need for the rounds where you only make sets or runs. Rounds, where you make up both sets and runs, are very challenging. How you organize your hand and which cards you seek requires various strategies. How often you buy and when becomes strategic. Sometimes it’s fun to hold your cards until you can lay them all down going out on the other players.
Going Out: The player that can lay down all their cards and have an unplayable discard wins the hand. This rule varies. Some Shanghai rules say going out is when you have no discard. If this method is chosen, the bonus round won’t be perfect and others can still play. Decide ahead of time on which method of going out you prefer. We like requiring a discard.
All other players must add up the values of the cards in their hand and the total is added to their running score. The player with the lowest score wins the game.
Card Values: 2s through 9s = 5 points. 10s through Kings = 10 points. Aces = 15 points. Jokers = 20 points. Other scoring variations include numbered cards = 5, face cards = 10, aces = 20, and jokers = 50. That’s how we scored growing up, but it makes for some brutally large penalties.
Standard Game. To the best of my memory, this is how we used to play the game. To make the game slightly quicker to play nowadays we leave off the two easiest hands.
Expanded Game. I decided to expand the game so each round requires one more card in the meld. To be honest, none of my friends like to play this because it takes too long and it’s too hard to remember.
Speeding Up the Game: Playing all the hands listed can take 2-3 hours. You can speed up a game by skipping certain hands, especially the first two and the bonus rounds. However, the most complex hands are the most fun.
I have many fond memories of playing Shanghai growing up. Whenever our family visited my Aunt Let in Mississippi in the 1960s, we’d play Shanghai. After we grew up, my sister and I would play Shanghai with our cousins, Sonny and Eleanor, who often played it nightly with their kids, and visitors.
Shanghai is a great card game because it’s not just the luck of waiting for a specific card. Various strategies can be used. You try to arrange your hand so that drawing several different cards will improve your odds of winning.
In all my years of playing Shangai, I have only run into one other person that said their family played this game. If you’ve played Shanghai leave a comment. And if you have any problems with the rules or understanding the rules leave a comment. I hope they are clear and precise.
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 
Many an early evening during our dark Alaskan winters, were spent playing Shanghai next door at my Aunt’s and Uncle’s house (Jo and Jim Jaros). Usually at least 6 of my cousins and I crowded around a small table. Our Shanghai rules changed the number of decks utilized based on the number of individuals. We would play for hours. Now that we have aged, several cousins have asked if I remember all the rules. Quite a challenge for our Baby Boomer generation. I will share the information with the Family. I long to return to a life surrounded by relatives at a table playing cards.
Thanks
Sadly, all the relatives we played Shanghai with have died. I’ve only recently tried to get a new crowd of old friends to play.
I too miss playing with several generations of family.
I use to play this in the 70’s in HS. I still have the directions written down and come across them every once and awhile. Brings back a lot of good memories and the fun we use to have.
What are your rules? Everyone seems to play it slightly differently.
My wife’s family has played a variant of this game for decades. They call it Confusion. It uses two decks of cards and has slightly different parameters for the rounds. Lots of fun!
Wikipedia says it’s also called California.
We are new to this game and are loving it, thanks for the instructions.
Do you play Ace just as 1 when run with 2,3,4 and Ace after a king eg J,Q,K,A?
My family allowed both but some people say Aces are only after Kings. This game has many rule changes so I think every family decides differently.
I don’t recall who taught us this game but there we were taught that there are no jokers used and the two of clubs is the only wild card. In order to “buy” a card, the way we were taught was that the first person to say the exact phrase “I want” is the one who gets it, but the person who’s turn it is can refuse that and take it for themselves whether they need it or not 🙂 but they do have to take that card. In your rules, I don’t understand how you determine who gets to “buy” the card they want when two people want the same card and it’s not their turn, will you please elaborate? We always just used the phrase “I want”, but you use the word “buy” which seems to imply there might be some bidding that takes place for the card?
One question that recently came up was is it okay to draw a card from the discard pile when it is your turn and that card had previously been buried but was uncovered by the person to your right. What do you think?
We really like this game and our children who are 22 and 18 love playing it as well. It’s a nice change of pace from playing our favorite card game which is very fast paced … Nertz (sp?).
We use the order of play. Whoever is next can just take the discard, but anyone else can buy, but priority goes to whoever would be next in the turn. So if play 1 discards, player 2 could take the card, but if players 3 or 4 both say “Buy” player 3 would have priority.
Now, I do remember back in the 1960s or 1970s where we played by whoever said “Buy” first got the card.
What should happen when a player discards a card that could be played on a meld that is already on the table?
The next player can use it if they’ve already laid down. Sometimes that lets them win so it’s very important not to discard a card like that.
we use to play this, and if you had not gone out yet, and you discarded a card that was already down with another player, then people would shout out”Shanghai “ and you had to take two penalty cards. I can’t find anyone else who used to play this way
how fun to find a group who has a history of playing this game. It seems my family played a version of Shanghai Rummy. We never called it that, but our game has a lot of similarities to the game described here. There was a time when 3 generations of my family played together. Now we are down to 2 generations.
I learned how to play this from my grandmother. When she was in her 80’s she taught my kids and me this game. They loved it. This week I taught my 3 older grandkids how to play. They are looking forward to playing more!
When I was growing up, family members from all ages would play, even my grandmother in her eighties. Four generations. Sadly, all those family members have died and I can’t get my friends to play.
I was just teaching my son(18) and his friends last night how to play. This is my all time favorite game. My grandma taught me when I was a girl. When I was older I would get a phone call at 8:00pm, 9:00pm and sometimes later because they needed a 4th. I’m now 50 and all I played with have passed. Our rules are similar but of course different. My grandma was ruthless and loved talking smack, best memories ever.
For so many people this was a family game. I’m surprised by the number of hits I get a day on this page. Usually between 100 and 200. I assume that many of them remember playing Shanghai and want to start with a new generation.
In Shanghai, before a player lays down, does he or she have to knock? When I played this game in the 70’s we used to say “bells a’ringing instead. Great memories.
Our family had no such custom. I think extra flourishes and rules evolved in every family though.
can the game be played with two people
Yes. Two is fine.
My 96-year old neighbor taught us this game using the attached rules her mother typed up! I wish I could attach a picture of them, I consider it a treasure!
I’d love to see it!
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When my husband and I were newlyweds and money was tight, we spent endless hours playing Shanghai with friends. We had lots of laughs and as each round changed, we were never bored. We had many happy hours.
I belong to a social club that plays Shanghai Rummy and recently we have had confusion on what a Shanghai Rummy really is. Some say if you are on a hand that requires eight cards to meld and you have been dealt 11 cards. If you can play all 11 cards on yourself that makes it a Shanghai Rummy. Others say you can only play the number of cards that makes the meld. If that is true, then you would have to wait until round 11th or 12th round to be able to have a Shanghai. Can you clear up our confusion?
That’s sort of come up with my group. The trouble is there are no official rules. And every site on the internet has slightly different rules.
We play it this way. If the requirement is 2 books and 1 run, you can lay down the 2 books and 1 run with extra cards, but you can’t use extra cards to make a 3rd book or 2nd run.
Does that make sense?
Played this game my whole life in my southern-roots family. We would have multiple games going in different rooms of the house during the holidays. Now I play with my grown children and it is a crowd favorite. So interesting to read different rules from different families… I want to try your bonus rounds!
What rules do your family use?
We played a game called Liverpool multi decks of cards, 17 jokers, specifically hands, can’t remember the rest looking for any info possible. Loved the game but haven’t played in year#
My family used to play this all the time back in the 70’s and 80’s. It was so much fun. I also have trouble remember all the rules regarding wild cards and borrowing them, etc.I still have the rounds written by my Mother , now deceased, on a little scrap of paper from probably 50 years ago. I recently learned a slightly different version called “push” or “ push it” in which you either take the discard on your turn or “push it” along with an extra card to the next person in line. Some of the rounds are very hard, but it’s tons of fun. We still have some confusion about some of the rules though. I tried to google it but didn’t come up with anything. We might just have to make up our own rules.
It appears every family has its own rules. That’s fine if everyone accepts them. The main thing that defines Shanghai is the requirements change for each hand, with each round becoming a bit more difficult.
My family has spent countless hours playing what we know as Shanghai. Normally playing with groups of a dozen or more people at holidays. We have used up to eight decks of cards.(starting with 2 and adding a needed) We’d start off with meld 6…2 books… and play through meld 12…3 Runs. On last hand we would say no discard so you had to draw a card that fit into one of your runs. On this round we also opened up unlimited buys! Crazy to have so many people with full runs!! 3 buys max on all other rounds. We have played just aces high and aces high and low. Personally I like high and low… gives more in hand options and makes the ace worth the 15 points if caught in your hand. Jokers were wild as was the 2 of clubs. To buy, you’d be the first to say “I’ll by that” exact phrase and once you said it you have to take it… no mercy. Lol. “Shanghai” would be said when someone discarded a card that could pay on/in a meld on the table. The person calling out Shanghai gives one of their cards to the player that shanghai-ed. We also re-used the wilds on the table. You could only take them…*on your turn * if you had the card in which the wild stood for* you could lay your meld down on that turn. Fun family times!
Sounds like y’all went wild Shanghai. I think most families customize the rules. That’s why it’s hard to find a consensus on rules.
Do you allow jokers to replace cards in other player’s books? Or just their runs?
We just played an abbreviated version of the game, but after the last hand, two people had the same score. Would there be any considered tiebreakers or would you just have a shared victory?
That kind of decision is up to y’all. Every family customizes the game and makes their on rules for when undefined situations come up.
my grandmother always kicked my butt at this game.
when and where can you play a wild card? Can I use a wild card to make a book? Can I use my wild card in some other players run. A234wild card from another player?
We use wild cards to pay on our own cards and other players cards.
We used to play when I was a youngster in the 90s and 00s, spanning 3 generations at the card table. My mother was ruthless, typically holding out from putting down, unless she could go out and put down all the cards in her hand and discard a useless card. Made for quite the nerve-wracking experience, since our family would hold off on putting down so that others couldn’t lay off onto their melds, so she’d often go out and we’d be stuck with 100+ point hands. Our sister in-law would frequently “go out the back door” by scoring a high amount of points, our family chose 1000 points, personally. To this day, it’s still my favorite game amongst family, and we have a notebook with all our scores tallied over our games. Now that 2 of the 3 generations have all passed, it’s up to us 3rd generation to pass it along to the 4th.
As we aged, we wrote down all the rules and kept them archived, and I don’t mind sharing them here. Personally, we included penalties for poor play or lucky play:
11 cards are dealt to each player. If the dealer deals an exact hand to each player or is 1 card over, all players except the dealer are awarded 50 pts
You must put down all parts of the meld at once
Separate sets cannot be duplicates and separate runs cannot be consecutive
You can only lay off cards onto opponent’s melds after you have put down your meld
You cannot lay off wild cards onto an opponent’s meld, but you can replace wild cards on an existing opponent’s meld and place those wild cards onto your meld
Buying can only occur after a card is discarded (including the 1st card put into discard after dealing), and priority goes to the next player of that round, then on a first-called basis. Once a card is drawn, all cards in the discard pile are “dead” and cannot be bought
You cannot buy your own discarded card
If the draw pile is exhausted, reshuffle all but the topmost card of the discard pile into the deck. (Optional: If your draw exhausts the draw pile, you are awarded 15 points)
(Optional: If you renege on a buy, you are awarded 20 points)
(Optional: All players move onto the next round whether they put down or not)
Lowest point total after round 10 wins. Bonus rounds are to challenge the players
“Shoot the moon/Go out the back door” escalates with player count:
2 – 5: 1100 pts
6 – 8: 1350 pts
9 – 11: 1600 pts
Y’all are really into it. And you have much stricter rules than we did.
Do you allow jokers to replace cards in other player’s books? Or just their runs?
I’d still have all of PKD’s books.
However, Phil often wrote about androids and simulacra, so it would be poetic if there were copies of him.
It would be amusing to listen to have artificial Phil talk about real Phil. I think Dick would have chuckled at that.
Do you allow jokers to replace cards in other player’s sets (we call them books)? Or just their runs?
Sorry, I now get your question. I thought you were replying to another post.
We only used jokers for our own books and runs. At least that’s how I remember it. But I’ve notice that every family customizes the rules. There are no official rules for Shanghai.