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Shanghai Rum

Shanghai rum is a card game, based on gin rummy, that 3 to 8 players can play. It is also known as shanghai rummy or contract rummy.

Play

Basics

Shanghai rum is played with multiple decks of 54 standard playing cards, including the Joker (playing card) Wilds. Aces can be high (above a King) or low (valued as a 1), and Jokers are wild. The number of decks varies from 2 to 4, and is based on the number of players (see chart). Each game is based on 10 hands, and the rules for each hand are unique. One person begins as dealer for the first hand, and then the person to the dealer's left becomes dealer for the next hand, and so on. Each player is dealt eleven cards. The rest of the deck is then placed face down in the middle of the players; this is referred to as the stock. One card is taken from the top of the stock and placed face up next to it. This card is called the upcard and becomes the beginning of the discard pile.
The first player to play is the player to the dealer's left. Play always progresses in this clockwise direction. Each player has a choice at the beginning of their turn. They can either pick up one new card from the top of the stock, or they can take the upcard. Also, the other players in the game have the ability to buy the upcard (see "Buying"). After the player draws his card, either from the stock or the upcard, he must then choose any card in his hand to discard, and he then places this card face up on the discard pile. That card then becomes the new upcard, which the next player in turn can take or other players can buy.

Buying

To buy a card, a player says "Buy it," and they take the upcard plus one new card from the top of the stock, which serves as the cost for buying the card. Thus, each time a player buys a card, they end up with two additional cards in their hand. A player is limited to how many buys he can have during a hand (see chart). If multiple players want to buy the same card, the person seated in closest order to the left of the current player gets priority. The current player cannot buy a card. However, the current player has precedence over the other players, so he can take the upcard even if other players want to buy it. If a card is bought, the discard pile becomes "dead" and the current player cannot take the next card in the discard pile until a new card is discarded. Similarly, other players cannot continue buying the other cards in the discard pile.

Melding

The object of each hand is to come up with the correct combination of cards to be able to melds, or "lay out". The combination for each hand is different (see chart), and they become more difficult with each subsequent hand. In some hands (7 through 10), the number of cards required to meld is greater than the number of cards a player is dealt, so the player must buy cards before he can meld. The combinations for each hand are either sets or runs or a combination of both. A set is a combination of a specific number of cards of the same rank, and the suit is not important. An example of a "set of 3" is three cards that are all 8's, and the 8's can all be of different suits. A run is a combination of a specific number of cards of the same suit that have consecutive ranks. An example of a "run of 3" is the 2 of clubs, 3 of clubs, and the 4 of clubs. An example of a combination for a hand is for hand #2, "1 set of 3 and 1 run of 4." This means that a player must have both a set of 3 cards and a run of 4 cards in his hand before he can meld. The cards in the set and the run must be unique, meaning that you can't use the same card in both the set and the run. Joker's are wild and can be used in place of any card. There is a limitation to how many Joker's a player can use in forming each set or run (see chart).

A player can meld only when it is his turn. As always, he must start his hand by drawing a card, then when he has the correct sequence of cards, he can meld or "go down." He does so by laying his meld cards face up on the table in their correct sequence. He can only lay out his meld cards and no additional cards. After melding, a player must then discard. If the player has no more cards in his hand after melding, he is declared the winner. Usually, however, the player still has cards in his hand, and play continues.

Play for the player who has gone down

When a player is "down" (meaning he has already melded), he still takes his turn in turn with the other players, and he still must draw a card and discard. However, a player who is down cannot buy a card, nor can he stop a player from buying the upcard when it is his turn. A player who is down can play his cards on the melds that have been completed either by himself or by other players. For example, if a player has lain down a set of 3 8's, and on a subsequent turn he then draws another 8, he can play this 8 on his set of 8's. He does this by placing the 8 with the set of 8's. If he has a card that he would like to play on a run, he must be sure to keep the order of the run. For example, if there is a run of 5 consisting of 4-5-6-7-8 of clubs, the player can play a 3 of clubs or a 9 of clubs. If a run has a Joker (as a wild card) in it, the player can replace the Joker with the appropriate card, and then move the Joker to one of the ends of the run. For example, if the run had 5-6-Joker-8-9 of clubs and he had a 7 of clubs, he could replace the Joker with the 7 of clubs, then move to Joker either before the 5 or after the 9. Unlike the limitation of the number of Jokers in the original meld, there is no limitation as to how many Jokers can be put into a hand that's already down.

A player cannot go down and play the additional cards in his hand on the same turn. When he goes down, he must wait until his next turn before playing the cards in his hand.

Winning the game

Play progresses until one of the players "goes out," meaning he is able to discard the last card in his hand. That player is then the winner of that hand, and the hand is then over. The winner for the hand gets zero points, and the other players count their cards to determine their score for the hand. You may also win by "going out blind". Going out blind is when you discard all of your cards in one turn. If you win by going out blind you get -25 or -50 (minus the value of the Joker).

After all ten hands are played, the winner is the player with the lowest score.

Sequence of Hands

Hand	Sequence
1	2 sets of 3
2	1 set of 3 and 1 run of 4
3	2 runs of 4
4	3 sets of 3
5	1 set of 3 and 1 run of 7
6	2 sets of 3 and 1 run of 5
7	3 runs of 4
8	1 set of 3 and 1 run of 10
9	3 sets of 3 and 1 run of 5
10	3 runs of 5

Rule charts

Number of decks required

• 2 decks: up to 4 people
• 3 decks: 5-6 people
• 4 decks: 7-8 people

can increase the number of decks beyond 4 to allow more than 8 players

Number of buys allowed

• 3 buys in hands 1-8
• 4 buys in hands 9 and 10

Number of Joker cards allowed in a meld

• 1 Joker in a set (of 3) or run of 4
• 2 Jokers in a run of 5
• 3 Jokers in a run of 7
• 4 Jokers in a run of 10

Points
Card	Points
2 to 10	5 points
King, Queen, Jack	10 points
Ace	20 points
Joker	25 points (or 50 depending on how vicious the game is)

Rules to play Shanghai with the Rook card game

Shanghai can also be played with the regular Rook card game.

The Rook cards are the Jokers.(which are wild cards)

The 1 card is the Ace.

The 1 card can be used as the high card above the 14 card or as the low card below the 2 card.

The other numbers are played just in order of high to low cards.

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