Shanghai Rummy

The Shanghai Rummy game is based mainly on the gin rummy game. You can play it 3 to 8 players.

The Shanghai Rummy is played with between 2 to 4 decks of 54 cards each including 2 jokers in each deck.

The Aces are considered the highest cards right after the Kings and the Jokers. The game is played with 2 Decks of cards for up to 4 players, 3 decks of cards to 5-6 players and 4 decks for up to 7-8 players. The Shanghai Rummy is based on 10 rounds as the dealer is replaced in every round and moves on to the next player. Each round is unique. Each player is dealt 10 cards and the rest of the cards are lying in one deck facing down as the main deck pile. One card which is the first of the deck is revealed and is placed in the center of the table and it represents the discard pile.

The first player who starts to play is the one sitting left to the dealer. He begins his move by drawing a card from the deck pile or drawing the top card from the discard pile. Another option is buying a different card from the discard pile (not the last which was discarded). At the end of the move the player will have to discard a card to the discard pile, a card which becomes the last in the discard pile and the next player is allowed to take it.

In order to buy a card the player has to declare "buying", and then he takes 2 cards, one from the discard pile and one from the top of the deck pile, in this case that player has 2 extra cards and so in a multi player game, every player has a limitation on the number of buying he is allowed to do (3 buying for each player in rounds 1-9 and 4 buying at the 10th round).

The object of the Shanghai Rummy game is to create a good combination of cards in order to meld or to knock with arranged series. The combination of the card arrangement changes in each round and it gets more and more difficult as the game proceeds. In round 7-10 in order to meld the player needs a larger number of cards than the one he was dealt at the beginning of the game, this is why he will have to buy cards during the game.

The combination table in each round:

First Round – 2 sets of 3 cards.

Second Round – 1 Set of 3 cards and 1 run of 4 cards.

Third Round – 2 Runs of 4 Cards.

Fourth Round – 1 set of 3 cards and 1 run of 5 cards.

Fifth round – 3 sets of 3 cards.

Sixth round – 1 set of 3 cards and 1 run of 7 cards.

Seventh Round – 3 runs of 4 cards.

Eights' round – 1 set of 3 cards and 1 run of 10 cards.

Ninth round – 3 sets of 3 cards and 1 run of 5 cards.

Tenth round – 3 runs of 5 cards.

A player can meld only when it's his turn. The player must meld with the required combination for that round, after melding the player is allowed to add cards to other series of other players who melded. He will end his turn with discarding a card. After this if he has no cards left in his hand he is considered a winner. If he finished his cards without discarding he will have to draw one card either from the deck or from the discard pile and will considered a winner only when he finishes with discarding a card.

A player who melds keeps playing as usual, draws a card at the beginning of his turn and discards at the end of it. That same player is allowed to add any card to existing series which were melded and revealed on the table, he can't however buy cards after he melded, but he can prevent the next player to buy cards himself.

The winner is the first who finishes all the cards in his hand after discarding a card to the discard pile, the round ends and the same player is calculated 0 points as the rest of the players are counted the points in their hand as the goal is to stay with the lowest amount of points in hand.

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