Looking for Shaghai card game & rules
Cmdr Info
If you have ever played the game, know anything about it, know where I can
it, or just happen to remember some of the rules, please respond, copying
by e-mail if your software allows it.
Thank you.
C
David E H Dailey
Cmdr Info (cmdr...@aol.com) wrote:
: If you have ever played the game, know anything about it, know where I can
: Thank you.
: C
I asked a friend for his rules several months ago, and kept them on my
account, waiting for just such a request. Here goes:
In response to the recent request for rules to the card game Shanghai, I
forwarded the poriginal post to a friend of mine here in Seattle who grew
up playing the game. His response follows:
======================Rules for Shanghai===============
as remembered by Mark Allen Davis
A friend who's a game enthusiast forward your plea for help for rules
on the game of Shanghai to me. Perhaps you've already recieved more than
one reply, possibly many different versions. My friend knows that this is
"THE FAMILY GAME" among my family and all of my relatives, so... I'm quite
capable of giving you the rules to Shanghai, "Davis Family Version". I
don't know anyone outside of my family that plays it, and I don't know where
we picked it up, but we've been playing it for as long as I can remember,
and I'm 32 now. It may not be excactly like the game you played, but I bet
it's close, and I can certainly vouch for years of playtesting this version
at family gatherings and hammering out obscure rules (Grandma Davis is the
ultimate authority!).
Our game is played with two standard decks, including all four jokers.
There are seven rounds. The object of the game is to assemble books (3 or
more of the same card, as in 3 4's or 3 kings) and runs (4 or more cards of
the same suit in a row, as in 2-3-4-5 of clubs or 9-10-Jack-Queen of
hearts). Aces are always high, so in a run they come after the king, as in
jack-queen-king-ace. They can't be placed next to a 2 card in a run.
Jokers are wild, so you can place a joker in a book (2 aces and a joker) or
a run (jack-joker-king-ace of hearts). You can't place two jokers in a
single run or a single book.
Each round has a different combination of books and runs, and they
follow a simple progression (seems simple to me... I've never had a problem
following it, but many of my relatives need to write it down or they get
confused). The rounds:
Round 1: two books
Round 2: one book, one run
Round 3: two runs
Round 4: three books
Round 5: two books, one run
Round 6: one book, two runs
Round 7: three runs, no discard allowed
Cards are shuffled and 11 cards are dealt to each person. The rest of
the cards are placed in the center of the table, and the top one is turned
over to form the first card of the "discard" pile. The discard pile is
always face up so everyone can see what card has just been discarded. When
your turn comes, you draw from the top of the deck, or you may take the top
card from the discard pile. If all cards are drawn before the conclusion of
a round, then the discard pile is turned over to form the "draw from" pile.
The object is to assemble the required books or runs for that round and
then lay them down in front of you. So, in the first round, if you have
three aces and two kings, and on your turn you draw a king, you may lay down
these two books before you discard. If you have four or five aces in hand,
you lay them all down to form one book.
You may not lay down two books of the same card. If you have six aces,
you do not have two books, but one book of six cards. Sorry!
Likewise, if you have one large run of eight cards, you can not simply
break it in half and form two runs. You can not lay down 2-3-4-5 of spades
and 6-7-8-9 of spades. However, you CAN lay down 2-3-4-5 of spades and 5-6-
7-8 of spades, or 2-3-4-5 of spades and 7-8-9-10 of spades. As long as the
two runs are not consecutive, they form seperate runs.
Once you are "down" you may also play cards on any other books or runs
others have laid down. If the person across from you has laid down a book
of 3's, and you have two threes in your hand, you may place your threes on
their book. Once you are down you may not lay down other runs or books. In
the first round you lay down only two books, and if you happen to have
another in hand, too bad. You can hope someone else lays down a book of
that card for you to play them on.
Jokers may be played on any book or run which does not already have a
joker in it, assuming you are already down. A run extends from 2 through
King to Ace; no car may be placed below a two or above an ace. A run of 2-3-
4-5-6-7-8-9-10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace may no longer be played on.
If you are already down, and can play no other cards, then you discard.
Play continues until someone gets rid of all the cards in their hand.
The object, of course, is first to get down, and second to get rid of
all your cards as fast as you can. The object of the game is to come in
with the lowest score. At the end of each round -- as soon as one person
has emptied their hand completely of cards -- the other players must add up
the points of the cards still held in their hand (cards which have been laid
down in the form of runs or books or placed on other runs or books do not
count as cards still in your hand). Numbered cards through 7 (2-3-4-5-6-7)
are five points each; 8-10 and face cards are 10 points, Aces are 20 points,
and Jokers are 50 points.
The SHANGHAI is used if someone wishes to discard a card which may be
played on one of the runs or books down on the table. This normally would
only happen if the person discarding this card is not down yet; otherwise
they could play the card rather than discard it. The person discards the
card while saying "SHANGHAI". This card may NOT be picked up by the next
player, so that person must draw. Conversely, if someone accidentally
tosses a card that may be played, any person may call out "SHANGHAI". In
this event (per my grandmother mind you!!!) the card is removed from the
discard pile and placed in the spot where the person calling SHANGHAI saw
that it could be played (this is important if you're trying to add cards to
a run... if there's a 5-6-7-8 of spades down, for example, and you have a 2
and a 3 of spades, you definately want someone to play the 4 of spades on
that run so that, on your turn, you can get rid of the 2 and 3. So if
someone tosses a 4 of spades accidentally, you yell "Shanghai", then place
the 4 of spades at the lower end of the run.) The other thing that happens
in this case is that the person caught tossing the card must draw a card at
random from the hand of the person who called "SHANGHAI". Naturally if
you're not down yet, you probably don't want to call out "SHANGHAI" because
you then loose a card, perhaps one you need to get down. In the above
example, it's also possible that the 3 of spades may be drawn from the hand
of the person who called "SHANGHAI", thus spoiling their plans to get rid of
both the 3 and 2 of spades. So it goes.
The MAY I: I don't know if this is a standard rule or something my
family made up ages ago. According to our rules, twice during every round
you are allowed to draw a card off of the discard pile out of turn. This
can be essential to assembling a book or a run. How it is done: If you see
a card discarded which you want, but it is not your turn to draw, you may
call out "MAY I" before the next person draws a card. In this event, the
person who is to draw must agree that they do not want to pick up the
discarded card themselves rather than draw -- they have first right. If
they only wish to draw from the top of the deck, then they can not refuse
you the right to take the discarded card... but when you "MAY I", you not
only take the discarded card, but you also draw two cards from the top of
the deck. You do not discard anything since you are doing this out of turn.
This means you add 3 cards to your hand, and if you MAY I twice in the
round, you will have 17 cards in hand, quite a lot to get rid of. But
sometimes it will be more important to simply get DOWN first, and the MAY I
can help you do this.
In the event of a MAY I, any person between you and the person who's
turn it is also has first right to the discarded card. We play clockwise,
so that the person to your right draws before you do and discards to you.
So if the person two seats to your right is the person in play, if it's
their turn, and you call "MAY I", then not only does that person have first
right at the card, but the person immediately to your right has second right
to the card... of course, if the person immediately to your right really
wants the discarded card, they will have to MAY I for it as you are
attempting to do. They do not have to call out MAY I before you do, they
just have to be willing to add three cards to their hand. If they have
already done the MAY I twice then of course they can not do it again, so
they can no longer keep you from the card.
The last hand is three runs, no discard. This means after drawing from
the discard pile or from the top of the deck, you must be able to lay all
your cards down and have them form just three runs. Naturally in this round
everyone else will be caught with all their cards still in their hand, so
winning the last hand can be a big key to winning the game.
Those are most of the rules. There is one other obscure rule I can
think of... according to my grandmother, although a "SHANGHAI'd" card may
not be picked up or MAY I'd, if another card is placed on top of it, then
MAY I'd, (thus exposing the Shanghai'd card again), it may now be drawn or
MAY I'd and put into play in normal fashion.
We normally play with four people, sometimes three. A four-person game
in our family usually lasts 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours. More than four people can
be very cumbersome and time consuming, so we generally don't allow more...
if there are 5 or six people wanting to play, we usually start a second
game, or someone will play for part of the game and then turn their hand
over to another person.
I could go on forever about all the Shanghai lore in my family, but
there's no call for that. Let's just say that my favorite memory, and
probably everyone's, was the time my grandfather, a former preacher mind
you, was losing badly, and suddenly stood up, started swearing, ripped his
robe off, threw it in the corner, and swore in all seriousness that "I NEVER
COULD PLAY IN THAT ROBE!" Family legend, that...
Miko/Mark Allen Davis M.DA...@GENIE.GEIS.COM
=END=
Bryan Stout
In article <4v26ed$h...@Holly.aa.net>, com...@aa.net says...
>
>======================Rules for Shanghai===============
>as remembered by Mark Allen Davis
>
This is also known as Contract Rummy, and is described under that title in
David Parlett's _A Dictionary of Card Games_. (As with most card games, there
are many variations, and he gives a typical set of rules.)
There has been a commercial version called Phase 10, published by Fundex; I've
seen it in GameKeeper and other stores. It has a major variation: the winner
is the first person to complete *all* phases or rounds, of which there 10 in
this game. So, anyone who did not lay down two books or sets in the first
round, has to try that for the second. The winner is the first to complete all
10 phases, with the score that's been kept only used to break possible ties. I
have not tried it, but it sounds fun. It seems like it would take a long time,
though; but, the fact that runs do not have to be all in the same suit probably
prevents it from being too slow. (This would make suit redundant, except that
one phase's requirement is 7 cards of the same suit.)
Bryan
bst...@interramp.com
David E H Dailey
Bryan Stout (cd00...@interramp.com) wrote:
: There has been a commercial version called Phase 10, published by Fundex; I've
: seen it in GameKeeper and other stores. It has a major variation: the winner
: is the first person to complete *all* phases or rounds, of which there 10 in
: this game. So, anyone who did not lay down two books or sets in the first
: round, has to try that for the second. The winner is the first to complete all
: 10 phases, with the score that's been kept only used to break possible ties. I
: have not tried it, but it sounds fun. It seems like it would take a long time,
: though; but, the fact that runs do not have to be all in the same suit probably
: prevents it from being too slow. (This would make suit redundant, except that
: one phase's requirement is 7 cards of the same suit.)
This sound like yet *another* commercialization of a great common-deck
game. Your description sounds very much to me like "Ship, Captian, &
Crew"-- a card game my mom used to play with the other sailors' wives when
I was growing up and the guys were out of port. (That is, they were at
sea; the wine cellar was not dry.) There's also a dice game that uses a
very similar mechanism. And yes, a single game can go on for many hours--
theoretically, if there are n rounds that must be accomplished, and p
players, then the maximum number of hands that must be played is
((n - 1) * p) + 1
But if all you're doing is looking for a game to use as a social vehicle,
then it's perfect.
David Dailey
Seattle, Washington, USA
com...@aa.net