Contract Rummy Rules: The Complete 7-Round Guide

Contract rummy is a seven-round family card game for 3 to 8 players where every round hands you a fixed "contract" — a set combination of sets and runs — that you must complete before you can do anything else. If you already know the basic rummy rules, you know most of what you need; the twist is that the goal changes from round to round and gets harder each time.

What Is Contract Rummy?

Contract Rummy goes by several names — you may see it called Combination Rummy, Deuces Wild Rummy or Joker Rummy — and the well-known versions Liverpool Rummy and Shanghai Rummy rules are all built on the same idea. The defining feature is the contract: in each of the seven rounds you are told exactly which melds you must assemble, and you cannot lay anything on the table until you can lay your whole contract at once.

The game uses two standard 52-card decks plus jokers for three or four players, and three decks once you reach five or more players, so there are always plenty of cards to go around. Jokers are wild, and in some versions the deuces (2s) are wild too, which is where the "Deuces Wild" nickname comes from.

The 7 Contract Rummy Hands

This is the heart of the game. Each round has its own contract, the deal grows partway through, and the requirements stack up. Here are the standard contract rummy hands:

A set is three or more cards of the same rank (three Kings, for example). A run is four or more consecutive cards in the same suit (such as 5-6-7-8 of spades). Note that runs in Contract Rummy are four cards long, which is one longer than in basic rummy. Aces can be played high or low depending on the house rule, but runs never wrap around from King back to Ace.

Setting Up a Round

Pick a dealer, who shuffles the combined decks and deals the right number of cards for the round (10 for rounds 1–4, 12 for rounds 5–7). The remaining cards become the face-down stock, and the top card is turned over to start the discard pile. The dealer's chair passes to the left for each new round, so everyone deals once across the game.

How a Turn Works

On your turn you move through these steps in order:

1. Draw one card — the unknown top of the stock or the visible top of the discard pile.
2. Meld your contract exactly once. The moment you hold the full contract for the round, you lay it all down together. You can never put down more than the contract asks for.
3. Lay off — but only after your contract is on the table. Now you may add single cards to any meld in front of any player.
4. Discard one card to end your turn.

The key restriction to remember: you may never meld more than the contract. Once your contract is down, every other card has to leave your hand through lay-offs or discards. This is what makes the later rounds so tense — getting the contract down is only half the battle.

Jokers and Wild Cards

Jokers stand in for any card, so they make it far easier to complete a set or a run. A common and useful rule lets you reclaim a joker from a run: if a joker is sitting in a sequence on the table and you hold the natural card it is standing in for, you may swap your real card in and take the joker into your hand on your turn. That reclaimed joker is gold — you can immediately put it to work in a meld of your own.

Buying and the "May I?" Rule

Contract Rummy's signature wrinkle is buying, sometimes called the "may I?" rule. When a card hits the discard pile, any player — not just the one whose turn it is — can ask to take it. If the player whose turn it is doesn't want the discard, an out-of-turn player may buy it: they take the discarded card plus one penalty card drawn from the stock, adding two cards to their hand.

If several players want to buy the same discard, priority goes to whoever sits closest to the left of the discarder (next in turn order). A common limit caps each player at three buys per round, which keeps hands from ballooning and forces you to choose your moments. Buying is powerful early — it can hand you the exact card your contract needs — but every buy is also two more points sitting in your hand if you get caught out.

Ending a Round

A round ends the moment a player gets rid of every card — they have melded their contract, laid off everything else and discarded their last card. The final round (round 7) is a no-discard finish: because the contract is three runs and you need to use all your cards, you go out by melding and laying off with nothing left over, with no final discard.

Contract Rummy Scoring

Whoever goes out scores zero for the round. Everyone else counts the cards still trapped in their hand, and those points are added to their running total. Across all seven rounds the player with the lowest cumulative score wins — the opposite instinct to many games, so keep your hand light. Standard card values are:

• 2 through 9 = 5 points each
• 10, Jack, Queen, King = 10 points each
• Ace = 15 points
• Joker = 25 points

These values vary between house rules — some groups score aces at 1 or face cards at their pip value — so agree on the table before round one. The principle stays the same: cards left in hand are penalty points, and jokers hurt most of all.

Contract vs Liverpool vs Shanghai

Contract Rummy is the parent game: seven rounds, a fixed contract each round, two or three decks with jokers, and 10- or 12-card deals as shown above. Everything below is a variation on this template.

Liverpool Rummy is essentially Contract Rummy played to the same seven-round structure, and the names are often used interchangeably. The main differences are regional house rules around buying limits and whether deuces are wild — the full Liverpool Rummy walkthrough covers them.

Shanghai Rummy stretches the format out. It typically runs more rounds with larger contracts (often requiring sets and runs that combine into longer melds), and many tables deal 11 cards with their own buying twists. If you enjoy bigger hands, the Shanghai Rummy rules are the natural next step up.

Strategy Tips

• Plan your contract from the deal. The instant you pick up your hand, identify which cards point toward this round's contract and which are dead weight.
• Buy carefully. Every buy adds a penalty card, and your buys are limited. Spend them on cards that genuinely complete a meld, not on hopeful maybes.
• Dump high cards early. Aces and jokers are worth the most if you get caught holding them, so discard high cards you can't use before someone else goes out.
• Watch what others collect. The discards opponents pass up — and the ones they buy — tell you which contracts they're chasing. Avoid feeding them the cards they need.
• Hold jokers for runs. A joker plugs a gap in a sequence beautifully, and you can often reclaim it later by playing the natural card.
• Get your contract down fast. Until it's on the table you can't lay off, so the sooner you meld, the sooner you can start emptying your hand.

Frequently Asked Questions