Continental Rummy Rules: 7 Contracts, Buying and Scoring

Continental is a long game in the good sense: seven rounds that get harder each time, a score sheet that can turn around in the last hand, and a buying rule that makes every discard a small auction. It is the game Spanish families bring out for long afternoons with two decks and a notepad, and in Latin America it is played under the same name or under others like carioca. In English-speaking countries the same family is known as contract rummy, Shanghai, Liverpool rummy or May I?, with rules that are close but not identical. This guide explains the contracts round by round, how many decks and jokers to use, how buying works and how to keep it fair, how to score with worked examples, and exactly where the Spanish and Latin American game differs from the versions played in the United States and Britain.

Which game is "continental"? A note on the name

The name causes real confusion, so it is worth clearing up before the rules.

• In Spain and Latin America, continental means a contract rummy in seven rounds, with buying and two decks. This is the game this article describes.
• In many American rule books, "Continental Rummy" is a different and older game: each player gets 15 cards, only sequences count as melds (no sets) and you can only go out by melding your whole hand at once, for example as five 3-card sequences. It has no contracts and no rounds.
• Some English-language references use "Continental" as another name for May I?, which is a contract rummy and therefore much closer to the Spanish game.

If you are looking for the English name of the Spanish continental, the closest equivalents are contract rummy, May I?, Shanghai rummy and Liverpool rummy. Their differences are explained further down.

What you need to play continental

• Two standard 52-card decks with their jokers, shuffled together: 104 cards plus 4 jokers, 108 in all. For larger groups, a third deck.
• 3 to 6 players is the usual range (4 or 5 is ideal). Everyone plays alone.
• Paper and a pencil. Scores accumulate over seven rounds and nobody remembers them.
• Time: a full game of seven rounds takes a long evening.

Two decks shuffled together: 104 cards + 4 jokers

Use two decks with the same back design if you can. With two different backs, a player who sees the back of the top card of the stock knows which deck it came from, and when cards are bought out of turn the backs can give away information. Shuffling 108 cards also takes some technique: our guide on how to shuffle cards explains how to do it in two halves.

A simple rule that many tables use: one deck for every two players, rounding up, with two jokers per deck. The point is to make sure the stock does not run out before someone goes out, which is more likely in the late rounds when everyone holds 11 or 12 cards.

Sets, runs and jokers

Set (trío)

Three or more cards of the same rank, in any suits. Because two decks are in play, a set may contain two identical cards, such as two kings of hearts.

Run (escalera)

Four or more consecutive cards of the same suit. The ace can be low (A-2-3-4) or high (J-Q-K-A), but a run cannot go "around the corner": Q-K-A-2 is not valid. A run cannot contain the same card twice, so the longest possible run has 13 cards.

Jokers

A joker can stand for any card in a set or a run. In the run below it stands for the 6 of clubs.

How many jokers a single meld may contain is one of the rules that varies most, so agree on it first:

Many tables also let a player swap a joker out of a run on the table by putting the real card in its place (for example, the real 6 of clubs in the run above). The joker recovered this way usually has to be played at once. Jokers in sets are normally "dead" and cannot be swapped, because it is not clear which suit they represent. The history of the card itself, which was invented for an American game in the 19th century, is told in our article on the joker card.

The seven contracts, round by round

Each round has a contract: the combination you must lay down to "go down" for the first time. The sequence used in Spain and in most of Latin America is the same as the classic American contract rummy, while the number of cards dealt follows a ladder that rises by one card per round.

Because the cards dealt match the size of the contract, a player who has not bought any card can go down and go out on the same turn: after drawing you hold one card more than the contract, you lay down the contract and discard the extra card. Every card you buy adds one more card to your hand that you will need to lay off later, and that is where most of the tension of the game comes from.

How to play continental, step by step

1. Deal

The first dealer is chosen by drawing cards; the deal then rotates each round. The dealer gives each player the number of cards for that round, one at a time, places the rest face down as the stock and turns the top card face up to start the discard pile. The player next to the dealer starts.

2. Your turn: draw and discard

On your turn you take either the top card of the stock (unseen) or the top card of the discard pile (visible), and you end your turn by discarding one card face up. Between drawing and discarding you may go down or lay off if you are able to. Taking the discard on your own turn costs nothing.

3. Buying: the rule that defines continental

When a card is discarded and the next player does not want it, any other player may buy it, out of turn. The buyer takes the discard and also one penalty card from the stock, unseen. In the United States this is called a "May I?", after the question players ask before taking the card.

• The player whose turn it is always has priority. If they take the discard as their normal draw, nobody can buy it and they take no penalty card.
• Between several buyers, the one who comes first in turn order after the current player wins.
• Buying does not change the order of play. The buyer waits for their normal turn.
• Once you have gone down you can no longer buy, in most tables. You have already met the contract and only need to get rid of cards.
• The number of buys is limited in most homes. The usual cap is three buys per player per round; some houses allow unlimited buying.

Buying gives you more chances of completing the contract, but every buy adds two cards to your hand (the discard and the penalty card). If someone else goes out before you, those cards count against you. That trade-off is the core of continental strategy.

4. Going down

When you hold the contract for the round, you may lay it face up on the table during your turn. This is called going down (bajarse). You do not have to go down as soon as you can: some players wait one more turn to go down and out together. In the stricter American rules you must lay down exactly the contract and nothing more on that first turn.

5. Laying off

From your next turn after going down, you may add cards to any meld on the table, yours or other players': a fourth king to a set of kings, the 8 of hearts to a run that ends at the 7, a card that replaces a joker. Most tables do not let you start new melds after going down, only extend existing ones.

6. Going out

The round ends as soon as a player has no cards left, usually by laying off and then discarding the last card (except in round seven, where there is no final discard). The others score the cards remaining in their hands. If the stock runs out before anyone goes out, the discard pile, except for its top card, is turned over or reshuffled to form a new stock.

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Scoring in continental

Scores are penalty points: what you are left holding when someone goes out. The player who goes out scores zero. After seven rounds, the player with the lowest total wins.

Worked example: one round

Round three, contract of two runs. Ana goes out. The other three players count their hands with the usual Spanish values:

Bruno has fewer cards than David but scores almost twice as much, because of the joker. With face-value scoring, Carmen would have 20 + 3 = 23 and David 10 + 10 + 10 + 9 = 39: the difference is small for low cards, which is why many tables keep the flat 5.

Worked example: a full score sheet

Ana led for most of the game, but Carmen went out in the last round while Ana was caught with a hand full of high cards. Carmen wins with 205 points. The last round is often decisive: everyone holds 12 or more cards, nobody can finish with a discard, and the penalty points for those left holding cards are much higher than in the first rounds.

Continental vs contract rummy, Shanghai, Liverpool and May I?

All these games share the same structure: rounds with fixed contracts, sets and runs, a way to take discards out of turn and penalty points for cards left in hand. Where they differ is in the details, and those details change the feel of the game a lot.

The practical differences you will notice when you sit down with American players: the deal is larger from the start (so the first rounds are slower), jokers cost less when you are caught with one, and in Shanghai a buy costs two penalty cards instead of one. If you play with people from another country, compare the contracts, the deal and the buying limit before the first hand.

Other members of the family

History: a 1930s American game with many names

Contract rummy belongs to the rummy family, whose roots many historians place in the Mexican game conquian. The contract idea came later. The earliest known game of the group is Zioncheck, credited to Ruth Armson in the 1930s, with six contracts. It was the decade of the contract bridge boom in the United States, and the word "contract" for a fixed goal that must be met came from there.

The family spread quickly under a series of names: contract rummy, Liverpool, Shanghai, May I? and continental. The American card writer Albert Morehead noted that it was at one time the most popular form of rummy in women's afternoon card parties, until canasta took its place around 1950. In the United States the family survived mostly at home tables and, from 1982, through the commercial game Phase 10. In Spain and Latin America the outcome was different: continental never lost its place as a family game, and the rules were passed on from one generation to the next with small variations in each house. Some sources date the first contract rummies to the Second World War rather than the 1930s, but Zioncheck is generally placed earlier.

If you like the family, canasta is the game that displaced it in the 1950s, and gin rummy is the two-player version of the rummy idea at its most concentrated.

Continental strategy

Buying

• Buy early, not late. A buy in the first turns gives you material to build with; a buy when the round is mature fills your hand with cards just when someone is about to go out.
• Count your buys. If your table limits them to three per round, do not spend the first two on cards you only half need.
• Remember that a buy is two cards. The penalty card can help you, but on average it is one more card to place or to pay for.

Jokers

• Use jokers, do not collect them. A joker held when someone goes out costs 50 points, as much as five face cards. If a round is dragging on and you hold a joker without a clear use, play it even in an average meld.
• Put jokers in runs rather than sets if your table allows swapping: a joker in a run may be released by the real card, and a joker in a set stays there.

Reading the table

• Watch what other players buy. A player who buys the 5 and then the 7 of diamonds is building a run in diamonds. Do not discard the 6.
• In run rounds, choose your suits early. Changing suit halfway through a round means starting again with a heavier hand.
• Discard high cards early in the round if they do not fit anything. Aces and face cards are the expensive ones to be caught with.

The last round

Round seven plays differently: without a final discard, you need to lay down 13 or more cards at once, and being one card short is normal. Players buy less and keep their hands more closed. The player who stays patient and keeps the hand flexible (two possible runs in the same suit, a joker kept for the end) usually wins it. Since most penalty points of the game are scored in this round, a big lead after six rounds is not safe.

Continental is one of the many classic games you can play with ordinary French-suited cards; our overview of card games with a poker deck includes it along with canasta, gin rummy and others, and if you are usually more than four at the table you will find more ideas in card games for 4 or more players.

How much does a deck of cards cost?

From €5 to over €100. The 52 cards and the rules stay the same; this is what changes.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the continental card game?

A contract rummy played in Spain and Latin America over seven rounds. In each round you must complete a set combination of sets and runs (the contract) and then get rid of all your cards. Cards left in hand count as penalty points, and the lowest total after seven rounds wins.

What is continental called in English?

Contract rummy. Very similar games are known as May I?, Liverpool rummy and Shanghai rummy. Be careful with "Continental Rummy" in some American rule books: it is a different game with 15 cards and sequences only.

How many cards are dealt in each round of continental?

Six in the first round, rising by one each round: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in the seventh. The number matches the cards needed for the contract of that round.

How many decks do you need for continental?

Two standard 52-card decks with their four jokers (108 cards) for three to five players. With six or more, add a third deck.

What does buying mean in continental?

Taking the card someone has just discarded when it is not your turn. You take the discard plus one penalty card from the stock. The player whose turn it is has priority and takes the discard without penalty. In American rules this is called a "May I?".

How many times can you buy in continental?

It is a house rule. The most common limit is three buys per player per round. Some homes allow unlimited buying, so agree before you start.

How many points is a joker worth in continental?

Fifty penalty points if it is left in your hand when someone goes out, the most expensive card in the game. Aces are usually worth 20, tens and face cards 10, and the rest 5.

Can you add cards to other players' melds?

Yes, once you have gone down, from your next turn on. You can extend any set or run on the table, including other players', and in many homes you can replace a joker in a run with the real card.

What is the difference between continental and Shanghai?

The structure is the same, but Shanghai usually deals 11 cards in every round, counts aces only as high, charges two penalty cards per buy and in some versions has up to ten rounds with longer runs.

Continental needs two complete decks, ideally with the same back, and puts them through a lot of shuffling. In our playing cards section you will find durable 52-card decks, and buying two of the same design keeps the backs from giving away which deck a card came from.

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• Card games with a poker deck: the most popular ones
• Canasta rules: scoring and strategy
• Gin rummy rules: knock, gin and undercut
• Chinchón rules: the Spanish rummy with 40 cards
• Burraco and scala 40 rules

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