Shanghai rum

Shanghai rum, also called California rummy, is a playing card game adapted from gin rummy and counted as a variation of contract rummy, played by three to eight players. The game is described as having emerged in China, reflecting the wider family of rummy-style matching games that spread and diversified across different countries during the twentieth century. As in other rummy games, players draw and discard cards in an effort to form sets and runs, called melds, and to be the first to empty their hand or reach a scoring target across several deals. The Shanghai name is shared by a number of unrelated card and dice games in English-language sources, a naming pattern common among folk card games that were spread by word of mouth rather than by a single codified publisher, so the exact history and rule variations of this particular rummy variant are not always distinguished clearly from similarly named games in secondary sources.