I learned to play Liverpool from my Jewish grandparents, Ada and Izzy Kravitz. Every visit to see them in the Bronx included an evening when we would gather round the dining room table for a loud and enjoyable evening of cards. I later found out that the game we played is a variant of Contract Rummy, but the version described here is the way I learned it.
There are seven rounds in Liverpool, and in each round you try to get a prescribed combination of groups and straights. When you have the right combination, on your turn you can "come down," that is, lay down your combos on the table and attempt to lay off what remaining cards you have in your hand. When one player is out of cards, they round ends and everyone counts the points of the cards left in their hands - points are bad in Liverpool, and the object is to get the lowest cumulative score over all the rounds.
Basic play in Liverpool is like most Rummy games, where you draw either from the deck or from the face up discard pile, then either discard, come down if you can, or lay off any other cards if you have already come down. The other very fun aspect of the game is the "May I?" option. When another player discards a card that you want, but it's not your turn next, you can say "May I?" before the person whose turn it is draws. If no one before you wants the card, then you can take it, along with a penalty card from the deck. However, if someone ahead of you in turn order wants the card, too, they get the card, along with the penalty.
The goal of an individual round is to get rid of all your cards, and the way you get rid of most of them is by coming down - putting your combinations in front of you on the table. Unlike normal Rummy, you can only put down the combinations designated for that round, no more, no less, although you can add to any combinations on the table, your own or other players'. That's how you get rid of extra cards in your hand after you have come down.
Liverpool is not like Bridge in that you have to maintain emotional blankness, nor is it like Poker, where you are trying to bluff people. Rather, at least in my family, it can be great fun to moan and complain about the cards you get, or to gloat when you pick a Joker. You also might want to select carefully who you sit next to, as the person to your right will be discarding your penalty-free face-up card. As my grandfather would say when the person to his right would discard another ace, "Oy, you'd give away ice in the winter."
Liverpool uses at least two decks of cards with 2 Jokers each, shuffled together. Depending on the number of players, you might need a third deck, especially on the last three rounds. The game is best with 4-6 players but can be played with more, as long as there are enough cards in the deck.
The dealer shuffles the deck and the player to his left cuts the deck. The dealer then deals the appropriate number of cards to each player (10 for the first 4 rounds, 12 for the last 3 rounds), turns the top card over in the discard pile, and puts the remaining cards face down in the draw pile.
Play begins with the person to the left of the dealer, and continues clockwise.
At the end of the round, players count up their points and tell the scorekeeper, and deal moves to the left.
When it is your turn, you start by drawing from the deck, or taking the current upturned discard. If someone has May-I'd the discard, you cannot take the discard and must draw from the deck (this rule may vary in different versions of the game).
After discarding, if you have 3 or less cards in your hand, you must announce how many cards you have.
If you draw a lousy card, especially one that you immediately discard, it is encouraged to complain about it or say an appropriate expression, such as "Oh my aching back!"
When it is not your turn, after one player discards but before the person whose turn it is draws, you can say "May I?" if you want the discard. Whether you get the card or not depends on who is ahead of you. If other players, whose turn comes before yours, also want to May I? then they get the card. Anyone who takes a card as a May I? also must draw a "penalty" card from the draw deck. Of course the person whose turn it is can take the card with no penalty.
Sometimes the "penalty" card is actually a good card, sometimes even a Joker. It is acceptable to gloat loudly if your penalty card is a Joker.
The "contract" for each round varies, but is always made up of a combination of groups and straights.
The combinations are as follows:
| Round | Contract | Cards | Notes |
| 1 | 2 groups | 10 | groups must be different |
| 2 | 1 group, 1 straight | 10 | |
| 3 | 2 straights | 10 | straights must be different suits |
| 4 | 3 groups | 10 | watch out on this hand!! * |
| 5 | 2 groups, 1 straight | 12 | groups must be different |
| 6 | 1 group, 2 straights | 12 | straights must be different suits |
| 7 | 3 straights and out | 12 | straights must be different suits, four May I?s max, no discard ** |
* round 4 often catches people with a lot of cards in their hands because if someone is dealt a good hand, they can come down (9 cards) and discard (1 card) and be out, ending the round.
** the last round requires that you have a perfect contract in your hand; there is no discard. Thus, you must pick a card to fit into your hand, and only one player comes down in the last hand. It is not unusual for no one to come down in this round, and everyone just counts up their cards.
You can only come down on your turn, after you have drawn, and when you have the exact contract for the round. It's okay if you exceed the minimum requirement for the contract (e.g. on round 1 you could have a group of three and a group of four), but you can't add different groups or straights to your set to get rid of more cards. You only come down once per round.
Note that you don't have to come down as soon as you are able to. Some players prefer to build a longer contract so they have fewer discards to get rid of.
Jokers are wild, and in the event that you need a wildcard to come down, and you have a matching card in your hand for a Joker that someone else has played on the table when they came down, you can trade your card for the Joker when you come down. Some important notes about this rule:
After you have come down, laying off cards is how you get rid of the extra cards in your hand. You can lay off cards on other player's combinations, as well as your own, when it is your turn. You still draw first, then lay off, then discard. You can lay off as many cards as you can on a single turn. Layoff cards either add matching cards to groups, or extend straights in either direction. You cannot buy a joker as a layoff.
You cannot layoff cards until you have come down.
With the exception of the last round, you always discard your last card to go out. Even if you have layoffs for all your cards, it is customary to discard the last one, if nothing else, for dramatic effect.
If the end of the draw deck is reached and no one has gone out, the discards are shuffled and play continues with the newly "washed" deck. The deck is washed three times before declaring the round over, and all players add up their points.
Only one player each round will go out and get a score of zero for that round. Everyone else has to count up the remaining cards in their hand, as follows:
| Card | Points |
| Spot cards (2-10) | Face value |
| Face Cards | 10 |
| Aces | 15 |
| Jokers | 20 |
Remember, points are bad in Liverpool. You want to keep a low score to win.
Liverpool is basically a fun and easy game without too much strategy other than figuring out how to order your cards on the more complicated contracts. There are a couple of strategies I've observed however.
It is worth taking note of what other players are taking from the discard pile and May I-ing for two reasons:
My grandpa Izzy liked to play this way. He would hold his hand as long as he could so that when he came down, he would also be able to layoff all his remaining cards and be out. The advantage of playing this way is you don't end up with layoff cards, which can sometimes be a nuisance to get rid of, and of course your score is zero for that round. The disadvantage is that you can get caught with a full hand of cards if someone else goes out before you. I seem to recall this happened a lot.
When you have the option of controlling how you will position a Joker when you come down, or if you have a Joker to layoff, you can often place it strategically so that others can't buy it. Position it in a group or straight where the card that it represents is already on the table.
Some players avoid the high-point cards, especially in later rounds, because they get very expensive if you get caught with them. If your last round is three runs that start with 2s or 3s, you won't get many points even if you don't come down.