How to play Shithead
Your goal is simple: get rid of every card before your friends do. Here is how to get from an empty table to your first round.
1. Gather your friends
Open Play Shithead online, enter your display name and choose Create Game. Share the five-character lobby code. Your friends enter their names and that code to join. The host starts once 2–8 players are present.
2. Arrange your cards
Each player gets three hidden cards, three face-up cards and three in hand. Before play begins, select one hand card and one face-up card, then press Swap. You can swap repeatedly until you press Lock In. Saving flexible or high cards face up can help later.
3. Follow the turn marker
The server chooses the first player from the lowest ordinary card in hand. On your turn, select a legal card in your hand and press Play. You may select multiple cards of the same rank. Usually, the card must be equal to or higher than the top of the pile; aces are high. For example, you can play a 9 or a king on an 8, or play two 8s together.
4. Use the special cards
Get rid of every card. The last player holding cards is the Shithead.
- Set your table. Swap a hand card with a face-up card, as often as you like. Lock in when you’re ready.
- Play equal or higher. Play one card or several of the same rank. Aces are high. Can’t play? Pick up the pile and your turn ends. You can also choose to pick up.
- Keep 3 in hand. Draw after playing until you have 3, while the deck lasts.
- Hand → face up → face down. Use face-up cards only when your hand and the draw pile are empty. Reveal face-down cards one at a time, blindly. An illegal reveal means taking the pile and that card.
Burn the pile, take another turn. The lowest ordinary hand card decides who starts; ties follow seating order. Two to four players use 52 cards. Five to eight use 104, with one shared discard pile.
5. Clear your hand and table
While the draw pile lasts, you refill your hand toward 3 after playing. Once the pile and your hand are empty, play from your face-up row. Finally, reveal your three face-down cards one at a time. If a revealed card cannot be played, you pick up the pile together with that card.
6. Keep playing to the last player
Finishing first is nice, but the round continues for everyone else. The final player holding cards is the Shithead. The results show every finishing position, and the host can open a fresh lobby for another round.
Need to refresh or reconnect?
Return in the same browser with its cookies intact to resume your seat and cards. A brief connection drop does not remove you. The table waits if it is a disconnected player’s turn; there is no automatic bot. A lobby code alone cannot recover an existing player’s seat.
For every edge case and our exact card effects, read the complete Shithead rules.
Your friends. Your table.
Give yourself a name, share a code and deal the first round.
PLAY SHITHEAD ONLINE →