China Hand (ShedHead)
Shed Every Card to Win
Only for iPhone
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
Shed every card in your hand. Then the cards on your table. Then the ones you can't even see. Last one holding cards is the China Hand; don't be the China Hand!
China Hand is a fast, hand-drawn take on the classic shedding card game (also known as ShedHead or Palace). Every card is drawn right in the app, no photos, no stock art, just a warm, inked-parchment style that's entirely its own.
HOW IT'S PLAYED
Play from your hand first. Once it's empty and the draw pile's gone, move to your three face-up table cards. Then the real nerve-test: three cards face-down, flipped one at a time, sight unseen - a bad flip means you take the whole pile.
Three cards break the rules on purpose:
- The 2 resets the pile, anything can follow it
- The 3 is glass, see straight through to the card underneath
- The 10 burns the pile and sends you again
Land four of a kind and the pile burns too. Play a 7 and whoever's next has to go equal or lower. Simple to learn, sharp enough to argue about afterward.
PLAY YOUR WAY
- Solo against AI, with three difficulty levels
- Local multiplayer with friends nearby, no internet required
- Online through Game Center
SIX WAYS TO DEAL
Classic parchment-and-purple, Ink & Gold, Midnight Table, Emerald Sorcerer, Ashes & Embers, and Summer Tide; each with its own card backs. Summer Tide reworks the faces entirely. All cosmetic. None of them touch how the game plays.
FAIR BY DESIGN
No ads. No third-party tracking. No pay-to-win, the optional Supporter unlock and China Token packs are purely cosmetic, and nothing in the deck ever changes because of what you've bought.
Deal yourself in. Try not to end up the China Hand.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
PLAY ONLINE WITH ANYONE, ANYWHERE
Online games now run through our own server, so you can play with friends on a different Wi-Fi network or on mobile data. Host a table, share the six-character code, and they're in. Lose signal mid-hand and your seat is held while you reconnect.
TWO NEW DECKS
Odysseus, in Greek pottery black and terracotta, where a loosed arrow burns the pile. Spider, where a web hauls the cards clean out of the screen.
NOIR, PROPERLY
Rebuilt in real black and white - a black table, white cards, and an interface to match. Cards turn to black glass and shatter where they lie.
A NEW HOUSE RULE
Turn on "9 reverses" to send the play back the other way.
FIXES
Wins and losses are recorded correctly again. A 10 can no longer be played on a low card with a glass 3 on top of it. Card counts and table text now read clearly on every deck.
The developer, Francesco Sacchi, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Purchases
- Identifiers
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Francesco Sacchi
- Size
- 2.5 MB
- Category
- Card
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 18.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 2.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
13+
- 13+
- Frequent
Contests
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- 20 China Tokens $5.99
- 10 China Tokens $3.49
- 5 China Tokens $1.99
- Supporter Deck $2.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Francesco Sacchi
