Kalooki

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Melds
4. Setup
5. Playing a turn
6. Opening: the 40-point rule
7. After opening
8. Going out
9. Scoring
10. Winning the game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Kalooki (also spelled Kaluki or Kalookie) is a rummy game with two decks. You collect sets and runs, open with at least 40 points and try to be the first to get rid of all your cards. The others collect penalty points for the cards left in their hands. Whoever goes over 150 is out – the last player left wins. These are the British rules; the very different Jamaican game of the same name is described under Variants.

• Players: 2–5 (6 in the North American variant).
• You need: two standard 52-card decks plus 2 jokers (106 cards), shuffled together. Paper and pencil; optionally chips or counters for stakes.

Card values

Melds

A meld is a combination laid face up on the table:

• Set: three or four cards of the same rank, all of different suits – e.g. 7♠ 7♥ 7♣, but not 7♠ 7♠ 7♥.
• Run: three or more cards of the same suit in a row, e.g. 9♦ 10♦ J♦. The Ace is high only: Q-K-A is fine, A-2-3 is not.

Jokers are wild and can replace any card in a meld. If you lay down one real card with two jokers, say whether it is a set or a run.

Setup

1. Take turns dealing. The dealer shuffles, the player to the dealer's right cuts.
2. The dealer deals 13 cards to each player, one at a time.
3. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile; the rest go face down as the stock (draw pile).

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's left begins; play goes clockwise. On your turn:

1. Draw one card: the top card of the stock, or the top card of the discard pile (see below).
2. Meld if you can and want to.
3. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile – every turn ends with a discard.

Opening: the 40-point rule

Your first meld (opening) must be worth at least 40 points in total. It can consist of several sets and runs laid down in the same turn. A joker counts as the card it replaces.

Example: Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ (30) and 6♣ 7♣ 8♣ (21) are 51 points – enough to open. Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ alone is not.

The discard pile: you may take the top discard only if you open in that same turn (the card may be part of your opening) – or later, once you have opened. Before that you must draw from the stock.

After opening

In the same turn and in later turns you may add cards from your hand to any meld on the table – your own or other players' – as long as it stays valid (a set never gets more than four cards). You may add at most two cards to the same end of a run in one turn.

Taking a joker: only a player who has already opened may do this, and the freed joker must be used at once in a new meld or added to a meld.

• Joker in a run: put the real card it stands for in its place and take the joker.
• Joker in a set: add the real cards of the missing suits – both in a three-card set, the single missing one in a four-card set – then take the joker. If a three-card set has two jokers, adding any two missing suits frees one joker.

Going out

You go out ("call up") when you meld or add all your cards but one and discard your last card. The hand ends at once – the others cannot get rid of any more cards.

A kalookie is going out by melding all 13 cards in one turn without having melded before (you draw, meld 13, discard the 14th). It earns double payment (see stakes).

If the stock runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new stock. If it runs out a second time, the hand is void – no score – and the same dealer deals again.

Scoring

Each player who didn't go out adds up the cards left in their hand as penalty points (Ace 11, pictures and 10s 10, jokers 15, others face value). The winner of the hand scores nothing.

Example: Anna goes out. Eva still holds A♥, 9♣ and a joker: 11 + 9 + 15 = 35 penalty points.

Winning the game

Whoever has more than 150 penalty points is out – unless they buy in: they pay the agreed buy-in stake into the pool and their score is reset to the highest score among the players still at 150 or less. Each player may buy in at most twice; on the third time over 150 they are out for good.

When only one player with 150 or less is left, they win the game.

Stakes (optional): with chips, everyone puts 5 into the pool at the start. After each hand every other player pays the winner 1 (2 for a kalookie). Buy-ins go into the pool; the overall winner takes the pool.

Tips for beginners

• Don't sit on high cards. Aces and jokers cost a lot if someone goes out – get rid of them once you can't use them.
• Opening lets you take discards – until then you're stuck with the stock.
• Watch the table: after opening, cards that fit anyone's melds are easy to shed.
• Keep jokers for your opening: they count as the card they replace and help you reach 40.

Variants

Optional – agree before playing.

• North American Kaluki: 4 jokers (108 cards), 15 cards each for 2–4 players (13 for five, 11 for six), opening 51 points, Ace high or low, Ace 15 and joker 25 in hand; one card frees a joker from a set; no pool – the winner scores the others' hand values.
• Swedish: as the main rules, but the limit is 100 instead of 150 (with 101 or more you are out or buy in).
• Higher limits: at some tables the limit is 301 or 501, or penalties are doubled after a kalookie.
• Jamaican Kalooki: a contract rummy with 4 jokers, nine deals of 9 to 16 cards and a fixed combination of sets and runs to lay down in each; jokers count 50.