Basics Of Kalooki

Kalooki, also known as Jamaican rummy, is a version of contract rummy, a popular game played in Jamaica. You may have heard kalooki referred to as Super kalooki all super kalooki is a tournament style of the original kalooki game. There is also baby kalooki which is played with little kids for the main purpose of teaching them the game. Kalooki is most often played in Jamaica and isnt the most popular game in outside of Jamaica. You can however find Kalooki sites online that offer regular play as well as tournament play.

There are usually three to eight players in a typical kalooki game and four or more players in tournament or super Kalooki play. Each game is played with four players at each table with two or more packs of cards being used. Peach player takes a turn dealing the cards. 9 hands or deals make up the entire game of Kalooki. Each card is dealt one at a time and the number of cars dealt in total depends on the hand being played. After all the players have received their card, the following card is dealt face up; this is the discard pile. The remaining undealt cards are placed faced down besides the discard pile. This is known as the stock and is where the players will receive their remaining cards.

The object of the game is to end the game by laying out all your cards and having the lowest cumulative points. The point values of each card when going out are:

Joker: 50 points

Black Ace: 15 points

Jack, Queen, and King: 10 points

Numbered cards from 2 to 10: Face value

Red ace: 1 point

Once a player goes out by discarding all his cards then both the hand and the game end. At this point, all other players have to count the value of all the cards they have in their hands and add them all up; their score is the cumulative total of all the cards. The player with the lowest cumulative point score wins! Its a fun game, a little hard to get at first but practice never killed anybody!