Playing and Winning Kalooki
Playing Kalooki can be both fun and competitive. Before you start playing for money, which can be done at home or Online, you need to know the basics of how to win the game and what it will be worth to you.
When someone wins a round of Kalooki it is called “calling up”. This is when one player gets rid of all of their 13 cards through melds and the final discard. The remaining players then add up their total values of the cards that are still left in their hand. These are called penalty points that are given to each player and what makes up the score. The player that goes out of course does not get the penalty points, and instead is rewarded the points for “going out” or “hunt”.
The points are given upon completion of each round which leads up to the winning of the actual game. The player’s scores increase as each rounds end. When the score for a player reaches more than 150 points, they are out of the game, and the next rounds go on without them. So, even though you may be starting off with 4 people, it could easily come down to you and just one other player within a few rounds. When one person remains with a score of less than 150 points, they are declared the winner of Kalooki.
Some people have taken Kalooki to an advanced level by adding in real money stakes. This basically means that they are playing for money, and often have more competitive ideas in mind about how they play the game. They can do this through two ways. They either have a “buy-in” which means that if they exceed the usual 150 points, they can get back into the game but they have to pay an additional stake. This is an amount that is usually half of the original “buy-in” which you have to pay to enter the game. Usually there is only 1 or 2 buy-ins and you all must agree to that certain amount before the game begins. Buy-ins cannot take place when there are only two players left.
The other way to play for money without the buy-ins is by playing each round for an additional reward stake. That means that not only are you playing for the winning stake which is whatever everyone puts into the game, but you give an extra payment for each round. This amount is usually one quarter of the main stake value. For example, if you are playing for $4.00 a game, then you can play each round for an additional $1.00 each round. That gives everyone a chance to win some money, and not just rely on winning the game to win something. All money should be paid up in the end, so you should keep a tally of who wins what so you are not just trading money back and forth.