Card games kaluki

The first dealer is chosen at random and should pass to the left for each new round. There is a total of 9 rounds of play and the number of cards dealt to each player depends on the round. Round one has 9 cards dealt to each player, round two is 10 cards, then 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15, and finally round nine has 16 cards dealt to each player. After cards are dealt, one at a time and clockwise, to each player, a single card is flipped to start the discard pile and the remaining cards are place facedown as the stockpile.

For each round, there is a minimum contract that must be made for a player to lay down their cards. These are a mix of threes and fours described below that increase the further in the game you go. For round one you need 3 threes, round 2 needs 2 threes and a four, then 2 fours and 1 three, 3 fours, 4 threes, 3 threes, and 1 four, 2 threes and 2 fours, 1 three and 3 fours, and finally for round nine, 4 fours are needed.

Ace can be used as the highest or lowest card but cannot be used to bridge the ranking such as King, Ace, 2. Jokers are used as wild cards and can be made to be any card of any suit. This is discussed more below. When the hand is over, players with cards remaining will need to score them.

Melds in this game are called threes and fours. Threes are 3 or more cards of the same rank. Fours are 4 or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order. When making multiple threes or fours in a round you cannot duplicate the rank or suit used. For example, if you needed to make 2 threes and 2 fours for a round you cannot have two threes of 5s, and you cannot have two fours of hearts.

Jokers can be used in both threes and fours but have restrictions placed on them. In a three there must be at least 2 cards of the rank for it to be legal. So, a 3, 3, joker, joker is legal but a 3, joker, joker is not. The player with the lowest score is the winner. To determine who deals first, each player is dealt a card. The player with the highest card goes first.

Thirteen cards are dealt to each player starting on the left and play continues to the left. After each round, dealing duties pass to the left. Once cards are dealt, one card is turned up to start the discard pile.

Only the top card can be used in the discard pile. The next player can either draw from the discard pile or the top card of the stock pile. You must discard one card from your hand before play can continue. When your turn comes, you may lay down only the meld asked for on that particular round. Upon subsequent plays, you may lay down additional melds as in regular rummy.

You can also add cards to other players existing melds. Play continues until one player gets rid of all their cards but the one they will discard. You must discard to go out.

If you cannot lay down a discard, you cannot go out. Should the face down stock of cards be exhausted, it will need to be shuffled and replaced, leaving the last discard face up in play. The play continues as if the game had not stopped. An Ace stops or starts a meld if used. You cannot have a meld such as 2-A-K.

The melds you are striving for each round: Round 1: A group of three of the same rank. Round 3: A group of four cards of the same rank. Round 5: A group of three consecutive cards in a suit, plus three of a kind. Whenever you meld, you may also meld off cards on your own and other players' melds.

Scoring: Each losing player pays the winner 1 point per card left in hand and 2 points per joker left in hand. Tips: It usually doesn't take many rounds for someone to go out, so there's no real advantage to delaying your initial meld.

Jokers are valuable. While they can be melded as a group for 15 points each, they are put to much better use individually. Variations: In scoring, an alternate practice is to penalize players for the face value of the cards remaining in their hand, with jokers counting 25 points each.

One version of Kaluki counts aces as 11, not 15, so agree among the players about this beforehand. A player who goes out on a single play goes Kaluki and collects double from every player. Here's a quick reference for some of the card language you will find in this article. Meld: A combination of cards with scoring value, generally three or more cards in sequence in one suit or all of the same rank; also, to show or play such a combination. Upcard: The first card turned up after a deal, often to begin play or initiate a discard pile.

For a complete listing of card terminology, click here. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.