Kalookie Variations
No matter where you go or who you play, you will inevitably have different variations of the game. This is based on which country you live in, as well as what you grew up playing. Most people do play by the European version which is huge in Britain. This is the version in which you play with sets or runs up to 150 points. However, the Jamaican version is also very popular but set up more for fun and excitement then actually tournament play or playing for money stakes. There are also many other variations depending on where you live as well.
In North America, Kalookie is usually played with two, three, or four people playing by themselves as opposed to playing in teams as some other countries do. They play very similarly to Britain except it is not often played for money. Another difference is that each person is dealt 15 cards instead of 13, unless by chance there are five players in which they get 13 cards, or six players in which they get 11 cards. The joker left in a hand counts as 25 points, and an Ace counts as 15 points. Again, the premise is the same with discarding, laying off of cards, and melding.
Even in individual countries you can have variations of the same game. For example, some play that you can make your initial meld without meeting the 40 point requirement for laying down. Also, some play that only two cards in total can be added to a run in any one turn. Some even allow a joker to be taken only from the middle of a run, and not the end. Depending on how you enjoy playing you can implement one or all of these variations.
Aces commonly get moved around. While most follow the basic rules that state it can only be used as high or low, some will change the points to 1 when it is used as low, and some even let Aces be a middle card such as K, A, and 2 in a run, although it is by far easier to play this way. Scoring differs as well. Some set the maximum score at 151 instead of 150 or as in the case with Swedish Kalookie; they set the score at 100. Some play that when a Kalookie occurs, no matter whether they go out in one play or several plays, the cards left in the hand of the losers are all charged double penalty points. One of the last variations is that some play that when on the occasion that the stock pile runs out, you do not reshuffle, and you just void the game instead of reshuffling and starting again within the same hand.
As you can see, although it does have some basic rules, Kalookie often gets changed around to fit the group or the style of people playing it. When you first join any Kalookie game you should make sure to find out what style they are playing in so that you can make sure to adhere to those groups rules.