Kalooki is a massively popular card game played world wide and a member of the 'Rummy' family of card games.
There are actually dozens of different types of Kalooki and it seems to have been customised for many countries across the world. The UK, North America, Europe, Jamaica, China and South Africa all have their own variants and spellings of the game which include Kaluki, Kalookie, Kalougi, Conquian and Calouchie.
The origins of Kalooki and Rummy are very unclear and there are dozens of theories about how it emerged, certainly it has been popular since the 1930's in both the US and the UK, but the Chinese have records of a remarkably similar game called Khanhoo, which dates back as far as the mid 1800's. There are also very similar forms of poker, ie Whiskey Poker which is noted in a book called the American Hoyle dating back to 1875.
Game play is actually fairly simple, but as with most card games can take a lifetime to master. The concept is a simple draw and discard structure with a goal of getting rid of all of your cards by forming your cards in sets or runs.
Over the last few years, many forms of Kalooki have emerged online and can be enjoyed for fun or real money. There are even Kalooki Tournaments that allow you to battle it out with players worldwide in the hope of winning the big prize at the end.
