Good and bad Kalooki cards

When you're drawing and discarding, always bear in mind the 'patterns' of cards that you're looking to hold, to make melding easier.

I've ranked these patterns below, from best to worst, and given you the nicknames I use, to help you remember them.

Rank 1 - the Grid

A Grid is a group of cards that could be completed in the most ways - 8, in fact. A Grid is two parallel two card runs eg 4, 5 Hearts, 4, 5, Spades. This Grid could be completed by 4 Clubs, 4 Diamonds, 5 Clubs, 5 Diamonds, 3 Spades, 6 Spades, 3 Hearts, 6 Hearts.

Always look for possibilities to create Grids when drawing cards.

Rank 2 - the 'Z'

A 'Z' is two runs slightly out of sync with each other eg 8, 9 Clubs, 9, 10 Hearts.

Each run could be completed by either of the cards at the start and end, and the 'internal' set could also be completed by either of the missing 9s. In total, then, a 'Z' gives you 6 options to complete.

Rank 3 - the Corner

A corner is a junction of a run and a set eg J, Q Clubs, J Spades.

This corner could be completed by either a 10 or K of Clubs, or J Diamonds and J Hearts.

In total, a Corner gives you 4 possible options to complete.

Rank 4 - the 'Kid brother'

I've named this pattern after the annoying little kid brother who used to follow me and my girlfriend around!

It's a near relation of a card used in a set, not connected, but only 1 away eg 4 Hearts put with 6 Hearts, 6 Clubs. It's annoying, but it can be useful if you pick up the 5 Hearts before another 6.

Tolerate it early in the game, but discard it as soon as you can!

Rank 5 - Odds and Evens

Often, you'll get incomplete runs that are all odds or all evens eg 4, 6, 8 Hearts or 7, 9, J Spades.

They're quite useful to keep hold of early in the game as each group has 2 possible options to complete.

Rank 6 - Two card melds

Any two card half-meld eg 6, 7 Spades, K Diamonds, K Clubs is better than two disconnected cards (see below) as they each have 2 possible completion options, as opposed to 1.

Rank 7 - suited disconnectors

Don't be seduced by 2, 4 Hearts or 10, Q Clubs. They only have one possible completion option. Try to rearrange your cards to a more suitable grouping ie any of the above! If you have to keep suited disconnectors, keep the lower ones as the penalty count will be much less.

Rank 8 - K, Q, the Poker fallacy.

Many Poker players new to Kalooki find it hard to discard King, Queen of any suit. But this combination has only one possible option for completion ie the Jack. Worse still, it has 20 penalty points. In Kalooki, be a Republican - dump the Royals!

How to use this knowledge!

The last point - the Poker Fallacy - gives you a great opportunity to beat Poker players new to Kalooki. As they'll be reluctant to lose their face cards, you could sting them for lots of penalty points.

Rummy Royal is currently attracting a lot of new players to online Kalooki - players who are not yet familiar with the subtleties of the game. There's really no better time to sign-up and start looking for those naive Poker players!