Kalooki card game played in mess rooms

[Mutant Lemming]

At one time you would find a kalooki school in virtually every canteen and messroom on the job. It appeared to start dying out with the demise of the guards and further with the rationalising of spares but some hardcore pockets continued. I haven't seen a kalooki school in years - are there any remaining enclaves out there ?

 

[pdeaves]

For those of us not in the know, what is 'kalooki', please?

 

[Mojo]

One of the teams of night crews at Acton Picc play, although this is also dying out as they’re now only together five nights of the week because of Night Tube and the Mafia man is also struggling to fill the nights, partly because it’s now only five nights per week (the other two in that week being late turns).

 

[Mutant Lemming]

For those of us not in the know, what is 'kalooki', please?

A form of rummy played with two decks including two jokers. Rules varied between lines (and even depots The Park played aces low while Elephant played aces high and low with other depots playing them only high). It was played at virtually every canteen and depot on London Underground usually for money (1p a point). As I mentioned it's popularity started to dwindle first with the advent of OPO and then the rationalisation of spares. It was quite an infectious game and the unpredictability of how long a game would last did lead to the occasional late pick up.

 

[Rogmi]

My recollection is that another reason for the fall in its popularity was the changeover from weekly cash pay to salaried status (when staff were paid monthly directly into their bank account). At Morden (in the old big canteen) it was usual for there to be a large group(s) of people on pay day from the evening and usually through the night, sometimes accompanied by beer from the adjacent club. These were the hardcore players and I think the stakes they played for were a lot higher than 1p there and I think that many a fortune was won and lost. I suspect that not having lots of cash to hand made a big difference after salaried status.

 

[bionic]

Kalooki was still regularly played at Edgware Road in the smoking room until the depot moved to Griffith House. It was even kept going for a bit when Hammersmith reopened behind the stops on 24 road.