and may be used at any time in the game by the dealer, unless it has been 'blocked' [see below] by another player's joker. The second joker is shuffled and dealt with the rest of the cards. After dealing but before any of the players look at their cards the dealer must nominate the effect of the jokers for that hand. The dealer may nominate the joker to do one of the following: Wild card. The joker may be used as a wild card in any set or sequence. The wild joker is worth zero points. Double. The joker doubles the value of any set. The joker is placed face up over any meld, whilst it is being melded. Once the joker has been added to the meld, that set is 'sealed' and no further cards can laid off onto it. The joker is used to 'split' the discard pile from either side of the card selected. Those cards on the inside of the split are then removed from the game for the remainder of that hand. Those cards on the outside of the split are added to the players hand. As per normal the selected card must be used immediately either by laying it down in a set or by laying it off on a set already on the table. The dealer's joker can be 'blocked' at any time in the game by placing another joker face down over it. If the dealer's joker is so blocked it may not be used by the dealer for the remainder of that hand. Jokers have a zero value if still in a players hand at the end of the turn. There are no penalties for not using the jokers. Each joker nomination may be used strategically by the dealer to improve their position or undermine that of other players. As a result, this is a highly strategic variant of the game which may result in long games with significant fluctuations in the score. As a result, some people only play to a smaller score of 250 points. Partnership 500 rum This game is the same as 500 rum, with the following exceptions. Four players are organized into two teams of two players each, with partners facing each other across the table. The rules are exactly as in 500 rum, except the partners may play off on each other's matched sets and