Kemps

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Before you start: the secret signal
3. Setup
4. Playing
5. Kemps! and Stop Kemps!
6. Scoring
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Kemps is a fast, sneaky team game. You play in pairs and swap cards with the middle of the table, trying to collect four of a kind – all four cards of one rank, like four 8s. When you have them, you give your partner a secret signal, and your partner shouts "Kemps!". But watch out: if the other team spots your signal first, they can shout "Stop Kemps!". The losing team of each deal gets a letter of the word K-E-M-P-S.

• Players: 4, or any larger even number (6, 8 …), in teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers (two decks with more than 8 players).

Before you start: the secret signal

1. Decide who plays with whom.
2. Each team goes away and privately agrees on a signal that means "I have four of a kind". It can be any movement, gesture or facial expression – a wink, scratching your ear, tapping the table – but no words.
3. You may agree several signals, and fake signals that mean nothing, to confuse the others. But a signal must never mean anything else (such as "I'm collecting Kings") – that is cheating and loses the game.
4. After any deal, a team may go away again and agree new signals, for example if they think the others have guessed theirs.

Setup

1. Choose a dealer – the player who shuffles and hands out the cards.
2. The dealer deals 4 cards to each player, face down. Everyone looks at their own cards and keeps them hidden.
3. Then the dealer deals 4 cards face up in a row in the middle of the table. The rest of the deck stays face down with the dealer as the stock.

Playing

As soon as the fourth card is face up, everyone plays at once – there are no turns.

• Swap: take a card from the middle into your hand and at once put a different card from your hand face up in its place. You always have exactly 4 cards.
• You may swap as often as you like. You may also take several cards at once, as long as you put down the same number.
• If two players grab the same card, the one who touches it first gets it.
• When nobody wants any of the four cards in the middle, the dealer clears them away and deals 4 new cards face up from the stock. Then the swapping starts again.

Example: You hold 8♠ 8♥ 8♦ Q♣, and the 8♣ appears in the middle. You grab it and put your Q♣ in its place. Four 8s! Now quietly give your signal – and hope your partner is watching.

Kemps! and Stop Kemps!

The deal ends at once when someone calls:

• "Kemps!" – you think your partner has four of a kind. Your partner shows their cards. If they have four of a kind, your team wins the deal. If not, your team loses it.
• "Stop Kemps!" – you think a player of the other team has four of a kind (before their partner can call "Kemps!"). Both players of that team show their cards; with more than two teams, say which team you mean – only that team shows its cards. If one of them has four of a kind, your team wins the deal. If not, your team loses it.

Only your partner can win the deal for you by calling "Kemps!" – if you have four of a kind yourself, you can't say it; you have to get your partner to notice.

If the stock runs out and nobody wants any of the cards in the middle, the deal ends with no winner and nobody gets a letter.

Scoring

The team that loses a deal gets the next letter of K-E-M-P-S: first a K, then an E, and so on. With more than two teams, when a team correctly calls "Kemps!", all the other teams get a letter.

Example: Anna signals to Carla by touching her ear. Carla shouts "Kemps!", Anna shows four Jacks – the other team gets their first letter, K.

The same dealer gathers all the cards, shuffles and deals the next hand.

Winning the game

The first team to spell the whole word KEMPS – five lost deals – loses the game. The other team wins.

Tips for beginners

• Keep your signal simple, and agree to check each other after every new set of cards in the middle.
• Don't make it obvious which rank you are collecting.
• If you work out what your partner is collecting, put those cards in the middle for them.
• Watch the other team closely – and sometimes take a card you don't need to confuse them.
• Use a fake signal now and then to tempt the others into a wrong "Stop Kemps!".

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• "Go!": play starts only when the dealer says "Go!" after dealing the middle cards.
• One at a time: you may only swap one card at a time.
• Other calls: some groups say "Cut!" or "Stop!" instead of "Stop Kemps!".
• Peanut Butter: call "Peanut butter!" if you think your partner has four of a kind and "Jelly!" if you think an opponent has. Spoken signals are allowed. Agree beforehand on an odd number of deals to play; the team that wins more deals wins.