player: 4,6,8, materials: 52 card deck

Preparation

There are usually 4 players, but it is possible for a larger even number of people to play. The players are divided into teams with 2 players in each team; the partners sit across from each other.

First decide who is playing with whom. Then each two player team goes away and privately agrees a signal that they can secretly use to tell each other when they have four of a kind. The signal can be a body movement, a gesture or a hand signal, but words are not allowed (for example saying “elephants” cannot be used as a signal).

You can have several signals and can use more than one in a game. You can also use meaningless signals to confuse the opponents, but you are not allowed to have any signals with a meaning other than “I have four of a kind”. Cheating by using signals with other meanings is known as “table talk” and is penalised by loss of the game if discovered.

After any round any team is allowed to agree new signals; they may want to do this if they suspect that the opponents might have guessed some of their existing signals. The more subtle the signal the better.

Then you have to choose an dealer. The dealer deals four cards to every player. After everyone has looked at their cards, the dealer deals four more cards, one at a time, in a row face up in the middle.

Play Game

When the last card has been turned up by the dealer, any player can pick up one card of the face up cards from the middle, add it to their hand, and immediately discard a different card face up in its place. Players do not take turns. If two players want the same face up card, the first player to touch it gets it.

Players continue replacing cards, as often as they want to, until no one wants any of the four face up cards. The dealer then sweeps these four cards away, and deals out four new cards on the table. Play then continues as before.

This is repeated until the deck is gone or someone yells KEMPS or STOP KEMPS.

As soon as a player yells KEMPS the round is over. The partner of the player who said “KEMPS” must reveal their cards.

  • If the partner has four of a kind, the opposing team looses a live. With more than 4 players, all of the opposing teams loses a ❤️.
  • If the partner does not have four of a kind, then the team that incorrectly called “KEMPS” lose a ❤️.

Alternatively a team can win the round by saying STOP KEMPS when it suspects that one player of the opposing team have four of a kind, before his partner says “KEMPS”. Then the round is also over and the suspect has to reveal his cards.

  • If the opposing player does in fact have four of a kind, then the team who was ‘stopped’ lose a ❤️.
  • However, if “STOP KEMPS” is said and the opposing team does not have “KEMPS” then the team who said it lose a ❤️.

After determination the dealer then deals for the next round.

If a point is reached when no one wants any of the face up cards, and the dealer has no more fresh cards to deal, the round ends and no one lose a ❤️. This is called a real deal. The dealer then deals for the next round.

End Game

The first team to lose five ❤️s, loses the game.