How to Play Kemps: Rules for the Partner Signal Game

Four of a kind is easy to spot when it sits in your hand. The hard part in Kemps is getting your partner to notice it from across the table, without saying a word, while two opponents watch your face. This guide covers how to play Kemps from the deal to the final letter, the calls that end each hand, the common variations, and a list of signal ideas that are hard for the other team to read.

What you need

The basic Kemps card game needs four players and one standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Players form two partnerships, and partners sit across from each other so that they can see each other’s faces, and so can everyone else. That last part is the whole point.

Bigger groups can play too, as long as everyone is in a team of two. Wikipedia’s Kemps article describes games with two to six teams, and the rules on pagat.com suggest adding a second deck once there are more than eight players. The game also goes by other names, including Canes, Cash and Kent.

Agree on a secret signal

Before the first deal, each team goes somewhere private and agrees on a signal that means “I have four of a kind”. Kemps signals have to be silent and visible: a gesture, a facial expression or a body movement. Spoken words and codes hidden in table talk don’t count.

The signal has one meaning and one meaning only. A team that secretly agrees on extra signals, such as one for “I need kings”, is cheating, and under the pagat.com rules a team caught doing it loses the game. Those rules also let a team use more than one four-of-a-kind signal, and make meaningless fake gestures to confuse the other side. Teams can also meet up and agree on a new signal between hands.

The deal

A dealer is chosen at random or by volunteering. The dealer gives four cards, face down, to each player. Everyone picks up and looks at their own hand.

The dealer then turns four cards face up in a row in the middle of the table. The rest of the deck stays with the dealer as the stock. In a common variation the dealer says “Go” once the middle cards are out, and nobody may touch a card before that.

How to play Kemps: swapping cards

Kemps has no turns. Once play starts, everyone acts at the same time:

• You may take a card from the middle and put one card from your hand face up in its place, so you always hold four cards.
• Under the standard Kemps rules you may take several middle cards at once, as long as you put down the same number. A popular variation allows only one card at a time, and you must discard before you pick up again.
• If two players reach for the same card, whoever touches it first gets it.
• The cards you put down are fair game for everyone else, including the opponents.

The aim is to collect all four cards of one rank, such as four 7s or four queens. Pick a rank early, usually one you already hold two of.

New cards in the middle

When nobody wants any of the four middle cards, the dealer sweeps them aside and deals four new ones face up from the stock. Swapping starts again straight away. This repeats until somebody makes a call or the stock runs out.

If the stock is empty and nobody wants the last middle cards, the hand is over with no winner. Nobody takes a letter, and the next hand is dealt.

Calling Kemps and Stop Kemps

A hand ends the moment anyone makes one of the two calls. Play stops at once, and the cards decide who was right.

Kemps

Call “Kemps” when you think your partner has four of a kind. Your partner shows their hand.

• If your partner holds four of a kind, the opposing team takes a letter.
• If your partner doesn’t, your own team takes a letter.

You can’t call Kemps on your own hand. Four of a kind only scores when your partner spots your signal and calls it for you, which is why the signal matters so much.

Stop Kemps

Call “Stop Kemps” when you think a player on the other team has four of a kind and their partner hasn’t called Kemps yet. Both opponents show their hands.

• If either opponent holds four of a kind, their team takes a letter.
• If neither does, your team takes a letter.

Stop Kemps is the defense: once you know the other team’s signal, you can catch them before their partner reacts.

Kemps scoring

Scoring is done with letters rather than points. Each time a team loses a hand, it takes the next letter of the word KEMPS: first K, then E, then M, then P, then S.

The first team to collect all five letters and spell K-E-M-P-S loses the game. Only lost hands count, so a game lasts at least five hands and often many more. With more than two teams, a correct Kemps call gives a letter to every opposing team.

Kemps signal ideas

A good signal is easy for your partner to see, natural enough to blend in, and different from anything you already do without thinking. Here are some that work well:

• Touch your nose. A classic, but common enough that the other team may already be watching for it.
• Tug your ear or play with an earring. Easy to do while you look at your cards.
• Wink or blink twice slowly. Hard for the opponents to catch, but also easy for your partner to miss.
• Tap the table a set number of times. Pick a number, such as two taps with one finger.
• Adjust your hat, glasses or hair. These look like ordinary fidgets.
• Rub or scratch your chin. It reads as thinking.
• Stretch, yawn or crack your knuckles. Big enough to see, but don’t do it all the time.

Keep it simple, since a complicated signal is easy to fumble while you grab cards. Avoid anything you do out of habit, or your partner will call Kemps by mistake.

Fake signals and decoys

Where your group allows meaningless gestures, use them. If the opponents think your signal is a nose touch, a fake nose touch can bait them into a wrong Stop Kemps, which hands them a letter. The risk is that your partner falls for it too, so agree beforehand on which fidgets are decoys. Picking up cards you don’t need now and then also hides which rank you are collecting.

Common variations

Kemps is mostly played from memory, so the house rules vary from group to group. The ones you will meet most often are:

• One card at a time: you must put a card down before you pick up another one.
• No fake signals: some groups ban decoy gestures altogether.
• Peanut Butter: a version where players say “Peanut butter” for their partner and “Jelly” for the opponents, instead of Kemps and Stop Kemps.
• Cash: a version played with the calls “Cash” and “Counter Cash” and the penalty word C-A-S-H.

Wikipedia traces Kemps to the French game Carré-Coupé, and it describes a Swiss relative called Gemsch with more detailed rules.

Strategy tips

Watch more than the cards. Hands are usually won by whoever spots a signal first, so look up between swaps.

Learn their signal. Every time the other team scores, think back to what they did just before the call. Repeated gestures from one opponent right before a Kemps call are the strongest clue.

Change your signal once it’s caught. After a Stop Kemps catches your team, the other side knows what to look for. Agree on a new one before the next deal.

Play Kemps online

Kemps normally needs four people, but you can practice alone. Our free Kemps game runs in your browser and teams you up with a computer partner against two computer opponents. You pick your signal from six gestures, your partner’s face makes it when it has four of a kind, and everyone fidgets with decoys. The opponents have a signal of their own that you have to work out.

If you like card games where speed and a sharp eye matter, play Spoons next, where four of a kind means grabbing a spoon before they run out.

Frequently asked questions

How many players do you need for Kemps?

Four is the usual number, in two teams of two. Larger groups can play in more teams of two, and the pagat.com rules add a second deck once there are more than eight players.

Can you talk during Kemps?

Not about your cards. You can’t use words to tell your partner what you hold. Signals must be silent gestures or expressions, and any secret code hidden in talk is cheating.

What happens if you call Kemps and your partner doesn’t have four of a kind?

Your own team takes a letter. The same goes for a Stop Kemps call when neither opponent has four of a kind.

Do you win or lose when you spell KEMPS?

You lose. Letters are penalties, so the first team to spell K-E-M-P-S loses the game and the other team wins.

Conclusion

Kemps rules fit on a napkin: swap for four of a kind, signal your partner, and call Kemps or Stop Kemps before anyone else does. The skill is in the watching. Choose a simple signal, change it when it gets spotted, and make every call count. When you want a solo break between games, the Chrome Dino game on our homepage is ready to run.