Kemps

Kemps (also well known by other names) is a matching card game for two to six teams of two players each. It is played with a standard 52-card deck. The origin of the game is not known.

Objective and game play

The object of Kemps is for one member of a team to accumulate all four cards of a single rank in his hand and to have his partner recognize that fact aloud by yelling "Kemps!" before another team realizes that his team has four of a kind. The winning team, after each hand, receives a letter (beginning with K, then E, M and so on). The first team to spell K-E-M-P-S or P-I-C-K-L-E wins. However, with other variations of the game, a target number of wins may be predetermined.

Prior to the game, partners confer to create a signal to indicate when four cards of a rank have been accumulated.

• Note that there are many kinds of signals, such as tapping, gesturing, holding your cards a certain way, or etc. The best type of signal is a time-delayed signal that is extremely obvious. To start off, you gesture this was a set number of times before you have kemps, and the opponent will either ignore you or take you up on the call and call a false kemps. However, after those set number of turns, the opponent will not be able to realize that your real signal is that one, and will be confused as to how you communicate. The Worst signals are usually the ones that are obvious. I.e. scratching your nose, coughing, etc.

When one partner accumulates four of a kind during game play, he or she makes the signal and his partner says Kemps or Quems. Partners sit diagonal each other, with the playing surface in the middle.

• Each player is dealt four cards to begin the game.
• Four cards are turned face up on the central playing surface.
• All players may swap one of their cards for one of the central cards at any time.
• If it appears that no further swaps are desired, a player will verify this, clear the central four cards, and then turn up four new central cards.
• Cards that have been cleared may not be retrieved, so their ranks cannot be collected in full to complete the game objective.

The game is ended in one of two ways. If a team calls Kemps or Quems, the opposing team checks to see if the partner who did not make the call has four of a kind. If the call was valid and the partner does in fact have four cards of a rank, the calling team wins. If the call was invalid, the calling team loses. In a two-team game, the other team wins in the case of an invalid call. Otherwise, no team is declared a winner. Variations of the game include a winning hand that is a run of four ascending cards of the same suit rather than four of a kind.

Alternatively, if a player believes that another player has four cards of a rank but the opponent's partner has not recognized this fact, he may call "cut" (generally used as the counterpart to "kent") miss or contre-Kent (also known by other names), indicating which player he believes has four cards of a rank. If the call is valid, the calling team wins. If the call is invalid, the calling team loses. "Cut" can be called at any point during the game; meaning that one does not have to wait for a signal to say it. In this case a winner may or may not be declared, as above. There is no standardized scoring for Kent, although scoring is often predetermined by the players. Also, signals that are below the table are illegal and if a team is caught making signals below the table, they must forfeit that point.

In some variations of the game, where scoring is used over several rounds, both players on a single team may attempt to get four of a kind each, at which point one of the players calls double Kemps or likewise, depending on the name of the game upon realizing that the partner has four of a rank, as does the caller. The reward for a successful call of double Kemps may be more than that of single Kemps, as can be the loss if it is called wrongly, depending on the scoring agreed to by the players beforehand.

Basic setup