What Is Kemps?
Kemps is a team-based card game that combines fast card-passing with secret communication. You and a partner sit across from each other. Both of you are trying to collect four cards of the same rank in your hand. When you do, you signal your partner using a secret code you agreed on before the game. Your partner must notice your signal and call ‘Kemps!’ on your behalf — you cannot call it yourself. Meanwhile, you’re trying to catch OTHER teams’ signals and call ‘Stop Kemps!’ to block them. First team to successfully call Kemps three times wins.
What You Need
- One standard deck of 52 playing cards
- Four to eight players organized into teams of two — partners sit directly across the table from each other
- No extra equipment needed
The Most Important Step — Choosing Your Signal
Before the game starts, each team of two must go somewhere private — away from the other teams — and agree on a secret signal. This is a small, subtle physical action that means ‘I have four of a kind, call Kemps for me.’ Good signals are things like: touching your ear, tapping the table twice with one finger, placing your chin in your hand, smoothing your hair. Bad signals are things that are too obvious or too similar to normal gestures. The signal must be something you can do naturally without looking suspicious. After choosing, rejoin the group WITHOUT revealing your signal.
Setting Up the Game
- Select sets of four matching cards equal to the number of players — for 4 players, use 4 sets of four (16 cards total). Shuffle them.
- Deal 4 cards to each player.
- Place 4 additional cards face-up in the center of the table. These are the exchange cards.
How to Play — Step by Step
- As soon as cards are dealt and the center cards are face-up, ALL PLAYERS act simultaneously — there are no individual turns.
- Any player can, at any time, pick up a face-up center card that they want AND at the same moment place one of their own cards face-up into the center to replace it. You always hold exactly 4 cards.
- Players are constantly swapping in and out, trying to build four cards of the same rank in their hand.
- When the center cards stop moving — when no one wants any of the face-up cards — a player calls ‘Switch!’ and the dealer replaces all four center cards with four fresh face-down cards from the deck, flipped face-up.
Calling Kemps
When you have four cards of the same rank, do your secret signal as naturally as possible. Your PARTNER — not you — must notice it and say ‘Kemps!’ If your partner calls it correctly, your team wins the round. If they call it and you DON’T actually have four of a kind, your team loses the round.
Calling Stop Kemps
If you think you’ve spotted another team’s signal — if you notice a player doing something subtle and suspect it means they have four of a kind — you can call ‘Stop Kemps!’ and point to that player. If you’re right and they DO have four of a kind, your team wins the round. If you’re wrong and they DON’T, your team loses the round.
Winning
First team to win three rounds wins the match. After each round, teams may privately change their signal for the next round.
Tips
- Practice your signal until it feels completely natural — rehearse it a few times so it doesn’t look rehearsed during the game.
- Keep your eyes moving across all players at all times. You are watching your partner for their signal AND watching opponents for theirs.
- Change your signal between rounds, especially if you suspect another team noticed it.