1: Play in teams of two. Partners sit across the table from each other.Four players is usual. Six, eight or more can play, always in pairs.
2: Before the deal, each team agrees in private on a secret signal.It means one thing only: my hand is four of a kind.
3: Deal every player four cards, face down. Everyone looks at their own hand.One regular 52-card deck.
4: Deal four more cards face up in a row in the middle of the table.Play opens when the last of the four is turned up.
5: Nobody takes turns. Swap cards with the middle whenever you like.Two hands on one card? The first to touch it takes it.
6: Take a card from the middle and lay one from your hand face up in its place.Your hand stays at four cards. Take two, and you discard two.
7: Nobody wants the four in the middle? The dealer sweeps them away and deals four new ones.Swept cards are out of the hand.
8: Four cards of one rank in your hand? Signal your partner, who calls "Kemps".The call ends the hand, and your cards are shown.
9: The losing team takes a letter: K, E, M, P, then S. The team that spells KEMPS loses.So a game lasts until one team has lost five hands.
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Calling Kemps and Stop Kemps 9
1: Call "Kemps" when you think your partner holds four of a kind.The hand stops at once and your partner shows their cards.
2: A right call of Kemps: the other team takes a letter.With three teams or more, every other team takes one.
3: A wrong call of Kemps: your own team takes the letter.Your partner did not hold four of a kind.
4: Call "Stop Kemps" when you think an opponent holds four of a kind.It only counts before that player's partner has called Kemps.
5: A right call of Stop Kemps: the team you stopped takes a letter.One of its players shows four of a kind.
6: A wrong call of Stop Kemps: your own team takes the letter.Nobody on the other side held four of a kind.
7: Real deal: the deck runs out and nobody wants the middle cards. No team takes a letter.The hand is over, and a new one is dealt.
8: You may call for your partner on a hunch, with no signal seen.The rule asks only that you believe your partner holds four of a kind.
9: The dealer stays the same for the next hand.It starts with four cards each, as before.
Signals: what is allowed 9
1: A signal has one meaning: my hand is four of a kind.A signal that says anything else, such as the rank you need, is table talk.
2: A signal is seen, not heard: a gesture, a movement, a way of holding the cards.Words are not allowed in the standard game.
3: Signals players use: a tap, a wink, a grimace, cards held a certain way.The harder to notice, the better.
4: A team may agree on several signals and use more than one in a game.Each still means only four of a kind.
5: Fake signals that mean nothing are allowed, to draw a wrong call of Stop Kemps.Some rule books ban them. Settle it before the first deal.
6: After any hand, a team may step away and agree on new signals.Worth doing once the other team seems to have worked yours out.
7: Partners face each other across the cards, so the other team can watch them both.Nobody sits beside their own partner.
8: Table talk, once found out, loses the game for the team that used it.It is the one penalty heavier than a letter.
9: Ours: keep every signal above the table, where the other team has a fair chance to see it.A signal nobody could catch leaves the other team nothing to play.
Variations and other names 9
1: Variation: nobody touches the middle cards until the dealer says "Go".It gives every player the same start.
2: Variation: one card at a time. Discard before you pick up another.No double swaps.
3: Variation, more than eight players: shuffle two decks together.One deck is enough for up to eight.
4: Kent: the same game. The call is "Kent" and the letters spell K-E-N-T.Four letters, so the game ends one lost hand sooner.
5: Cash: the calls are "Cash" and "Counter Cash", and the letters spell C-A-S-H.Counter Cash does the job of Stop Kemps.
6: Cash: the middle cards are dealt face down and turned after "Three, two, one, go".A deck that runs out makes the hand a draw.
7: Peanut Butter: "Peanut butter" is the call for a partner, "Jelly" the call on an opponent.Spoken signals are allowed in this one.
8: Peanut Butter: agree on an odd number of hands before the first deal.An odd number, so two teams cannot finish tied.
9: Carré-Coupé, the French game: a double call, for two fours of a kind at once, scores 2.A Kemps table can borrow it as a call of "Double Kemps".
A tournament (our format) 8
1: Enter as teams of two. A team keeps the same two players for the whole event.Signals may still change between hands, as in any game.
2: A match is two teams at one table with one deck.Teams that are waiting watch from a distance.
3: Shorten each match: the first team to take three letters, K-E-M, loses it.Play the full word in the final.
4: Up to five teams: every team plays every other team once.Rank the teams by matches won.
5: Tied on matches won: the team that took fewer letters over the event ranks higher.Keep a running count of letters for every team.
6: Six teams or more: split into two groups. The two group winners play a final.Each group plays as in step 4.
7: Give each table a dealer who is not playing, to sweep the cards and judge the first touch.The dealer's ruling stands.
8: Settle three things before match one: fake signals, the "Go" start, one card at a time.Then every table plays the same game.
How this list was compiled: Written for this site on 2026-10-13, in our own words. Kemps, also called Kent, Cash or Canes, is a traditional card game with no governing body. The sheets were checked on 2026-10-13 against English Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, Kemps (card game): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemps_(card_game), and against the card game rules site Pagat: https://www.pagat.com/commerce/kemps.html. Both give a regular 52-card deck, teams of two with partners opposite, a secret signal that means only four of a kind and is never a word, four cards each and four face up, cards swapped with no turns and the first touch winning a card, the four middle cards cleared and dealt again when nobody wants them, the calls of Kemps and Stop Kemps with a letter for the losing side, new signals allowed between hands, fake signals, and the variation Peanut Butter. Pagat gives four players as usual and any larger even number, two decks for more than eight players, a letter for every opposing team, several signals a team, table talk and its penalty, the hand with no letter that it calls a real deal, the start on "Go" and the one-card rule. Wikipedia gives two to six teams, the examples of signals, the same dealer dealing the next hand, that some rule books do not allow fake signals, the variant Cash and the double calls of the French game Carré-Coupé, which is played for points from a pool of chips there; this page gives the call and leaves the chips out. The name Kent, its call and its four letters were read in the rule page Wikipedia cites for the names Cash and Kent: https://www.denexa.com/blog/cash-card-game/, a card maker's page that this site has no tie to; it also allows a spoken phrase as a signal, which the standard sheet does not. The tournament sheet and every row marked ours are this site's own and are not official. Nothing is played for a stake: letters and matches only keep score. Licence: own work
How it works
Kemps, also called Kent or Cash, is a card game for teams of two and one regular deck. There are no turns, each lost hand costs a team a letter, and the team that spells KEMPS loses.
Read the full guide
How to play Kemps: one hand, start to finish
Say you hold two 9s, a jack and a 4, and a 9 is turned up in the middle. You take it and lay the 4 in its place. The next four cards bring the last 9. You swap out the jack and tug your ear. Your partner calls Kemps, you show four 9s, and the other team takes a K.
Kent card game signals, and a Kemps card game tournament
Kent and Kemps share their signal rules: Signals: what is allowed has fake signals, new signals between hands and table talk. A tournament (our format) fills an evening: short matches to three letters, every team against every other.
Watch what the other team picks up. A player who takes two cards of one rank is halfway to four of a kind.
Questions and answers
What are the rules for Kemps?
Teams of two agree on a secret signal. Deal four cards each and four face up. Everyone swaps cards with the middle at once. With four of a kind, signal your partner, who calls Kemps. The team that loses a hand takes a letter.
How do you play the card game Kent?
Exactly as Kemps: Kent is another name for the same game. The call is Kent, and a losing team takes a letter of K-E-N-T, so a game ends one lost hand sooner.
What does Stop Kemps mean?
It is the call against an opponent. If a player on the team you stop holds four of a kind, that team takes a letter. If neither does, your own team takes it.
How many people can play Kemps?
Four is usual, as two teams of two. Any larger even number can play in pairs, and Wikipedia gives two to six teams. With more than eight players, Pagat allows two decks shuffled together.
What happens when the deck runs out in Kemps?
If nobody wants the cards in the middle and the dealer has none left to deal, the hand ends and no team takes a letter. Players call that a real deal. The cards are shuffled and dealt again.