Kemps
Encyclopedia
Kemps also well known by other names such as Crepes, Party, Kent, Quems, Canes, Signals, Cash, Twa, Spam, Campers, Squares, Jabers, Peanut Butter, Comps, Mujumbo, Schenectady, and less popularly as Gumpsh 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 and is generally learned from friend to friend. In England, it is known as Ross Kemps, almost certainly after the television star of the same name, yet the reasons for this are unknown.
Prior to the game, partners confer to create a signal to indicate when four cards of a rank have been accumulated.
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.
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 "non-Kemps", "counter-Kemps", "anti", "bust" "mis-Kemps", "stop Kemps", "stop","coupe", "con Kemps", "Carson Kemps", "Ross Kemps", "Jack Kemps","flip-flops", "break", "gotcha", "butter peanut" or "jelly" depending on the name of the game and rules established beforehand), 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.
The supersub is a designated extra player, one for each team, that cannot call Kemps or use cards; they can only call contra-Kemps.
If the pack is exhausted, the burn pile is shuffled and dealt again. The only way the game can end is by a correct call of "jackpot", or "double jackpot".
Conferring beforehand is generally banned.
Kipper is a four player variation, with one player acting the part of the dealer. Players sit opposite their partner. Five cards are dealt face down in front of each of the players, which the players are not allowed to pick up or look at, until the dealer says, "Ready? Play". All players may then look at their cards, and must discard one card, which gets cast into the middle of the table, face up.
There is no order or turn to discarding, all players may discard simultaneously. If any player chooses to pick up one or any number of the discarded cards in order to get a better hand, they must then discard until all players are left with four cards in their hand, and four cards are left face up in the centre. Again, there is no order to picking up discarded cards from the table. When there are four cards in the centre of the table, the dealer then calls, "Done?", and if all players agree, the cards are swept into the dead pile, and another round continues; the dealer dealing four fresh cards from the pack.
Once a round has been won or stopped, all dead cards are returned to the base of the pack without shuffling the pack.
A certain amount of cheating is tolerated; (particularly attempting to sneak a look at other teams cards) - the only rule being that one must never false wink, or shout kipper without seeing their partner wink.
Kemps is also a brand of milk.
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
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 and is generally learned from friend to friend. In England, it is known as Ross Kemps, almost certainly after the television star of the same name, yet the reasons for this are unknown.
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 "non-Kemps", "counter-Kemps", "anti", "bust" "mis-Kemps", "stop Kemps", "stop","coupe", "con Kemps", "Carson Kemps", "Ross Kemps", "Jack Kemps","flip-flops", "break", "gotcha", "butter peanut" or "jelly" depending on the name of the game and rules established beforehand), 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.
Guess the Sign Kemps Variation
You do not have to call the correct person when calling counter kemps. In this variation of Kemps, after a correct call of "Kemps", the opposing team has an opportunity to guess the signal of the calling team. If they guess it correctly, then the point earned for the call is canceled, and neither team scores. This is used to prevent obvious signal from being used just because they work the first round. When this variation is used, it is very common to use the "Silent Kemps" variation as well, because guessing verbal signal is very hard (especially if someone gets wise and makes their signal "an elephant", and not just "elephant" or similar).Persistent card pool variation
The game can also be player such that the cards dealt into the middle of the table are not cleared when the next set of cards is revealed. This change means no ranks of cards are ever "dead", and a player could start collecting any new hand at any time. This makes it much more difficult to track which cards an opponent is collecting, and allows players to cache one or more cards into the pool to throw off opponents.Silent Kemps variation
In this variation of the game, players are prohibited from using verbal signals, or making loud noises during play. Teams are encouraged to use subtle signals, putting emphasis on concentration and perceptivity.Super series Kemps variation
In the Super series Kemps variation of the game four players for each side are required. The game still uses the basic principles of Kemps with two pairs competing, but at the very start both teams flip a coin and the winning side decides who will go first. There are six rounds per game, and each of the four players will play in three of the six rounds. The team who, according to the coin flip, is "going first" will have decide their pairs for the first three rounds first. It will then swap for the second half of the game, and the other team will decide their pairs first.The supersub is a designated extra player, one for each team, that cannot call Kemps or use cards; they can only call contra-Kemps.
Borderline Cheating variation
In the Borderline Cheating variation, also called the "BS Method", a typical four player (two team) game is played, but in addition to speaking in code, players are encouraged to try to look at each others' cards by glancing, peering or overtly leaning toward their neighbor's hand. Both teammates can collaborate in this type of effort, as one player's leaning could trick the opponent into revealing cards in the other teammate's direction.Double Kemps victory condition
Some players follow a rule that if both players of a single team collect winning hands, and simultaneously call Kemps, that team immediately wins the game or match.Three-player Kemps
Ideally played with two teams of 3 players each. Played the same way as normal Kemps but 2 of the 3 players must have four of a kind and the third player on the team must call Kemps. Because there is a delay for 2 of the 3 players to get four of a kind, five cards per hand are used for the fifth card to serve as decoy for the player to avoid being called "contra-Kemps" on.Jackpot
In this version, the words "jackpot" and "suspect" are used. The main variation from the game of Kemps is that an incorrect call on any person's part results in that person discarding their hand into the burn pile and taking four new cards from the top of the pack. A correct call of "suspect" results in the person with a complete hand (a jackpot) discarding their hand and taking four new cards.If the pack is exhausted, the burn pile is shuffled and dealt again. The only way the game can end is by a correct call of "jackpot", or "double jackpot".
Conferring beforehand is generally banned.
Kipper
The objective of the game is for one player to obtain four cards of the same value (a "winning hand") and let their partner know they have it by winking at them. If their partner sees them wink, they must shout, "Kipper!". Doing so wins that round for the team. However, if the opposing team see the wink before "Kipper" has been shouted, they can stop play for that round by shouting, "Stop!". If "Kipper" or "Stop" is shouted, the winning hand must be shown.Kipper is a four player variation, with one player acting the part of the dealer. Players sit opposite their partner. Five cards are dealt face down in front of each of the players, which the players are not allowed to pick up or look at, until the dealer says, "Ready? Play". All players may then look at their cards, and must discard one card, which gets cast into the middle of the table, face up.
There is no order or turn to discarding, all players may discard simultaneously. If any player chooses to pick up one or any number of the discarded cards in order to get a better hand, they must then discard until all players are left with four cards in their hand, and four cards are left face up in the centre. Again, there is no order to picking up discarded cards from the table. When there are four cards in the centre of the table, the dealer then calls, "Done?", and if all players agree, the cards are swept into the dead pile, and another round continues; the dealer dealing four fresh cards from the pack.
Once a round has been won or stopped, all dead cards are returned to the base of the pack without shuffling the pack.
A certain amount of cheating is tolerated; (particularly attempting to sneak a look at other teams cards) - the only rule being that one must never false wink, or shout kipper without seeing their partner wink.
Kemps is also a brand of milk.