Learn to play All Fours
HangJack's guide to Trinidad and Tobago's favourite game.
At a glance
Four players, two partnerships, four chances to score in each hand (try to score All Four!).
All Fours is a popular Trinbagoan trick-taking card game that originated in England. This gentle introduction takes you through the phases of the game: dealing, begging, playing, and scoring. An interactive version of this tutorial is available in the HangJack app.
- People
- Two teams of two. Partners sit across from each other.
- Equipment
- A standard deck of 52 cards (or the HangJack app!)
- Gameplay
- Counterclockwise.
- Goals
- First team to 14 points wins.
Intro
Requirements and objectives.
Usually four people play, with two players on each team. Your partner sits across from you, and the two players on your left and right are your opponents.
All Fours uses a standard pack of 52 cards. The object is to score points by winning tricks with valuable cards. The first team to 14 points wins.
Dealing
Six cards each to start, then propose trump.
- 1
Choose a dealer.
- 2
Everybody gets six cards to start.
- 3
The dealer turns over (kicks) one more card in the middle. Its suit is the proposed trump suit for the hand.
- 4
If the turned-over (kicked) card is an Ace, Six, or Jack, the dealer's team scores immediately.
Begging and Standing
Negotiating the trump.
The first player (to the dealer's left) looks at their hand and declares "Stand" or "Beg".
Stand
Standing means they accept the proposed trump, and play begins with the original six cards in each hand.
Beg
Begging means they want to change the trump. The dealer must now accept or reject the beg request.
Take One
If the dealer rejects the beg, they say "Take One," and one point is awarded to the begging team.
Pull Card (Run di pack)
If the dealer grants the beg, they deal three more cards to each player and kick another card for trump. If the new trump is the same as before, they deal three more cards and kick again. The dealer keeps kicking cards from the remaining deck until the trump changes. If the deck empties without the trump changing, a misdeal is called.
Playing
Following suit, winning tricks, and when trump comes in.
- 1
The player to the dealer's left leads a card. Play continues counterclockwise until every player has played one card.
- 2
Generally, you must follow suit. For example, if the leader plays Hearts, you must play a Heart if you have one. The exceptions are: (a) you have no Hearts, in which case you can play anything; or (b) you choose to play trump.
- 3
The highest card played wins the trick (a set of four cards). Cards in each suit are ranked from high to low (Ace–2). Trump cards outrank all cards in other suits. For example, if Spades are trump, the 2 of Spades outranks the Ace of Hearts, while the Ace of Hearts outranks all other Hearts.
- 4
Keep playing until all cards are gone.
Scoring
High, Low, Jack, and Game — and hanging the Jack.
At the end of each hand, points are tallied in this order: High, Low, Jack, and Game. The first team to reach 14 points wins.
High (+1)
One point goes to the player or team that was dealt the highest trump.
Low (+1)
One point goes to the player or team that was dealt the lowest trump.
Jack (+1 or +3)
Points go to the player or team that ends up with the Jack of the trump suit. If the team that was originally dealt the Jack of the trump suit keeps it, they get one point. If the other team captures it, that team gets three points. Capturing your opponent's Jack of the trump suit is called "Hanging the Jack."
Game (+1)
The Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 of every suit are assigned game values. One point goes to the team that captures the greater total value of game cards.
Signalling
Partner communication.
All Fours is a partner game. In real-life games, partners communicate with hand signals, winks, body language, and other cues. For example, looking up tells your partner that you have the Ace of the trump suit. HangJack uses emojis to reproduce team signalling. Communication is key. Signal early and signal often, but remember — your opponents can see your signals too.
- 📞 or 🤙
- High and Low
- 👍 or 🙄
- Ace
- 👑 or 🥸
- King
- 🤷
- Queen
- 😉
- Jack
- ✋ or ✊
- Ten
- 🤏
- Two
- ♠️ ♥️ ♦️ ♣️
- Strong in that suit
- 👉
- Take this trick
- ✋
- Leave it; do not go over me
- 🙂 or 🧍
- I am with you
- 🤔
- What do you have?
Throw in
When all is lost…
Sometimes the score for a hand has been decided while cards remain. For example, all the game cards and trump cards may have been played, leaving only trash cards. Throwing in lets the players toss in their remaining cards and start a fresh hand.
Misc
General things to know.
Reneging
At real-life tables, playing an illegal card is called "reneging." Penalties for reneging can be severe (for example, 14 points or an automatic win for the opponents). HangJack prevents players from playing illegal cards, so reneging is not possible in the app.
Exposed cards
At real-life tables, if a player exposes a card, their opponents have the right to demand that they play it on their next turn (if legal).
Forced beg
Tables may require the player making the call to beg when they hold no trump.
Undertrumping
Undertrumping is playing a lower trump after a previous player has already trumped the trick. Some house rules disallow this. That is, you cannot undertrump if you have a legal alternative.
Practice offline
You know the basics. Get HangJack from Google Play or the App Store, take the interactive tutorial, or practise offline with easy Jumbies. Increase the difficulty as you improve, then join an online game when you're comfortable. Have fun!
Play online
Want to play with others? Get HangJack from Google Play or the App Store. Join a table in the lobby or create your own. Invite friends and family to play from anywhere, or play with new people.
