How to Play All Fours

All Fours is a lively trick-taking card game about choosing trumps, winning useful cards, and collecting four different points. You need a normal deck of cards, and you can find a regular deck of playing cards from Playmore. This guide uses one common traditional scoring version; house and regional rules can vary.

Quick facts

Players	2–4; four players form two partnerships
Cards	One standard 52-card deck
Hand	Six cards per player, with possible extra deals when trumps are changed
Aim	Reach 14 points before the other player or team
Scoring	High, Low, Jack, and Game

What you are trying to do

During each hand, players win tricks, which are small groups containing one card from each player. Your goal is not simply to win the most tricks. You want to win tricks containing valuable cards, especially tens and the jack of the trump suit. You can also score for holding the highest or lowest trump dealt, even if another player later wins that card in a trick.

In a four-player game, sit opposite your partner. Partners share one score, but keep their won tricks together in a visible pile. With two players, each person plays alone and scores individually.

What you need

Use a complete 52-card deck. The suits are clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Within each suit, the order from strongest to weakest is ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. You will also need paper or a notes app to track the score.

Set it up

Choose a dealer. In a four-player game, deal and play counterclockwise, and move the deal to the right after each hand. Deal six cards to every player, either one at a time or in batches of three. Use the same dealing method throughout the game. Turn the next card face up. Its suit is the proposed trump suit. A trump is a suit that beats cards from the other suits.

The player to the dealer’s right decides first. If they accept the turned-up suit, they say “Stand,” and that suit becomes trump. If they do not want it, they say “I beg.” The dealer may then keep the shown suit by saying “Take one”; if so, the opposing side scores one point and play starts. Otherwise, the dealer changes trumps by dealing three more cards to each player and turning up another card.

Keep dealing three-card batches and turning up cards until a new suit appears. The newest different suit becomes trump. Players keep the extra cards, so there may be nine or twelve tricks in a four-player hand. If the deck runs out without producing a different suit, reshuffle and redeal; keep any points already earned from turned-up cards. When an ace, six, or jack is turned up, the dealer’s team immediately scores one, two, or three points respectively.

How to play

1. Lead the first trick. The player to the dealer’s right plays any card. This is the lead, the first card in the trick. The winner of each trick leads the next one.
2. Follow the rules for the lead. If a trump is led, you must play a trump if you have one. If a non-trump suit is led, you must either play a card of that suit or play a trump. If you have no card in the led suit, you may play any card.
3. Remember that trumping is allowed. Even when you can follow suit, you may play a trump instead. This lets you try to take the trick or protect a valuable card for later.
4. Find the winner. If one or more trumps were played, the highest trump wins. If no trump appeared, the highest card of the suit that was led wins. A card from another non-trump suit cannot win.
5. Collect the trick. Place the four cards, or the two cards in a two-player game, face down in front of the winning player or partnership. Keep the cards separate from your hand so everyone can count them at the end.
6. Continue until every card is played. Watch which high trumps and valuable cards have appeared. If you cannot follow suit, discard a low card or use a trump when taking the trick matters.

How you win

After the hand, award the four possible points in this order: High, Low, Jack, then Game. High goes to the player or team that held the highest trump dealt. Low goes to the original holder of the lowest trump dealt; it does not matter who captured that card. If a particular trump was never dealt, it cannot earn High or Low.

Jack concerns the jack of trumps. If the team that originally held it wins its trick, that team scores one point. If the other team captures it, the capturing team scores three points. No Jack point is awarded when the jack was not dealt.

For Game, count the scoring value of cards in each side’s won tricks. An ace is worth 4, a king 3, a queen 2, a jack 1, and a 10 is worth 10. Cards from 2 through 9 are worth zero. The side with the higher total scores one Game point. A tie scores no Game point.

Add the points to the running total. The first player or partnership to reach 14 points wins. If both sides appear to reach 14 during the same hand, award points in the order High, Low, Jack, Game; the first side to cross 14 is the winner.

Easy first-game tips

Keep your trumps visible in your mind: they are your strongest cards, but you do not want to spend every one immediately. Tens are unusually valuable for Game, so try to capture them safely. The jack of trumps can swing the score by three points, making it worth planning around. Before playing, check whether you can follow the led suit; accidentally throwing a different non-trump card when you could follow is a revoke and can cost points.

When you lead, choose a suit you hold several times or a card that tests an opponent’s trumps. In a partnership game, avoid giving away secret signals; simply play the card that best fits the situation. At the end of every trick, announce or record its winner so the final scoring stays friendly and clear.

Quick questions

Can I play a trump even if I can follow suit?

Yes. In this version, playing a trump is always legal. You may follow suit or trump, but you may not discard a different non-trump suit while holding the suit that was led.

Is the lowest card in the deck always Low?

No. Low is the lowest trump that was actually dealt in the hand, and its original holder gets the point. The two may never have been dealt at all.