How to Play All Fours: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

The National Card Game of Trinidad and Tobago — Explained from the Ground Up

All Fours is one of the most exciting card games you will ever learn. It is fast, social, deeply strategic, and — once you get the hang of it — completely addictive. If you have grown up in Trinidad and Tobago you have probably watched it being played your whole life. Now it is time to sit down at the table yourself.

This guide will take you through everything you need to know: the setup, the rules, the scoring, and the key strategies that will help you stop embarrassing yourself in front of your partner.

What You Need

• A standard 52-card deck (no jokers)
• Four players (though two can play, four is the proper game)
• A way to keep score — pencil and paper is traditional
• A table, some chairs, and at least one person who thinks they are very good at this

The Basic Idea

All Fours is a trick-taking partnership game. You and the person sitting across from you are a team. You play cards in rounds called tricks, and you are trying to win the right cards to score points. The first team to reach 14 points wins the game.

That is the whole shape of it. Everything else is detail — but the detail is where all the fun lives.

Setting Up

Seating: Four players sit around a table. The two people sitting across from each other are partners. You and your partner are one team; the other two players are the opposing team.

Choosing partners: If partnerships are not already arranged, deal cards face up around the table until all four Jacks appear. The two players who received red Jacks are partners; the two with black Jacks are partners.

The deal: Play and dealing move counter-clockwise in Trinidad All Fours — this is the opposite of many card games, so pay attention. The dealer shuffles the deck, and the player to their right cuts it. The dealer then gives each player six cards, dealt in two batches of three — three cards first, then three more — starting with the player to the dealer’s right and continuing counter-clockwise.

After all six cards have been dealt to each player, the dealer turns over the next card from the remaining deck. This card determines the trump suit for the hand.

What Is Trump?

Trump is the most important concept in All Fours. The trump suit is a special suit that beats every other suit. If Clubs are trump, then even the lowly Two of Clubs can beat the Ace of Spades.

When the dealer turns over that card after the deal, its suit becomes the proposed trump. But before play begins, the other team gets a say.

Begging — And What Happens Next

The player to the right of the dealer (who leads first) looks at their hand. If they are unhappy with the trump suit, they can say “I beg.”

When a player begs, the dealer has two choices:

Option 1 — Give one: The dealer says “Take one” (or simply nods), awards the begging team one point, and the cards are thrown in. A new hand is dealt.

Option 2 — Run the cards: The dealer does not want to give the point. Instead, they deal three more cards to each player and turn over a new card to try to change the trump suit. If the new card is the same suit as the original trump, the dealer must run the cards again — dealing three more to each player and turning another card. This continues until a different suit is turned, which then becomes the new trump. The dealer also keeps any bonus points scored on cards turned up during this process (more on that below).

If at any point the entire deck is run without a new trump being established, the hand is thrown in and redealt.

Special Cards — Bonus Points on the Turn-Up

When the dealer turns up the trump card, certain cards score immediate bonus points for the dealer’s team:

These points are scored right away, before a single trick is played. If the dealer runs the cards because the other team begged, any of these special cards turned up during the running still score for the dealer’s team, even if they don’t become the final trump suit.

Card Rankings

Within each suit, cards rank from highest to lowest:

Ace — King — Queen — Jack — 10 — 9 — 8 — 7 — 6 — 5 — 4 — 3 — 2

The Ace is always the highest. In the trump suit specifically, these rankings determine who wins tricks and who scores points at the end.

Playing the Hand — Tricks

Once trump is settled, the player to the right of the dealer leads the first trick by playing any card face up to the middle of the table. Play continues counter-clockwise.

The rules for following suit:

• If a trump is led, every player must play a trump if they have one.
• If a non-trump suit is led, players must follow suit if they can.
• If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card — including a trump.
• Crucially: if a non-trump suit is led and you have cards in that suit, you must follow suit. You cannot simply trump in when you have the led suit in your hand.

Who wins the trick?

• If any trumps were played, the highest trump wins.
• If no trumps were played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins.

The winner of each trick collects those cards and leads the next trick. Keep the cards your team wins face down in a pile — you will need them for scoring at the end.

Scoring — The Four Points

At the end of each hand, up to four points are available from play. These are the points that give the game its name — All Fours.

1. HIGH (1 point) Awarded to the team that was dealt the highest trump card in the hand. You do not have to win a trick with it — you just need to have been dealt it originally.
2. LOW (1 point) Awarded to the team that was dealt the lowest trump card in the hand. Same principle — dealt, not necessarily played.
3. JACK (1 or 3 points) This is where things get exciting. If the Jack of trumps was dealt to any player:

• If the team that held the Jack also wins the trick containing it, they score 1 point for Jack.
• If the opposing team captures the Jack in a trick, they score 3 points — this is called “Hang Jack” and is one of the most celebrated moments in the game. The Jack’s team just got robbed.

4. GAME (1 point) Each team counts the total value of scoring cards in the tricks they won. Card values for this purpose are:

The team with the higher total scores 1 point for Game. Note that Tens are worth 10 — catching an opponent’s Ten is worth more than catching their Ace. If the totals are tied, neither team scores for Game.

Winning the Game

Add up all the points after each hand — bonus points from the turn-up plus the four end-of-hand points. Keep a running total. The first team to reach 14 points wins the game.

Points accumulate across multiple hands. A single hand can swing 5 or 6 points between teams if things go dramatically (especially with a Hang Jack), so even a team that is behind can turn things around quickly.

Common Terms You Will Hear at the Table

Beg — Asking for a new trump because you are unhappy with your hand.

Run the cards — The dealer deals three more cards and turns a new trump card.

Pitch — The first card played to a trick, which sets the lead suit.

Hang Jack — Capturing the opponent’s Jack of trumps for 3 points. The loudest moment in any game.

All Foes — What some people call the game locally (a creolisation of “All Fours”).

High, Low, Jack and Game — The four scoring categories. Experienced players will quietly calculate which of these they are winning or losing as the hand progresses.

Beginner Tips

Know your trumps. Before the first trick is played, count how many trump cards you hold. This tells you how much power you have in the hand.

Protect your Jack. If you hold the Jack of trumps, be careful. Leading it early can be risky — if someone trumps over it, they hang your Jack for three points. Play it when the coast is clear or when you know your partner can protect you.

Tens are gold. Because Tens are worth 10 in the Game count, capturing an opponent’s Ten can be the difference between winning and losing the Game point. Be aware of where Tens are and try to take them.

Talk to your partner. Not about the cards — that is against the rules — but experienced partnerships develop a reading of each other’s play. When your partner leads a particular card, they are telling you something about their hand.

Count what has been played. The more you play, the more you develop a sense of which high trumps are still out. Knowing that the Ace of trumps has already been played changes everything about how aggressively you play your King.

Do not be afraid to beg. If your hand is weak and the trump is no good for you, beg. The worst that happens is the dealer gives you one point and restarts. That is not a disaster.

A Quick Example Hand

Say diamonds are turned up as trump. You are holding the Jack of Diamonds, the Four of Diamonds, the Ace of Spades, the King of Hearts, the Ten of Clubs, and the Three of Hearts.

You have High (you cannot know yet — depends what your opponents hold), you may have Low if no one has a lower diamond, and you hold the Jack, which means there is a Hang Jack threat. Your Ten of Clubs is valuable for the Game count. This is a reasonable hand. You would not beg.

Your goal: protect that Jack, secure your Ten of Clubs, and try to win the Game point.

Now Sit Down and Play

The honest truth about All Fours is that you learn it best by playing it. The rules become natural very quickly, and within a few hands you will find yourself watching the other team’s cards, counting trumps, and feeling the tension build whenever a Jack appears on the table.

Every generation in Trinidad and Tobago has learned this game from someone older — a parent, an uncle, a neighbour at the rum shop. Now you know the rules. Find three people, deal the cards, and discover for yourself why this game has been played, argued over, and loved for more than three hundred years.

Good luck — and watch your Jack.

All Fours is the national card game of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The standard game is played by four players in two partnerships, counter-clockwise, to 14 points.