Four Square

FOUR SQUARE is a fast-moving game that's easy to learn. It's sort of a combination of concentration and rummy. The three face card characters in the deck represent the qualities that help to win. They are LUCK, BRAINS, and COURAGE. It takes LUCK to draw the right card at the right time, BRAINS to remember cards you only see once, and COURAGE to save for a FOUR SQUARE call. The objective is to go out early and catch your opponents with big counts in their hands. There are two ways to go out. One is to KNOCK, betting that you have the lowest hand around the table. The other is to build a hand with four-of-a-kind. During the play, hands are kept face down on the table and arranged in a square, hence the name "FOUR SQUARE." In either case, the losing players' scores are increased by the number of the points in their hands, in some cases doubled or tripled, as later described. The game continues until at least one player has a total score of 100 or more. The player with the lowest score is the winner. In case of a tie, the winners share the honor.