Liar's dice
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Liar's dice (liar dice) is the name of a class of dice games for two or more players. They are easy to learn, require little equipment, and can be played as gambling or drinking games. Playing them well requires the ability to deceive and to detect an opponent's deception.
A version of the game is known as Dudo or Perudo in South America. It has also been marketed under the name Call My Bluff, winning the 1993 Spiel des Jahres and Deutscher Spiele Preis awards. The equivalent drinking game is sometimes called Mexicali or Mexican in the United States; the latter term may be a corruption of Mäxchen ("little Max"), the name by which the game is known in Germany.
There are at least three different versions of Liar's Dice, and it is uncertain which version is the original. In all of them, dice are rolled in a concealed fashion and bids made about the result of the roll. In turn players must then either raise the bid or challenge the previous bid. For the purposes of this article, the three versions discussed are referred to as "individual hand", "common hand" and "Mexican".
In "common hand", each player has a set of dice, all players roll one and the bids relate to the dice you can see (your own) plus all the concealed dice (the other players').
In "individual hand", there is one set of dice which is passed from player to player. The bids relate to the dice as they are in front of the bidder after selected dice have been re-rolled.
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[edit] Rules (common hand)
Five six-sided dice are generally used per player, with dice cups used for concealment.
Each round, the players roll their dice while keeping them concealed from the other players. One player begins bidding, picking a face 2 through 6 (1 is special) and a quantity. The quantity states the player's opinion on the minimum number of the chosen face have been rolled in total on the table. A 1 is wild and counts as the stated face. In a five dice each, three player game, the lowest bid is "one 2" and the highest bid "fifteen 6s".
In turn, each player must either raise the bid or challenge the previous bid. Raising the bid means either increasing the quantity of the previous face or selecting any quantity with an increased face.
If the current player thinks the previous player's bid is wrong, he challenges it and then all dice are revealed to determine whether the bid was valid. Revealing the same number or more of the relevant face than was bid is a successful bid, in which case the previous player wins. Otherwise the challenger wins. A challenge is generally indicated by revealing one's dice.
- Examples of revealed dice results for a bid of "seven 4s":
- Success:
- seven 4s
- ten 4s
- five 4s and two 1s
- seven 1s.
- Failure:
- six 4s
- four 4s and two 1s
- six 1s.
- Success:
[edit] Variants
- Instead of "Raising the bid" meaning either increasing the quantity of the previous face or selecting any quantity with an increased face, there is a variant where it requires never lowering a number in the bid -- players can increase the quantity, or increase the face, or both, but they cannot lower the quantity while increasing the face. So, a call of three 3s, could not be followed by a call of two 4s; it would have to be followed by -- at minimum -- three 4s or four 3s. This is an extremely common variant, and makes for a faster game than the form listed in the main body above.
- A player that loses a challenge loses a die, and the next round begins. If there are three players and on the first round, Player 1 loses a die, then in the second round Player 1 has only four dice, whereas Players 2 and 3 still have five. This puts Player 1 at a disadvantage as he has less information than the other players about the dice. A player with no dice is out of the game.
- Also, the amount of dice lost can be decided to be the difference in bid and actual outcome, e.g. a player bids five 4s when another calls the bluff, but there altogether are only two 4s and one 1; hence, the loss will be two dice. This leads to a sounder relationship between the probability and cost of over-bidding.
- In variants where dice are lost over the course of the game it is customary to start with more dice; typically as many as there are available.
- 1s are a special bid and are not wild. When switching the bid to 1, the quantity must be a minimum of half (rounded up) the previous bid's quantity. To switch back, any other face is permitted but the quantity must be a greater than the last non-1 quantity. For example, a bid of four 5s could be followed by a bid of two 1s, which could in turn be followed by three 1s or five of any face.
- 1s are only wild if not called on the first bid. In this variant, 1s are wild, but if the first bid involves 1 as the face number (such as two 1s) then 1s are no longer wild in that round, and are treated as a normal number. This is an extremely common variant on the US West Coast and in Bangkok, Thailand. This makes one 1 a very common call, especially by a player with few dice left, and can significantly change the strategy of the game. The game becomes thus more complicated.
- 6 is wild instead of 1.
- When a player has no two dice with the same face, he may choose to pass once in a game round. If he does so, the bid won't be raised. The next player can raise the bid using standard rules, or call the bluff. By doing so, he challenges the claim of the first player proposing having no two same faces. If the subsequent players pass as well, the player taking the turn may challenge any of the subsequent distinctness claims.
- Note: this variant helps the players with few dice left by letting them pass once a round and stay in the game without taking actively part; anyone with more than six dice should be expected to bluff.
- Instead of raising or challenging, the player can bet that the current bid is exactly correct. If the number is higher or lower, they lose a die, however if they are correct, they gain a discarded die.
[edit] Gambling
There are a number of different ways to gamble with Liar's Dice. The simplest and probably most popular scheme is for each game to be winner take all.
[edit] Drinking Game
One way of playing Liar's Dice as a drinking game is for the losing player to drink. Sometimes the drinking is based upon the difference between the quantities bid and revealed. For a failed out-of-sequence challenge, the out-of-sequence challenger drinks a greater quantity (eg double).
[edit] Rules (individual hand)
A closely related game, known as Liar Dice, is played with one set of 5 poker dice. Each die is marked with Ace (A), King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), ten (T) and nine (9); the faces, as listed here, are in order of value with Ace being the best.
[edit] Summary
A player is slid the dice cup with dice concealed under it, along with a claim as to what poker hand is shown on the dice. The player must either challenge the claim or roll the dice and make his or her own claim, which must always be higher than the previous claim. If a claim is challenged, the dice are revealed. If the dice show a poker hand at least as high as the claim, the challenger loses a "life" (a point). If the dice show a lower poker hand than claimed, the claimant loses a life. When a player has lost a number of lives (often 3), that player is out of the game. The last player remaining wins.
[edit] Play
Any number of players sit round a convenient table so that a set of poker dice can be passed clockwise from player to player without disturbing the rolls. The game is best with 5-8 players.
The starting player is determined by highest die roll. Matching highest players re-roll to tie-break.
In turn, each player rolls all / some / none of the dice at his discretion, usually hiding them from the other players' view. The starting player must roll all 5 dice. A player must state accurately how many dice he is rolling.
He then offers the (usually hidden) dice to the player on his left stating that they are some poker bid (excluding runs). This bid must be better than the offer made when he accepted the dice. (The starting player may name any bid).
The next player may either accept the dice and have his turn, or he may challenge. If challenging, the dice are exposed. If the hand equals or betters the stated bid, the recipient loses a life and the dice pass to the player on the recipient's left who starts again. If the hand is worse than the bid then the offerer loses a life and the recipient becomes the starting player.
The above procedure is often done in a confusing manner in order to make other players play harder.
Each bid need not be fully specified, in which case it is deemed to be the weakest possible bid meeting constraints stated. Better is a valid bid, as is Way better meaning Better than better, etc.
Should a player make an undercall, it is treated as Better. The undercall can be pointed out by any player at any point in the future of this hand, up to and including the exposure of a challenged set of dice.
When the bid reaches five aces (AAAAA), the player who needs to improve the bid must roll all and then may roll all / some / none of the dice twice more to achieve another five aces. If he achieves this then no-one loses a life and the next player starts a new hand, otherwise he loses a life.
Each player has three lives and is out of the game when he has lost them all. The winner is the final player with a life. As a concession to the first player to lose all three lives, he may get an extra life by standing and "barking like a dog" (a decent howl, not just saying 'woof'). Should a player decline the dog's life, it remains available for a subsequent player to claim on losing his last life.
If a player is absent when his turn comes, perhaps buying a round of drinks, he is deemed to have accepted the bid and to be passing the dice, unrolled, on as "Better". This is the Königswinter rule.
[edit] Bids
There are no runs in Liar Dice. Getting progressively stronger, the types of bids are:
- Singleton
- A pair
- Two pairs
- Three of a kind
- Full house (3 of a kind plus 2 of a kind, the 3 being more valuable)
- Four of a kind
- Five of a kind.
Here follows an example, stating what was said and the least it can mean:
- A pair
- 99QJT
- A better pair
- 99KJT
- A pair of Jacks
- JJQT9
- A pair of Jacks with no ten
- JJKQ9
A bid is often just "better". You have to pay attention since after 3 or 4 "betters" in a row, it is easy to lose track of what level the bid has reached.
There is no obligation for a player to repeat his bid to clarify a situation for any player once the dice have been accepted by the recipient.
You must be truthful about the number of dice that you roll. You do not have to be truthful about which dice you are rolling. For example, if you accept a bid of "four of a kind" (implying 9999T) and it happens to be JJJJQ, then you can roll 1 die - stating "rolling one die - a singleton Queen" and actually roll one of the Jacks to trash the hand for the next player.
[edit] Techniques
You do not have to look at the dice on your turn, though it is wise to do so.
Certain confusions are in standard usage, for example "three pairs of Jacks" actually means "three jacks" as the 3 pairs are J1+J2, J2+J3 and J3+J1! Similarly six pairs means four of a kind.
It is necessary to remember what the most recent bid is - even if this is determined by analysing "betters". It is advisable to remember exactly what dice you passed on to your left and how many dice each player has thrown since you saw them.
Cooperation with the players to your left and right is a good strategy, ganging up on the players on the far side of the table.
Mistakenly claiming a lower hand than is required can be beneficial. For example, if the previous player called "three jacks" and your roll included four kings, you may mistakenly state that you have "three tens". Players will quickly remind you that you need to roll better than the "three jacks", to which you respond, "Ok then, four kings". The next player will almost certainly call you on this "mistake".
[edit] An example hand
In a four player ( [a], [b], [c] and [d] ) game.
- [a] rolls TTAQ9 and offers "a pair" meaning 99QJT.
- [b] rolls 3 dice (AQ9) to get KKTTJ and offers "two pairs" meaning TT99J.
- [c] rolls one die (J) to get KKTT9 and offers "better" meaning TT99Q.
- [d] rolls 3 dice (TT9) and gets KKKAJ and offers "two pairs, jacks on top" meaning JJ99T.
- [a] rolls no dice and offers "three queens". [b] challenges and loses a life as the dice are "three kings" which betters the bid of three queens.
- [b] thus misses a turn and [c] starts the next hand.
The above may not be good quality play, but it is a valid hand.
[edit] Rules (Mexican)
The game starts by one person rolling 3 dice under a cup to keep the results hidden from the next player. (Some variations play with 2 dice). The roller then places the cup over his dice tells the next player what he rolled (but he may bluff). The next player may do one of two things:
- If he believes the roller, he simply takes the dice, and tries to roll something higher than the roller claimed. If he does not roll something higher, he must attempt to bluff the following player into thinking that he did or take a drink for another roll.
- If he does not believe the roller, the cup is lifted, revealing his hand:
- If the roller was bluffing, he must take two drinks. Play is started over with no previous roll value to beat.
- If the roller was telling the truth, the challenger must take two drinks.
Play continues as the roll results (or the claims of those results) get higher and higher until someone finally rolls a "Mexican" or a bluff is called.
- The value of the roll is determined by forming a 3-digit number from the dice in order from highest to lowest. Thus a 3, 4, and a 5, has a value of 543. In order to beat that roll, the next player would have to roll a 544 or better.
- Three-of-a-kind is higher than all other rolls, except for the "Mexican" (read below). Three 5's can be said to have a value of 5550. Three ones can be said to have a value of 1110, making it higher than a 665.
- Rolling a 1, 2, and 3 is a Mexican. It beats all other rolls. A Mexican is handled differently to the other rolls. When you roll a Mexican:
- You must take the 1 out from under the cup, and place it in front of you. This means that you must have rolled at least one 1 in order to even bluff having a Mexican.
- Now it is up to the next player to believe him or not:
- If he believes him, he must place the die on top of the rolling cup, flip the dice up in the air, flip the cup over, and catch the dice in the cup. If he succeeds in catching the dice in the cup, he rolls 1 dice and drinks that many... if he missed, he must roll 2 dice and drink the result.
- If he doesn't believe him, the roller must lift the cup and show if he was bluffing or not :
- For a bluff, the roller must catch the dice as described above, and drink accordingly.
- For a genuine roll (1,2, & 3), the challenger must catch the dice and drink as described above, except that the drinks are doubled. This means that he could possibly have to take 24 drinks!!! (if he misses the cup, and then rolls two 6s)
After a Mexican, a new round commences.
Adding to the fun, the value of the dice is read through code, like this:
- 1 = Eye
- 2 = Train (as in "choo-choo train"... the "choo" phonetically similar to "Two")
- 3 = Half-Schmitty
- 4 = Pane (The 4 dots look like a Window pane)
- 5 = Titty (The 5 dots look like....well...)
- 6 = Devil (as in the Number of the Beast)
So:
- A 543 is read as "Titty, Pane, Half-Schmitty"
- A 654 is read as "Devil, Titty, Pane" , or as "Devil with a Titty Pane"
- A 655 is read as "Devil, Titty, Titty", or as "Devil with a pair of Tits"
- A 533 is read as "Titty, Half-Schmity, Half-Schmitty", or simply as "Titty, Schmitty" (Two Half-Schmitties make a whole)
[edit] Two-dice variations
In the two-dice version, only doubles are referred to by their code name:
- Two 1's = Tits
- Two 2's = Ducks
- Two 3's = Lines (as in lines of cocaine)
- Two 4's = Windows
- Two 5's = Tits in the windows
- Two 6's = Boxcars
In addition, there is a caveat that a "54" is called a "Betty Ford" (a reference to the former First Lady's mastectomy). One is not allowed to bluff when they roll a Betty Ford. If they are caught bluffing on such a roll, the penalty is usually 10 drinks. A Mexican becomes a roll of 2 and 1.
[edit] In popular culture
- A game of Liar's Dice played an important role in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The version depicted appears to be the basic common hand variation, except that 1's are not wild. (The betting is legal under the first variant rule - never allowing a decrease in quantity - but it is impossible to tell if this rule is in effect or if this is coincidence.) A toy spinoff, "Pirate's Dice" was made available for sale around the same time as the release of the film, featuring dice with skulls and cups like the ones from the film.
- Strip Liar's Dice is included as a minigame in the computer game, Leisure Suit Larry 7, where the main character must win several rounds of the common hand variation.
- A variant of Liar's Dice called 'Stones of Wisdom' was included as a minigame in the computer game, Legacy of The Ancients. It was used as a puzzle to increase the wisdom stats of your character as you played increasingly difficult games against a computer player.
- Liar's Dice is featured in an episode of the TV series 24.
- A version of Mexicali was featured in the movie Havoc (2005 movie) .
- Briefly featured in the movie Beerfest.
[edit] See also
- Dudo - a Latin American Variety of Liar's Dice
- Mia - a dice game with a similar emphasis on bluffing
