Dudo

A Perudo set

Dudo (Spanish for I doubt), also known as Cacho, Pico, Perudo, Cachito or Dadinho is popular dice game played in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries. It is a more specific version of a family of games collectively called Liar's Dice, which has many forms and variants. This game can be played by two or more players and consists of guessing how many dice, placed under cups, there are on the table showing a certain number. The player who loses a round loses one of their dice. The last player to still retain a die (or dice) is the winner.

Game play

Each player starts having five dice and a cup, which is used for shaking the dice and concealing your dice from the other players. Players roll die in order, to determine where and in what order they sit. Highest first, then next lowest and so on. In the event of a tie between 2 players, they simply re-roll until one gains a higher score. After deciding who starts the game (this can be done by making each player roll one die, for example), the players shake their dice in their cups, and then each player looks at his or her own dice, but keeps these dice concealed from the other players. Then, the first player says how many dice are showing - at a minimum - a certain number (for example, "five threes", meaning there are at least 5 dice showing a three, which can be fact or fictional) and tells the next player (play always moves clockwise) to raise, call or spot on the announcement.

1. Raise: If the player wants to increase, he or she increases the number of dice (e.g. from "five threes" to "six threes") or the die number (e.g. "five threes" to "five sixes") or both.
2. A variant of "Raise" is for the player to reveal a certain number of dice that they have rolled (e.g. place 2 dice showing "fours" on the table next to their cup), reroll the remainder of the dice in the cup, and make a raised bet based on the dice that were revealed (e.g. "six fours"). For the remainder of the round, the dice that were revealed remain in play (exactly as if they were hidden under the cup, but now all players are able to see them). If a revealed die is the joker, it still counts as a joker for the other called numbers. Note that this is a different version of the game and is only used if previously agreed upon by players.
3. Call: If the player calls, it means that they do not buy or believe the correctness of the previous bid. The dice are shown and, if the guess is not correct (i.e. there are fewer than the number of dice showing the number called - as in the example above, only 4 dice show threes), the previous player (who made the call) loses a die. If it is correct, the player who doubted loses a die. A player with no dice remaining is eliminated from the game.^[1] After calling a new round starts with the player that lost a die making a new initial call of their choice, or (if that player was eliminated) the player to that player's left.^[1] The game continues until one player remains with dice.
4. Spot on: If a player calls spot on, this means that he or she is sure that the previous announcement is the exact guess, so the number of dice, and the face value called will be exactly correct when all are revealed. The dice are shown. If the guess was correct, the player wins a die from the table (up to the maximum five original dice). If not, the player loses a die and puts it in the bag.
5. Pass: If a player has five different dice in play, he or she can pass (one ace is accepted as different, but not more). The following player must raise, or say spot on for the previous bet, pass again, or call the pass if he or she thinks that the pass is a bluff. A variant allows passing if a player has a clean full house (a pair and three of a kind in one hand, aces not counting as wild cards).

The aces

In Dudo, the aces (dice showing one) are wild. When checking the dice, aces are counted as the dice that were announced if there's at least one die of the number announced (e.g. If the final announcement is "three twos", the aces are counted as twos if there's at least one 'true' two).

The aces have special rules when increasing. You can decrease a number to ace by dividing the quantity of dice by two, rounding up if necessary. For example, "six twos" can be transformed into "three aces" and "eleven fives" into "six aces" (11/2 = 5.5, then, 6). Also, you can increase aces, but this is performed by doubling and adding one to the quantity of dice. Example: "Four aces" is transformed into "Nine (anything)" (2*4 + 1 = 9) or "two aces" are "5 (anything)" (2*2 + 1 = 5). Obviously, you can increase "three aces" into "four aces" as normally. These rules are not followed when the player who begins a round starts with aces. In those cases, the aces can be transformed into anything (including decreasing the number) by the next player. Then, the special rules are again used.

"Obliging" rounds

When a player that had two dice loses one, an "obliging" round is made. This player will always start the round because of losing a die. (Each player can "oblige" only once during the whole game. If the player wins a die by equalizing and then, he or she loses it, there is no additional "obliging" round.)

The rules in these rounds are different.

• The aces do not count as jokers
• No one can equalize or pass. The round ends when someone doubts.
• When increasing, the die number may not be changed (i.e. "two fours" cannot be increased to "two sixes"). EXCEPTION: A player with only one die left who has already had his/her 'obliging' round IS ALLOWED during a subsequent 'obliging' round to raise the die value during the bidding. Subsequent players then follow the new value that has been called.

One variation of the oblige round is as follows:

• All players roll and put their dice outside their cup so that the cup blocks each player's view of their own dice, but each player can see all other players dice.
• Aces are wild and game proceeds as normal.

The Dudo terminology in Spanish

These are the original names of the various "commands".

• Cacho = cup
• Dudo = (lit.I doubt) call
• Calzo = (lit. I stick) spot on
• Obligo = I oblige

The dice number, even while playing in Spanish, have their special names. These names are given to avoid cacophony (for example, "seis seis" to call six sixes) and to "spice up" the game. The names can also have slight variants depending on the country and even the group of players.

Common dice number names are:

• 1 = As (pl. aces), bala (pl. balas, lit. bullet), bico (pl. bicos, lit. nipple).
• 2 = Tonto (pl. tontos, lit. silly), pato (pl. patos, lit duck, a common drawing of a duck is based on a big number 2), don (pl. dones, lit. Mr.)
• 3 = Tren (pl. trenes, lit. train),
• 4 = Cuarta (pl. cuartas, lit. fourth), cuarto (pl. cuartos, lit. room), cuadra (pl. cuadras, lit. block)
• 5 = Quina (pl. quinas, the word 'quina' in Chile and Argentina is used for saying 500 pesos), burro (pl. burros, lit donkey, as stated as if a donkey had 5 legs)
• 6 = Sexta (pl. sextas, lit. sixth), cena (pl. cenas, lit. dinner), diablo (pl. diablos, lit. demons)

References