Liar's Dice Rules Summary

Setting Up the Game

• All players sit evenly spaced around a table. In the case of only two participants, both players simply sit across from each other. Each player is given a cup of some kind and five six-sided dice. Players shake the dice inside their cups, turn the cups over and place them upturned on the table.

Playing the Game

• Determine the first player to bid by flipping a coin. Each player tilts the cup forward, thereby viewing the dice underneath while concealing them from other players. The first player declares a bid, guessing how many dice of a particular number are currently on the table. For instance, the player might say, "Three fives," which means the player bets there are a total of three fives on the table. Bidding moves clockwise. Subsequent bids must raise the quantity of the original bid ("four fives," for instance) or increase the dice value ("three sixes," for instance). Eventually, the bidding will become fairly outrageous, prompting a player to issue a challenge and declare the most recent player a "liar." The cups are removed from the table and the dice are counted. If the challenger is wrong, the challenger loses a die. If the challenger is right, the "liar" loses a die. After shaking the dice once more and replacing the cups on the table, the challenge winner makes the first bid.

Winning the Game

• Players will eventually lose all five dice and drop out of the game. The last player with any dice in his cup is declared the winner. Victory is usually proceeded by a particularly tense betting war between the final two players. It is much harder to get away with an inaccurate bet when there are ten dice or less on the table and only two players.

Rule Variations

• In some playing circles, a player is out once he loses one challenge, as opposed to losing five challenges. This rule makes for much faster games, as seen in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. Another variation is the option for players to declare the bid as "right on," as opposed to declaring it to be inaccurate. In this case, the dice are counted and, if the declaring player is correct, he gains back a lost die.