The Official Game of the CCDIIS

Learn it... or lose it!

Rules vary from group to group. Below are some of the basics, but nothing is set in stone. Rules should be confirmed before the start of play.

 

General Rules

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.

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 (keeping some or none of the dice passed) 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.

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.

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.

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".

You can only lose lives by calling the person to your right a liar, or by the person to you left calling you. You have better chance of staying in the game by accepting most of what is passed to you, and looking after the person to your left, so that when there are tough calls they will take what you offer. Sometimes looking after lefty means giving them a fighting chance so that a good throw will save them, for example passing three aces on as four nines gives three players a chance to throw two dice and make the fourth ace.

If you have a killer hand, like five queens, be careful not to pass on a call so low that it comes back to bite you, call high enough to nail someone on the opposite side of the table.

It all changes when down to just two players, always call the highest that you can, there is no point in giving a "better" call to an opponent you want to beat! Now winning depends on luck and how devious you can get, for example, if given three kings, call rolling two dice, but roll two of the kings, hand back rubbish and don't take it back again.

An example game being played out:

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.