[Stephen H]

I've played this a bunch (as Cachos). We usually have the following extra rules:

1s are wild. They count as whatever number was bid. So a bid of "5 sixes" can be met with 4 sixes and 2 ones showing.

Because 1s are wild, they count double when bid, and are the highest bid of that rank. Thus 3 fours is outbid by 4 fours is outbid by 2 ones is outbid by 5 fours.

You may not open the bidding with 1s.

There is an alternative to calling bluff on a bid - you can call "match". If *exactly* the number bid is showing, you gain a die; otherwise, you lose a die. You can't get above 5 dice this way. This adds a lot of extra strategy when you get down to heads up.

When you first get down to one die, a special round occurs. Only people with one die may look. The person who just got down to one die starts the bid with any number - 1s are NOT wild for this round. After that, each player may only raise the number of dice; they may NOT change the pip count. So if the bid starts at 1 three, the next player can only bid more threes, or doubt, or match. After the special round, the game goes back to normal.

Player who lost/gained a die in the last round starts the next round, always.

I've played it with as many as 8 to start with - which gets pretty crazy. My brother-in-law's whole family plays, and he's played some games with 40+ people at family reunions. You know it's gone crazy when you bid 100 of something.