Awesome Dice Game (Dudo, Liar's Dice)

[RockSteady7]

Just wondering if anyone else has played this. Played for the first time last night, it's amazing, very similar to poker but more intuitive since people seem to grasp dice probabilities better than poker ones. Ended up playing for 4+ hours, definitely play if you can.

Rules:
Usually start with 4-5 players, each with 4-5 dice (whatever, just speeds up the game). You each have a cup, shake up your dice in it and turn it over on the table. Everyone peeks at their dice, and someone starts the bidding. He will say "2 fours" for example, claiming that he believes there are at least 2 dice showing 4 among everyone's dice. Go around in a circle bidding, next person has to either up the value shown (ie "two fives, two sixes"), or up the number of dice ("3 twos, 3 fours"), can lower the shown value on the dice if he increases the # of dice. The round ends when someone, rather than upping the bidding, calls bluff on the last bid, and everyone reveals their dice. If the bid was true(there were at least 2 fives amongst everyone's dice, using the "two fives" example), then the bluff-caller discards one of his dice. If the bid was wrong (too high), then the bidder loses one die. New round starts, with the person who just lost a die opening the bidding. Game continues until only one person has dice left. Also, if someone is down to one die, he always opens the bidding. If >1 people have 1 die, they alternate opening the bidding.

Strategy is real interesting, as oftentimes early low bids are total bluffs (good idea) because while they are probably true, the bidder makes the claim without actually basing it on what his dice show. EX: I see I have 4 6's, 1 two after I roll, but I open the bidding at "three 3's". Naturally as the bidding gets higher bluffs get riskier and riskier. I think this is probably similar to bridge bidding, although I've never played the game, just sorta know the rules. Heads up is amazing too.

Anyhow, hope someone else has played, if not, definitely do, I think it would be a great intro for poker meta-strategy for beginners, and it's definitely a lot easier to pick up. Kinda funny, while we were watching the super bowl 4 of us were playing poker, eventually 2 people lose all their money and quit and we don't feel like playing heads up, so someone suggests liar's dice, within 10 minutes everyone in the room is playing (8 ppl), while poker had scared most off. Too bad I hadn't played before, as some people wanted to play for money, and by the end of the night I would gladly have taken that bet [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[chuckleslovakian]

Actually, I have never played Liar's Dice. But instead Liar's Poker. Instead of dice everyone gets playing cards. Few rule changes

All your typical hands in poker may be called including 5 of a kind.
2 is wild
Straight>flush

Also when you call a straight you have to say what the highest card is in the straight or so on.

[ESKiMO-SiCKNE5S]

this is like the best drinking game ever.

it has 2 stages.

the first stage is like described, when someone gets called if they are wrong they drink, if they are right the person that called them drinks.

the second stage is way better for all involved, when someone gets called if they are wrong everyone drinks, if they are right everyone drinks. then yells at each other.

honestly even if you are not a big drinker get your friends to play like this... suggest the first stage only... the game will naturally progress to the second stage anyway

[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.

[durron597]

Do you have to bid something when it's your turn? What if you think the guy is telling the truth and you also don't think you can legitimately outbid him?

[Stephen H]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have to bid something when it's your turn? What if you think the guy is telling the truth and you also don't think you can legitimately outbid him?

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly why we play with a "match" call.

This also reminds me of one other random rule (that I'm not overly fond of, but whatever, they use it). If you have 5 dice still, once per round of betting you may "pass" if you have 5 different numbers showing. The next player may then doubt/match the bid before you, or doubt the pass, or bid. It doesn't add a whole lot to the game, I don't think, but your mention of "do you have to bid" reminded me.

[UMTerp]

Used to play this on road trips with the serial numbers on dollar bills.

No kings, queens, or jacks. 1 = ace, and 0 = ten. No striaghts or flushes.

You need to go to a bank or convenience store beforehand and get a bunch of singles so nobody knows what bills are in play all the time.

You: "Can I get 20 ones?"
Clerk: "Oh, going to the strip club, huh? Durr hurr hurr."
*rolls eyes*

Anyway, same deal, then the game ends once somebody makes a bid, and everyone else "passes". If the bid wins, that person gets everyone's dollar. If it loses, that person pays everyone a dollar.

So to answer durron's question, in our game at least, it was usually better to pass in that situation, since you lose $1 at most that way, but could lose $5 or whatever (however many people were playing) should you try to bluff and get called on it.

And a group of ballers could play with higher denomination bills of course.

[valenzuela]

This is a typical chilean game, Im really good at it.

[ScottHoward]

im not sure if this game is really "awesome"? its just liars poker with dice?

[RockSteady7]

Out of curiosity, adding matching or passing would be real good to our game, what do people think? To play for money, how would matching work? If you're right, you win a buck from everyone, wrong lose a buck to everyone? So passing is still much lower risk, this seem right? Just wondering if anyone has played this way.