Liar's Dice: Rules, Perudo and How to Bid

Liar's Dice is a bluffing game where luck decides what you roll and nerve decides what you say about it. Every player hides their dice under a cup, and everyone bids on how many of a certain number are on the whole table. Sooner or later someone calls "Liar!" and the cups come up. Here are the rules, the popular Perudo variant, a little probability to help you bid, and where the game comes from.

What You Need

• Two to six players (more is possible with extra dice).
• Five six-sided dice per player.
• Something to hide your dice: a cup, a mug or just your hands.

No dice? Each player can open the Dice Roller on their own phone, set it to 5 dice and keep the screen hidden from the others. Do not roll everyone's dice on one shared screen, since the whole game depends on secret dice.

How to Play

1. Roll. Everyone shakes their dice under their cup at the same time and peeks at their own dice without showing anyone.
2. First bid. The starting player makes a bid about all the dice on the table, for example "three 4s". That means: at least three dice, counting everyone's, show a 4.
3. Raise or challenge. The next player, going clockwise, must either raise the bid or call "Liar!". A raise is a higher quantity of any face ("four 2s") or the same quantity of a higher face ("three 5s").
4. Reveal. When someone calls "Liar!", all cups are lifted and the dice showing the bid face are counted.
5. Lose a die. If there are at least as many as the bid said, the challenger loses one die. If there are fewer, the bidder loses one die.
6. Next round. Everyone rolls again with the dice they have left. The player who lost a die usually starts the next bid.

A player with no dice left is out. The last player with dice wins. To decide who goes first in the first round, everyone can roll one die and the highest starts.

Perudo: Wild Ones and Other Rules

The most widely played version is Perudo (also called Dudo, Spanish for "I doubt"). It adds a few rules:

• Ones are wild. Every 1 counts as whatever face was bid, so "four 5s" counts all the 5s and all the 1s.
• Bidding on ones. Because ones are rarer when they are wild, you can switch to a bid on ones with half the quantity, rounded up: after "seven 3s" you may bid "four 1s". To switch back from ones, double the quantity and add one.
• Exact call. Instead of calling "Liar!", a player may claim the bid is exactly right. If it is, they win back a lost die; if not, they lose one.
• Last die rule. When a player is down to one die, that round is often played without wild ones, which shakes things up.

House rules vary a lot, so agree on them before the first roll.

A Little Probability for Better Bids

You know your own dice. For the dice you cannot see, each one shows a given face one time in six. With ones wild, each unknown die counts for the bid face one time in three. Add the expected count from the unknown dice to the matching dice under your own cup, and you have a sensible guess.

The numbers are rounded averages. For example, with 20 dice on the table, five of them yours, there are 15 you cannot see. Without wild ones you expect about 2.5 of any face among them. If you hold two 6s, a bid of "four 6s" is close to a fair guess, while "seven 6s" is a bold bluff. More on how dice behave in our guide to dice probability.

Tips for Winning

• Bid on your strong faces, but not every time. If you always bid what you hold, the others will read you.
• Watch the bids of others. A player who keeps raising the same face probably has several of it.
• Raise small. A modest raise keeps you safe and passes the risk to the next player.
• Call when the numbers say so. If a bid is far above the expected count, calling "Liar!" is usually right, even if it feels risky.

Where Liar's Dice Comes From

Dice bluffing games have long been played in Spain and Latin America, where the game is known as Dudo or Perudo. A popular story says it goes back to the Inca or to sixteenth century Spanish soldiers in Peru, but there is little firm evidence for that, so treat it as legend.

Liar's Dice reached a wide audience much later. A board game version called Bluff, by Richard Borg, won Germany's Spiel des Jahres award in 1993, and a tense game of Liar's Dice appears in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. If your group likes bluffing, try Mafia next, or pick a lighter game from our list of easy dice games.

FAQ

How many dice do you need for Liar's Dice?

Five six-sided dice per player is standard, plus a cup or something else to hide them. Two to six players is the usual range.

What does a bid like three 4s mean?

It means at least three dice on the whole table, counting every player's dice, show a 4. The next player must raise that bid or call it a lie.

Who loses a die when someone calls Liar?

If the dice show at least as many as the bid, the player who called Liar loses a die. If they show fewer, the player who made the bid loses a die.

Are ones wild in Liar's Dice?

In Perudo, yes: every 1 counts as the face that was bid. In other versions there are no wild dice. Agree on the rule before you start.

Can you play Liar's Dice without real dice?

Yes. Each player can use a dice roller on their own phone set to five dice, as long as each screen stays hidden from the others.