Liar's Bar: Rules Summary for Deck/Dice

W/S - Raise and lower the Quantity of the bid
A/D - Change the die's Face number (cycles past  to )
E - Submit bid
X - Declare lie
Space - check your cup

Rules

All players bid on how many of each dice they believe is on the table (at minimum). The count of the dice is based on everyone's hand, not just yours.

You have a limited time (shown at the top of the screen) to make your bid. Each bid must be higher than the one before, either by changing the Face of the die to a higher number, or the Quantity.

"Five Sixes" == (5 x ) == ("Quantity" x "Face")

Example: Let's say this was the last player's bid:

4 x 

You can stay at a Quantity of 4, and simply move to a higher Face number, by bidding:

4 x 

Or, let's say the last bid was:

4 x 

Six is the highest face number, so your next bid must be at least 5 of something. Like this:

5 x 

The following would be an invalid bid, because you'd be moving down in face number without going up in quantity:

4 x 

The game controls will not let you select the Three Face until you move up in Quantity.

You may also call the previous bid a lie, if you think it went too high. At that time, all players reveal their cups and the game counts up how many of each die face are on the entire table.

Again: The count is based on the whole table, not just your own hand!!

If there are not enough dice to satisfy the bid, then the accused drinks a poison. If there are at least enough or more, the accuser drinks a poison.

Each player in Liar's Bar has two bottles of poison, and when they've had both, they fall peacefully asleep and sit out the rest of the game.

Side note: In some variations of the game's rules, Ones are considered wildcards. Liar's Bar does not follow that rule to keep the game simple, and Ones are plain face numbers just like the others.

Keep track of how much each player bids when they have control of the bidding. Though it could be a bluff, if they are beginner players or very careful, it will often indicate which dice they have (and thus, which ones they don't have).

Like poker, a cup with several of one face is generally worth more than one of many different numbers - even if the totals are shared, you have more information than your opponents.

Understanding the general probability of each number can be useful when making your bets. When you are at a table of four players, and you have a cup containing 2 sixes, the odds that at least one die of the 15 under the other table's cups contains one more six is about 93%. (Six used as an example number - every number, of course, is just as likely)

Movie-based analysis

In the famous scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, Davy Jones (an experienced player) bids Four Fours on his first turn. In actuality, he had only one Four, but he knew Will Turner didn't have enough information to call his bluff. Will, an inexperienced player, bids Four Fives. Jones, correctly assuming Will to be too honest, now knows Will has several Fives in his hand, which he used to make a safe bid. On his next turn, Jones gets the chance to play his adventurous bid of "Seven Fives", knowing he has four of them in his cup. As it turns out, Will has three Fives (having guessed there'd be one more than he actually bid). Since Bill had no Fives, as soon as Jones cast the bid of Seven Fives, there were no winning moves available for Will or his father. Will would have been wrong to call Jones a liar. He raises the bid instead, hoping to be correct.

Tangentially, Bill knew he didn't have the information to defeat Jones. He raised the bid to a ridiculous claim, knowing it was a lie and that Jones would call him on it - because he wanted to take the loss in place of his son. Essentially, simply by sitting to Will's right, Bill protected his son from losing.

A/D- Switch highlighted card
Space- Select card (does not throw yet)
E- Play the selected cards for your turn
X- Declare lie

Each round, all players are dealt 5 cards from a deck, consisting of:

6 Kings
6 Aces
6 Queens
2 Jokers (not"Jacks")

The round randomly decides whether it will be "Ace's Table, Queen's Table, or King's Table". The goal is to put down cards of the given type for that round. Since they are sent to the table face-down, players declare verbally that they are, for instance, "2 Queens".

You have a limited time to select and present cards, shown with the timer at the top of the screen. If you don't pick cards (or call a lie) by then, cards will be selected for you.

The 2 Jokers are considered wildcards and always qualify as the given type for the round.

If a player does not have the cards of the given type when it comes to their turn, theymustput down different cards, and lie about their nature. Thus, you may prefer to put down fake cards early in a round, and then your "truthful" cards later in a round when people suspect you've exhausted your good options.

Players may only deposit 3 cards at a time, at most.

Instead of taking your turn, you may call the last card throw a Lie. The round ends, and the last-played card(s) are turned over. If any of them were not of the chosen suit (and are not Jokers) then the Lie is exposed, and the player that threw them must fire one chamber of their revolver. However, if the accusation was wrong, the accusing player must do the same. A new suit will be picked for the next round.

If a player turns in the last card from their hand, and the next player does not call them a liar, then their turn will be skipped going forward and they are safe for that round. However, if a player ends their turn leaving only one player left holding cards, then that player with cardswill automatically call that player a liar.

The keys to Liar's Deck are: To turn in truthful cards when players don't expect it, to predict when a player is bluffing to conserve cards, and to predict when a player has been starved of useful cards.

There is no singular approach that always works, but it is very common for players to turn in false cards early in the match, leaving behind a set of 3 or 4 truthful cards late in the round when players don't expect it.

In this player's experience, going against generally knowledgeable players, it's rare to escape a round by handing in all of your cards before the others.

Turning in multiple cards at once, rather than simply one at a time, plays on people's expectations by making the bluff more brazen. On the one hand, it seems strange to throw away so many good cards at once, potentially giving themselves a harder time on the next turn. On the other, they may be tricking people off the expectation that no one would still have that many of the given suit remaining, attempting to get them to falsely call a lie. OR, they might be double-bluffing that expectation, assuming that no one would risk challenging such a bold move.

Since psychology is a large part of the game, also be wary ofhow long you spend choosing your cards. Indecisiveness could suggest to people you're about to lie on your turn. If playing with voice chat, it's also common to goad the next player into calling your bluff (which can, itself be a bluff)

There is usually little point in turning in a "mixed" set of cards - containing both good and bad cards. If any of them are lies, then the whole hand is a lie - and the good card could've been used to keep yourself safe for a future turn.

While probability estimation is a part of Liar's Deck, it is never mathematically possible toguaranteethat a given player's throw was a lie. Pretending you're in a round that is King's Table: Even if your hand consisted of 5 Kings, and someone just gave 3 cards, it is possible that the previous player threw in the last King, and 2 Jokers - and that every other hand throw at the table was a lie containing other cards.

Emptying your hand is a goal that fits for a few situations.

• You have a very good hand containing a high number of matching cards, and want to make use of it
• You are in a 1v1 against a player that does not call people liar very often

You'll want to be aware of the rules around emptying your hand, mentioned above: If you turn in your last cards before the others when 3 players remain, and you are not called out on it, you are safe for the round. If you are in a 1v1 situation, it is possible to forcefully win the hand if you can turn in all of your remaining cards at once, while still being truthful. Example:

Bristle and Foxy are dead, and it's just you and Toar. Toar has survived by not calling liar often in the match. It's a King's Table, and your hand is 2 Q, 1 J, 2 A.

On your first hand, you play 2 Q, 1 A. (lie 3)
Toar plays 2 cards.
You play the remaining 1 A (lie 1)
Toar plays 1 card.

At this point, the only card remaining in your hand is a Joker. By playing it while emptying your hand, Toar automatically calls you a liar. Because it is a valid hand, the lie is wrong, and Toar automatically loses.

Of course, the counterplay to this strategy is to call you out as a liar earlier in the round; so this is primarily something to be aware of if you know people tend to wait until late in the round to call, or never do.

Also be aware that other players may try to race you to be the one to empty out first, forcing you to call the lie. Since Toar played 2 cards on his first turn, he could have played the remaining 3 on his second turn. (Of course, since it will automatically be called, this is a losing move if any are not Kings).

In short, if you can ever turn in all of your remaining cards (at most 3) at once, while still being truthful, you should do it, since it denies any winning moves (or at least, moves that threaten you) to the rest of the table.