How to Play Liar’s Dice

by jmgariepy · May 5, 2021

Originally a South American pick-up game, and made popular via Pirates of the Caribbean, Liar’s dice is a fun, yet involved game about odds and bluffing.

Number of Players: Three or more players is recommended.

The Setup: Give each person five six-sided dice. Cups are a nice option, but you can just as easily roll and cover the dice with a hand.

Rules of Play:

1.) Choose a player to go first.

2.) Everyone rolls their dice and looks at the results, without revealing their dice to the other players.

3.) The first player names a number of dice, and the value of those dice (for example, they may say “Two threes” or “Three fives”.

4.) The next player clockwise in turn order may call out “Liar!” If they do, skip to step seven.

5.) Otherwise, that next player ‘raises the bid’. They also say a number of dice, and the value of those dice, but they must do one of two things:

Raise the value of the dice (For example, if the bid was ‘Three fours’, they may raise to ‘Three fives’ or ‘Three sixes’.)
Raise the number of dice. When raising the number of dice, they may set the value to any number. (For example, if the bid was ‘Three fours’, they may raise the number of dice to ‘Four fours’. They may also set the value of the dice to any value when they raise the number of dice, so they may say ‘Four twos’ or ‘Seven sixes’.)

Note: It may be easier to imagine a line of numbers moving forward, starting at 1.1, then continuing on to 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, etc.. If you’re on 2.2, you can’t go back to 2.1 or 1.4. You can only go forward to 2.3 or any point afterwards.

6.) The next player clockwise in turn order may call out “Liar!” If they do, skip to step seven. Otherwise, that player repeats step five.

7.) If a player says “Liar!” All players reveal their dice. If:

There weren’t enough dice of the stated value revealed by all players at the table, the player called a liar loses one of their dice.
There were enough or more dice of that value revealed by all players at the table, the accuser loses one of their dice.

Either way, return to step two. The previous accuser starts off the first bid.

If at any time a player loses their last die, they lost and are removed from bidding. The last player to have dice at the table wins.

Common Variants

Once you get a feel for how the game works, give these variations a try…

Ones are often counted as “wild dice” and count toward any value of of dice called.

Note: This variant is used to help build an overall greater pool of potential bids. At the beginning of a normal two player game, ‘Three sixes’ is an above average number of sixes. If ones are wild, however, a bid of ‘Five sixes’ would be a high bid, but not unreasonable.

Instead of saying ‘Liar’ or raising the bid, a player may call ‘Exact’. The dice are revealed, and if the player calling Exact is wrong, they lose a die. But if the bid is exactly right (for example, the bid is seven fours, and there are exactly seven fours at the table) that player may reclaim a previously lost die.

Note: Sometimes a player is stuck in an unreasonable situation. For example, they can be pretty certain their opponent is bluffing and have none of the stated dice, but they themselves have exactly that number of dice. If they call Liar, they lose. And if they raise the bid, their opponent will call Liar, and they’ll lose. Calling exact can reward a clever player who is willing to take a daring risk. Or it can be a way to lose a lot of dice very fast…

Instead of saying ‘Liar’, or raising the bid, and only once for every time the dice are rolled, a player may say ‘Pass’. If the next player in turn order says ‘Liar’, they may either challenge the passing player, any passing players before that player up to the last person who bid, or the last person to bid. If challenged, the passing player reveals their hand. If none of the dice values match, the player who challenged the passing player loses a die (Ones do not count as wild for this purpose. If a player reveals a hand of One, Two, Four, and Five, the player that challenged their ability to pass would lose a die.) If the value of at least two of the revealed dice match though, the revealing player loses a die. Either way, return to step two, with everyone rolling a new set of dice.

Note: Beyond adding another dimension to how players can lie (and making things very confusing when a player passes on one rotation, then declares an inordinate amount of matching dice when the bid comes back to them) passing helps players who are losing crawl out of the hole they’re in. In Liar’s Dice, players in the lead have a natural advantage since they hold more dice, and can make better educated guesses as to the number and value of dice at the table. But if a player only has two dice left, the chances that the values of their only two dice match is low, so they can catch a reprieve. Just be careful not to blow the pass early; it’s usually best to stick a pass just when the breaking point in the bidding lands on you.