Bluff guide

Goal

Empty your hand by playing cards face down - honestly or otherwise - without being caught.

How to play

• On your turn you play one to four cards face down and announce the rank you claim they are.
• The required rank cycles Ace, two, three and up to King, then back to Ace.
• The claim must follow that rank, whether or not your cards match it.
• Any other player has a few seconds after each play to call it as a bluff.

Being challenged

• If the cards were not what was claimed, the player who played them picks up the whole pile.
• If the claim was honest, the challenger picks it up instead.
• The pile grows with every unchallenged play, so a late correct challenge is devastating.
• Emptying your hand and surviving the challenge window wins the hand; the match runs until someone banks the target number of hands - 1, 2 or 3, set in the lobby.

Technique

Bluff when the pile is small and the cost of being caught is low. Watch the count - a player dumping three cards of a rank you are holding two of is certainly lying, which is the one challenge you can make on arithmetic rather than instinct.