Cheat

What you need & setup

1. Shuffle the 52-card deck and deal all of it out; some players having one extra card is fine.
2. Everyone sorts their hand by rank (suits barely matter in this game).
3. Agree on the challenge phrase — 'Cheat!', 'I doubt it!', or 'B.S.!' — and on who can challenge (anyone, or only the next player).
4. Agree on the rank sequence: claims usually go up one rank each turn (Aces, then 2s, then 3s...), wrapping from King back to Ace.
5. The player holding the A♠ (or simply the player left of the dealer) starts by playing the first claim of Aces.

Turn sequence

1. On your turn, play one to four cards face down onto the central pile and announce them as the current rank: 'two 5s'.
2. The claim must follow the sequence (5s follow 4s), but the cards themselves can be anything — that is the game.
3. Any player may immediately challenge by calling 'Cheat!' before the next player plays.
4. On a challenge, the played cards are flipped: if the claim was a lie, the player who lied picks up the whole pile; if it was true, the challenger picks it up.
5. After a challenge is resolved, the pile-free player continues the sequence (commonly, whoever won the challenge leads a fresh claim of any rank).
6. The first player to legally empty their hand — surviving any final challenge — wins.

Claims and the rank sequence

Each turn you place one to four cards face down on the pile and state a quantity and the required rank: 'three 9s'. The required rank marches upward each turn — after 9s come 10s, then Jacks, and after Kings it wraps to Aces.

Your actual cards do not have to match your claim. Playing 6♦ Q♣ and calling 'two 9s' is not against the rules — it IS the rules. But you must claim the rank the sequence demands.

You cannot pass in the standard game. If it is your turn and you hold no 9s, you must bluff. This forced dishonesty is what keeps the pile — and the tension — growing.

Challenging

If you think a claim is a lie, call the agreed challenge word before the next player plays. Only the cards just played are flipped and checked — the rest of the pile stays hidden.

Guess right and the liar scoops the entire central pile into their hand. Guess wrong and you take the pile yourself, and the truthful player enjoys it enormously.

Only one challenge per play resolves (usually the first voice heard). A wrong challenge is expensive, so 'probably lying' is often not enough — count cards before you call.

The mathematics of doubt

There are exactly four cards of each rank. If you hold two Kings and someone claims 'three Kings', at least one of those cards is a lie — challenge with total confidence.

This is the honest engine under the bluffing: tracking your own hand and everyone's claims lets you catch impossible statements without any mind-reading.

Remember the pile keeps its history. Ranks that went into the pile in earlier (unchallenged) plays may not be where the claims said they were.

Going out and winning

Playing your last cards does not win instantly — the table gets one final chance to challenge. Most groups challenge every go-out on principle, so plan for your last play to be true.

If your final claim survives (or is checked and true), you win. If it was a lie, you pick up the whole pile and the game rolls on.

For longer sessions, keep playing to rank the remaining finishers, or score a point per game won across several games.

Scoring & how the game ends

• There is no point scoring within a game — the first player to legally empty their hand wins outright.
• For a session, play multiple games and count one point per win.
• Some groups rank all finishing positions each game (first out to last) and total placement points across the session.

Winning: Be the first to play your final card with a claim that survives any challenge.

Common variations

These are genuine regional and house-rule differences — none of them is “the one true way” to play. Agree with your table before starting.

• Free rank choice (B.S. style)

  Instead of a fixed upward sequence, each player claims any rank they like (or the same rank continues until someone changes it). Bluffs are harder to corner but easier to make.

  Common: Common in North American play under the name B.S.

• Only neighbors may challenge

  Just the next player (or the two adjacent players) can call cheat, making position matter and quieting the free-for-all.

  Common: British-style rules and larger groups.

• Trick-pass Cheat

  Passing is allowed when you cannot (or will not) play, at the cost of tempo. Softens the forced-bluff pressure for younger players.

  Common: Family tables with kids new to bluffing games.

• Adjacent-rank claims

  Claims may be one rank up, down, or equal to the previous claim rather than strictly ascending, opening more honest options each turn.

  Common: Widespread European variant.

• Two-deck Cheat

  Shuffle two decks together for big groups; 'five Kings' becomes a legal (and checkable) claim, and counting gets deliciously harder.

  Common: Parties of 8 or more.

A little history

Cheat belongs to a widespread family of bluffing games, known as I Doubt It in older American card books and by many other names around the world; its precise origin is unclear.

It has remained a party staple for generations because it turns the one thing forbidden in every other card game — lying about your cards — into the entire point.