Bluffब्लफ

Players and cards

Bluff is for two to six players, each playing alone. It uses one standard pack of 52 cards. Suits do not matter in Bluff, only ranks: aces, twos, threes and so on up to kings.

The first dealer is chosen at random. The whole pack is dealt out one card at a time, so when the cards do not divide evenly some players start with one more card than others. The player to the dealer's right starts, and play goes round to the right.

Starting a round

Put one to four cards from your hand face down in the middle and say how many there are and what rank they are: one ace, three sevens, four queens. You may say any rank at all, whether or not your cards really are that rank.

The rank you say holds for the whole round. On this table you choose your cards, then tap the rank you want to say. When the cards you chose are all one rank the table offers that rank first, ringed in ivory, but you can say any other.

Adding to the pile

When it is your turn in a round that has started, you have two choices:

• Add one to four cards face down, saying they are more of the same rank. If the round is sevens, you say how many sevens you put down, even if none of them are.
• Pass and put nothing down. Once you pass you are out of this round: your turn is skipped until a new round starts. You may still call bluff on other players' cards.

You cannot change the rank in the middle of a round. Only the player who starts a round chooses it.

Calling bluff

After a player puts cards down, any other player may call bluff on them, up to the moment the next player puts cards down or passes. After that those cards can never be called.

A call turns over only the cards just put down, for everyone to see:

• If any of them is not the rank that was said, it was a bluff. The player who put them down picks up the whole pile.
• If they are all the rank that was said, it was true. The player who called picks up the whole pile.

Either way the round is over, and whoever was right starts the next round with any rank they like.

When everyone passes

Once every player except the last one to put cards down has passed, the round is over and nobody picks up. The pile is set aside face down and stays out of the game, unseen, until the end. The last player who put cards down starts a new round.

Your last cards

When you put down your last cards you are not out yet. Anyone may call bluff on them, and the next player must decide: call bluff, or let them go.

If your claim stands, or someone calls and it was true, you have no cards left and you win. If it was a bluff, you pick up the pile and the game goes on.

How this table plays, and why

Bluff is played many ways. This table follows the way it is usually played in Nepal and India, and settles the details like this:

• The player who starts a round names any rank, and everyone follows that rank until the round ends. The English game Cheat goes up through the ranks in a fixed order instead; this table does not.
• A pass takes you out of the round: you add no more cards until the next round, though you may still call bluff. That is the Indian rule on Pagat and the rule at GameRules.com.
• Up to four cards at a time. One pack holds only four of each rank, so without jokers four is the most that could ever be true. The limit stays at four when the jokers are in.
• One pack for every size of table. Western rule books add a second pack for five or more players, but we found no sign of that at tables in Nepal, so this table always uses one. Six players still get eight or nine cards each.
• Only the cards just put down can be called, and only until the next player moves. That keeps a call simple: one play is turned over, and everyone sees it.
• Whoever was right after a call starts the next round, so a good call is rewarded twice: you choose the rank.
• Cards set aside when everyone passes stay hidden for the rest of the game.
• Someone's last cards must be answered by the next player, so a game never ends on a claim nobody had the chance to check.

A table that never waits on a call. Nobody has to answer a claim. While the cards just put down can be called, everyone who may call sees Call bluff and Let it go, but the game moves on as soon as the next player puts cards down or passes. So nobody is kept waiting for a player who looked away. The only player the table waits for is the one whose turn it is.

Computer players decide in about a second. When people are at the table, a computer whose turn it is waits about three seconds before it plays, so people get a fair chance to call the cards just put down. On someone's last cards it waits a little longer. The speed setting makes all of this quicker or slower.

If an online table uses a turn timer and yours runs out, you pass. When you are starting a round, your lowest card is put down as what it really is, and when you are facing someone's last cards, they are let go.

On one phone, the phone goes to the player whose turn it is, and only that player's cards show. So on one phone the next player is the one who can call bluff, as with the next player only option.

Winning

The first player with no cards left wins. Everyone else is placed by how many cards they still hold, fewest first. Two players with the same number are placed in the order they would have played after the winner.

Who may call bluff

Anyone, the usual way: every other player may call until the next player moves. Or the next player only: just the player whose turn comes next may call, and putting cards down or passing lets the claim stand.

Jokers

None, or two jokers that are wild. A joker counts as whatever rank was said, so a joker is never a lie. The pack then has 54 cards.

House rules this table does not use

Some groups go through the ranks in order, aces then twos then threes, turn over the whole pile on a call, allow more than four cards at a time, or shuffle in a second pack for a big group. This table plays the common rules above, so everyone knows where they stand.