h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: B******t (US)/Cheat (UK) - the card game - A1924887
Author: Dinnerlady - U240568

Comments anyone?
I may not have included all the variations, so any help appreciated.

I think you might have to *** out the American version of the name to Bulls**t or something. Also, I'd say it doesn't work with two players, as you can't work out what's in the dummy hand.

Hi DinnerLady,

nice subject for an entry, a game to which i devoted many hours that should have been spent more constructively at school! You explain it clearly and succinctly and I'm sure that this will be on its way to the Front Page at some stage, .

One 'suggestion' - you might consider trying to add a few phrases to try to illustrate the kind of fun situations that arise when either someone gets away with murder, or on the contrary manages to get called for a 'cheat' when in fact they've put down exactly what they claimed. One thing I used to do to cheat was to add a hidden card to the bottom of my 'three sevens' - something i knew i'd have trouble getting rid of, so just slip it underneath the bottom seven, like a stowaway!

On the 2-player thing - if 2 of us wanted to play, we usually just used 2 packs from the get go, that way it is less easy to spot the leader cheating at the late stages.

I think Cyzaki is right about starring out those 'offending' letters, too. All very innocent, i know, but rools is rools.

anyhoos, all the best with this and future writings
spiff

I think using too many asterisks makes it difficult to determine the word obscured. Two is probably sufficient - with a footnote to indicate this refers to a word used in the US meaning "I rather doubt that assertion"

Definitely worth hiding cards at bottom of your discard, and claiming they weren't yours if challenged. Also don't keep your cards in your hand in numerical order - it can make it slightly obvious when you
have to cheat.

Pimms

Best thing to do, especially if you have all four of one number, is to put don four random cards, saying 'four fives' or whatever. Nobody else will have any fives, so they will believe you. Next time round say 'four more fives' and confuse everyone.

I agree on the too many asterisks point, but unfortunately that wasn't my choice. The Beeb editors did it!

I agree that a few less *s would help explain and I have lived all my life in the US, can you appeal?

We used to play a variant of this we called 'Liar's Poker' where the first person to the dealers left is dealt a single poker hand of seven cards.
everyone at the table puts a "chip" or marker in the 'pot' and the person holding the cards had to declare the value of the best five cards in the hand IE pair of threes or three sevens or a full house Aces over eights etc. The person to their left had to either accept or challenge the declared hand.

If the call is accepted everyone puts another chip in the pot and the cards are passed to the next person on the left and they can draw up to three new cards from the deck. they then have to declare the new value of the best five cards, which must beat the previous declared hand. This continues until someone challenges the hand.

If the person to your left calls you a liar then you must show your hand. If you actually have the cards you declared you get all the chips on the pot. However if you are found to be lying with either a worse or better hand than you declared the person challenging gets the pot.

F S

Maybe change it to 'Bull S**t', that way you can see what it is supposed to mean?

Or maybe abbreviate to simply 'Bull' - often used to imply the meaning of the full word - that would give a title of Bull/Cheat which is almost as good at getting your meaning across

If you are mentioning other games where the skill lies in gauging the veracity of others assertions, such as Liar's Poker, you could also include Perudo and Spoof, where each player has to estimate what other players hold in their hands (or under their cups in the case of Perudo) - both of these should be mentioned if you do a search, certainly there has been an entry submitted to PR on Spoof, though I can't recall whether it got recommended

Pimms

I've changed the title a bit - not sure if it'll be allowed by them on high though
Also added Perudo & Spoof to the bottom.

Mel

I don't see a problem with the revised title

Unfortunately your links may have problems in being used in this entry when it gets recommended. The first seems to be broken (it didn't work for me anyway), and the second links to a Guide Entry which isn't currently in the Edited Guide (which is a prerequisite for internal links in EG entries).

Links you *could* use are A266168 Card Games with Rude Names, and A597882 Card Games

Pimms

I've added the card games with rude names etc - any more comments??

Thanks

Mel

I note you still have the link to Liar's Poker - it still doesn't work (for me at least). Also if you are going to mention other bluffing games (note: you said you'd mentioned Perudo, I can't see this mention ), a sentence about the essence of each of them wouldn't go amiss.

Pimms

The link works fine for me...

The link works fine for me too, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

I took out the Perudo comment because I could only find reference to it online as a board game, and didn't want to end up seeming like a shop! Nevertheless, I've put it back in, and a small description of the two games that don't link anywhere.

Mel

Perudo isn't a board game, it is a dice game - there is no board with my copy anyway. The link to liars's poker works fine on this machine - it may be some restriction on the server being used on the other machine I log in on.

Perudo is closer to spoof or liar's poker with dice, rather than cheat.

Anyway it might be best to stick to card games as you suggest.

Pimms

I think it's getting better - any more comments, anyone?

Mel

I have four comments.

1. This is a great game and a good subject for an entry.

2. When I used to play this, you could follow (say) two fives with either more fives or any card higher than five. I think the entry implies that only another five or a six would be permissible.

3. Aces used to be high and low cards - you could play an ace on anything (because it was the highest card) and the next card could be anything (because it was the lowest card).

4. "The empty discard pile is in the centre of the table." Not sure about the phrasing - can there be an empty pile? Perhaps it's better to say that "discarded cards will be piled in the centre of the table"

This should go in!

Otto

When we play it, fives can be followed by fours, fives or sixes only. Aces can be followed by kings, aces or twos. I guess there are just different versions of the rules, depending on who you learnt them off.