Liar's Deck Rules in Liar's Bar: Setup, Process & Controls

A thrilling card game where your poker face is just as important as your hand. Bluff, call, and strategize your way to victory!

Liar's Deck is the card mode of Liar's Bar: a bluffing game for 2–4 players built on the same idea as the classic party game Cheat (also called BS or I Doubt It) — but here the penalty for being caught is a revolver. This game has many variants and names in different regions. This page covers the rules, controls, a few numbers worth knowing and the regional variants.

Liar's Deck in brief: a 20-card deck — 6 Aces, 6 Kings, 6 Queens and 2 wild Jokers. Each round the game names one rank as the Table card. You play 1–3 cards face down and claim they are all that rank; the next player either plays on or calls "Liar!". Whoever turns out to be wrong pulls the trigger on a six-chamber revolver that holds a single bullet. Last player alive wins.

Liar's Deck at a Glance


Players	2–4
Deck	20 cards: 6 Aces, 6 Kings, 6 Queens, 2 Jokers (wild)
Starting hand	5 cards, dealt fresh every round
Each turn	Play 1–3 cards face down, or call "Liar!" on the previous play
Time to decide	Up to 30 seconds
Penalty	Pull the trigger on your own revolver (1 bullet, 6 chambers)
Out of cards	You are skipped for the rest of the round; if only one player still holds cards, they must call "Liar!"
Winner	The last player alive
Controls	A / D switch cards · Space select · E play · X challenge

Game Overview

Liar's Deck is a card game that focuses on playing cards and deception. Players can play cards face down and are allowed to make false statements about the cards they've played. The core of the game lies in the psychological warfare between players and judging whether opponents are lying.

Liar's Deck Operation Instructions:

A and D keys: Switch cards
Space: Select cards
E key: Throw cards
X key: Challenge (Call Liar!)

Liar's Deck Rules in Liar's Bar

Basic Setup of Liar's Deck:

The deck consists of 20 cards: 6 Aces, 6 Kings, 6 Queens, and 2 Jokers
Jokers can substitute for any card
2-4 players participate, each starting with 5 cards

Each player holds a revolver with 1 bullet randomly loaded in one of the 6 chambers
Each player has a maximum of 30 seconds for thinking and decision-making

Game Process of Liar's Deck:

At the beginning of each round, the system designates the "liar's card" type for this round (e.g., "Ace").
Players take turns playing cards, 1-3 cards each time. For example, throw out 2 cards means the player claims to have played 2 "Aces".
The next player can choose to:

Believe the previous player's statement and play their own cards
Challenge the previous player's play (Call Liar!), indicating "I don't believe you just played 2 'Aces'". Then the system reveals the pile to verify.
- If the previous player didn't play 2 cards (e.g., 0 "Aces"), the challenge is successful, and the previous player undergoes a death roulette judgment;
- If the previous player indeed played 2 "Aces" (including Jokers), the challenge fails, and the challenging player undergoes a death roulette judgment;

Death roulette judgment means firing the gun at oneself. If it's an empty chamber, the game proceeds to the next round; if successful, the player is eliminated, and the game continues to the next round
The game continues until only one player remains, who becomes the winner.

Counting the Live Cards

In any round, 8 of the 20 cards can be played honestly: the 6 cards of the Table rank plus the 2 Jokers. In a four-player game every card is dealt (4 × 5 = 20), so the arithmetic is simple — if you hold three live cards, only five are left among the fifteen cards in your opponents' hands. When you are holding most of the live cards yourself, a big claim from the player before you gets a lot harder to believe. With fewer than four players some cards stay out of play, so treat the count as a rough guide.

Liar's Deck vs. Cheat, BS and I Doubt It

If you have played Cheat, you already know the idea: put cards face down, name what they are, and let the next player decide whether to believe you. Liar's Bar changes four things:

One Table card per round. Everyone claims the same rank, instead of working through the ranks in order.
A revolver, not a pile. Being caught (or challenging wrongly) means pulling the trigger on your own revolver instead of picking up the discard pile.
A small, wild deck. 20 cards with two Jokers, not 52.
Last one alive wins. Playing your last card only gets you skipped for the rest of the round; the game ends when a single player is left.

For other names and house rules around the world, see the regional variants below.

Tips for Liar's Deck

Mix as little as possible: all genuine Table cards or all bluffs are easier to sell than a half-and-half play.
A play of three fake cards often scares the next player off a challenge — and gets expensive when it doesn't.
Jokers can be played as the Table card, so they are the safest cards to keep for a moment when you must not be caught.
Check your own hand first (Space), then count the live cards before you decide whether to believe the player before you.
Want numbers instead of instincts? The Liar's Deck Simulator estimates when calling "Liar!" beats making a bid.

Global Variants of Liar's Deck

Liar's Deck has many variants around the world. Here are some famous versions:

UK and US: Known as "Cheat" and "Bullshit" respectively
Germany and Austria: Called "Mogeln" (cheating), "Schwindeln" (swindling), "Lügen" (lying), or "Zweifeln" (doubting)
Russia: "Verish' Ne Verish'" (Believe it or not), also known as Russian Bluff or Chinese Bluff
Canada and Spain: Similar to Russian Bluff, also known as Fourshit (single deck) and Eightshit (double deck)
Fujian, China: Called "Bragging" or "Lying", with slightly different rules
Sweden: Known as "bluffstopp", a combination of words meaning "bluff" and "shedding game"

While these variants differ in details, they all retain the core gameplay of Liar's Deck - deception and strategy. Different cultural backgrounds have given this game rich variations, making it popular worldwide.

Liar's Deck FAQ

How many cards are in Liar's Deck?

20: six Aces, six Kings, six Queens and two Jokers. Each player starts every round with five.

How many cards can I play per turn?

One to three, face down. The number is your choice and doesn't depend on how many the previous player played.

Do Jokers count as the Table card?

Yes. A Joker is wild, so it counts as whichever rank is the Table card that round.

What happens if I call "Liar!" and I'm wrong?

The cards are revealed. If every card was genuine, the challenge fails and you pull the trigger on your own revolver instead of the player you accused.

What happens if I run out of cards?

You are skipped for the rest of the round. If only one player still holds cards, that player has to call "Liar!" on the previous play.

Is Liar's Deck the same as Cheat or BS?

It belongs to the same family — put cards face down, say what they are, and let the next player decide whether to believe you — but Liar's Bar uses a single Table card per round, a 20-card deck and a revolver as the penalty. See the comparison above.

Can I practice the odds?

Yes: the free Liar's Deck Simulator works out whether calling "Liar!" or making a bid is the better move for your hand, and the Russian Roulette Simulator shows how fast the revolver risk climbs.

Can I play Liar's Deck in real life?

Yes, with a few decks' worth of cards and a way to track the "bullet". Our guide to playing Liar's Bar in real life explains how.

Where are the rules for Liar's Dice?

In the Liar's Dice guide and the Quick Start guide.