GAME01
Shuo Da Hua (Liar's Dice)The most popular dice game in Chinese clubs
The most popular dice game in Chinese clubs is called “Shuo Da Hua” or “Da Hua Tou” — a kind of liar's dice. Almost every club, and nearly every Chinese girl, knows how to play. Learn the rules and join in!
How to Play
- Decide the order of play. Each player puts five dice in a cup and shakes it.
- Shake the cup only once, then check your dice without letting anyone see. The aim is to guess how many dice of a given face (–) there are among all players, including your opponents.
For example, if your dice show , you have three s, so you might call “three 2s.”POINT is wild and can count as any face from to .
POINTIf, even counting your s, you don't have two or more of any face, you may shake the cup again.
POINTIf that happens three times in a row, you lose and have to drink.
POINTIf you call “… 1s,” using as itself, 1s can no longer be used as wild for the rest of the round.
- The next player must raise either the face or the number of dice. For example, raise the face to “three 3s,” or the number to “four 2s.”
If you have something like , you can jump straight to “four 5s.”POINTWhen you raise the number of dice, you may lower the face or call any face you like.
- Players keep raising the face or number in turn. Of course, you can't see anyone else's dice, so you guess from what they call — and at some point you start bluffing.
- The fun is in bluffing well and seeing through other players' bluffs. When you think someone is lying, shout “Kai!” (open) at any time, and everyone lifts their cups.
Check the last call: if it's true, the person who called “Kai!” loses; if it's a bluff, the last caller loses. - The loser drinks as a penalty. Sometimes beer and glasses are set aside for penalties, or a stronger drink such as baijiu.
Tips
- (Risky!) Calling a large number of 1s when you have no at all to force a quick finish, or cancelling the wild s to make the game harder. This is easy to see through, so it's a very risky bet.
- Once you get used to the game, try making your calls in Chinese. In Chinese, “three 2s” is said as “san ge er” — the number of dice, then “ge”, then the face.
The basic numbers are 1 (yi), 2 (er), 3 (san), 4 (si), 5 (wu), 6 (liu), 7 (qi), 8 (ba), 9 (jiu) and 10 (shi). Ask the girls how to say numbers above 10!
Examples: three 1s → san ge yi; five 3s → wu ge san