Hanukkah Games!

Materials needed

5 dice per player
1 cup per player

Rules

This is a bluffing game, where you are trying to bluff on the number of dice hidden among the table. Blow the bluff and you lose a die. The last person standing wins!

Each player rolls one dice. The highest roll leads the bidding.

Simultaneously, everyone shakes their dice in their cups and turns them over face down.

Everyone can, secretly, look at their dice.

The leading player announces the starting bid.

Bidding

You bid with a number and a rank. This is the miniumum number of dice of that rank that you think are beneath everyone’s cup.

example

Lou, Kelly, and Al are playing. Al leads.

Everyone shakes their cups and slams them to the table.

Al looks at his dice, then calls out the bid “two 3’s”.

He thinks, of the 15 hidden dice on the table, there are at least two with 3 pips showing.

Proceeding clockwise, the next player must raise the bid or call “DUDO!”

raising the bid

You can raise the bid by either the number of dice, or the number of pips. You must raise either or both values by one or more.

example

Al started with “two 3’s”. Play proceeds to Lou.

Lou has several options. She can keep the pip value, but raise the number of dice and bid “three 3’s”.

She could also keep the number of dice, but raise the pip value and call out “two 5’s”.

She instead chooses to incredase both and calls out “four 5’s”, meaning she thinks there are at least four dice with 5 pips showing.

Calling “Dudo!”

Instead of increasing the bid, you can challenge the current high bid by calling out “Dudo!”

When you do this, everyone lifts their cups to reveal their dice.

If the number of dice of the high bid’s rank is less than the high bid’s number, then the high bid loses one die.

If the number of dice of the high bid’s rank is equal or greater than the high bid’s number, Than the person who called out “dudo!” loses one die.

example

Lou has the high bid with “four 5’s”. Play moves to Kelly, who chooses to call “DUDO!”

Everyone lifts their cups. Across the total there are only three dice showing 5 pips. Lou lost the challenge and loses one die.

If, instead, there had been four(or five, or six, etc.) dice showing 5 pips, then Kelly would have lost the challenge and would lose one die.

The losing player leads the next round. Play continues until only one player has dice left. They win all the prizes!

Pacos

In addition to the rules above, all dice showing 1 pip are wild (they’re callled pacos). 1-die can stand in for any other rank.

example

The high bid is “five 4’s”. On reveal, there are three dice showing 4 pips and two dice showing 1 pip. These two pacos can count as 4’s, and so the high bid wins.

Bidding pacos

On your bid, instead of increasing the number and/or rank, you can make a pacos bid. This is how many pacos, at minimum, you think are below the cup.

You must bid at least half of the current number bid, rounded up.

Subsequent bids can either increase the number of pacos, or go back to number and rank. If the next bid is going back to nubmer and rank, then the number must be at least double the current paco number bid.

example

Kelly has the high bid is “three 5’s”. Play proceeds to Al, who decides to bid pacos. He must bid at least two pacos (3, halved, and rounded up). Al says “Two paco’s”. Al thinks at least two of the total dice are showing 1 pip.

On Lou’s bid, she can either increase pacos and bid “three pacos”. Or she can increase number and rank, bidding at least four of a rank.