Bullshit (BS) Card Game Rules | Tips & Tricks to Win the Game

One of my personal favorites card games for how unpredictable and fun game this it. It is all about bluffing and recognizing and calling out BS! To the one that someone thinks is bluffing.

Bullshit (also called Cheat or I doubt it) is a card game where the objective of the player is to get rid of all the cards. This is a cheat game where cards are played face down and players can lie about the cards they played. It is one of the most popular party games.

So if you are interested in card games & especially in playing this wonderful sounding game, then wait no more. Keep reading further to know how to play bullshit card game and bs card game rules.

• Objective of Bullshit card game – The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards as fast as you can, and before all the other players.
• Number of Players – 3-10 players
• Number of Cards – 52 Card standard deck (no jokers). Two decks or more can be used in some scenarios.
• Rank of Cards – (Ranks From high to low) A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
• Type of Game – Cards, Shedding-type
• Audience – Family, Friends, Adults

What Do I Need?

1. 52 deck of standard playing cards. (Without Joker will be fine too as we will not be needing a joker.)
2. 3 or more friends can play.

Before You Begin

1. From the 52 deck of playing cards, you will have to remove joker and keep it aside. Then shuffle the cards.
2. Now deal the cards to the players depending on the number of players, evenly.

Who Begins Bullshit?

In order to select who goes first, you can select any of the below conditions –

• Someone who has the Ace of spades and rotates clockwise to the next player.
• Once the other aces of spades has fallen, each player must bet a 2.
• Youngest player starts and rotates clockwise
• Oldest player starts and rotates anti-clockwise
• Whenever someone has called bullshit it goes first to play.
• If no calls bullshit, the player can leave their cards on the pile, which gradually builds up until someone inherits them.

Related Keywords: cheat, last card, play, deck, ace, called, rank, card games

How To Play Bullshit Card Game?

Read the below example play to understand this better –

3 Players are playing bullshit game

Player 1 – (Puts a card on the table and announces his discard.) The first player puts a card on the table, faced down, and calls “One Ace”.

Player 2 – (Has to place a card next in ranking order of the one placed by player 1).  Here, there can be 2 situations. One, player 2 places a two card or all 2 cards if they have multiple and second, if he does not have a 2 card, they have to ‘bluff’. Which means he has to put an alternate card and claim it to be a two and hope that rest of the players will believe them.

Player 1/3 – Can call BS and are allowed to flip and see the cards to see if player 2 was bluffing.

So, if the rank of cards don’t match to what the player 2 had claimed, then player 1/3 that discarded has to take the entirety of the deck into his hand.

However, if the cards do match to what was claimed by player 2, then the player that called BS! is required to take the entirety of the stack into his hand.

Note that no player can call BS! on themselves.

Tips To Win Bullshit Card Game

• The first and most important tip is always call BS, the player who put down their last card. Most of players lie about the number on their last cards. Even if your guess is wrong it doesn’t matter as that player was about to win anyway. In case you are right then you will get more time to play.
• If you have four players, count the rank of every fourth card from ace to king to find out which ranks it is responsible for.
• It is not necessarily bad to have a lot of cards when someone catches you, because you can have a lot of things and almost nothing to lose. You can tell a lot of truths and you can tell a lot of lies, because you have a lot of cards anyway.
• If you are playing with children, please use “B.S”, or better use “Cheat!” instead. Do not call bullshit.
• Do not let other players see your cards.
• Do not let people see how many cards you have.
• After lying and escaping by chance, you can say “popcorn”, “peanut butter”, “idiot”, or if you want to show your nonsense to rest of the players that you accidentally escaped, or do a cow moo. Of course, this is not necessary, but it can add an extra element of fun to the game.
• Stay subtle and keep an eye on others and on their eyes during the play.
• If your opponents are using random strategies, the best thing to do is avoid lying and never call.
• You don’t have to fan your cards, especially when you are about to win. Save for yourself the number of cards you have.
• A good strategy is to distract other players when it is your turn. It is a completely fair game to divert other players’ attention to what you are doing, and it will help you.
• If at any time a player draws cards and has all eight natural cards of a certain rank, he will explain it out loud and remove them from the game.
• And the last one is, Try not to play with 13 people. Because you will always play with the same rank, with one deck or more decks of cards.

The first player to get rid of their whole cards wins the game.

Related Keywords: put down a card, cheat, must play, lie, play continues, rank

Variations

There are several different variants in the world that people play, adding or removing rules to increase the complexity of the game for players.

Here is a list of variations of the Bullshit card game to play:

• If you have 5 or more players, consider shuffling 2 cards rather than 1 or even more. In such cases, jokers can be used as wild cards when needed.
• Some players prefer downward ranking of the card instead of the upward rank of cards like it begins A, K, Q, J, 10, … Or, you can play by choosing the next highest rank or lowest rank level of the person before you.
• If the player does not want to lie, or if all the required levels of cards have been played during the game, the player can skip his round. And next player takes the turn.
• In some variations, The player can place a card that is higher card rank or lower rank than the previously played card, not just the highest rank card.
• Also, players can place multiples of a card in the same hand (for example, two kings).
• Players can draw additional cards with the cards they left behind, and find that cheating needs to be done accordingly (same as the player lying down while bluffing).
• According to the Bolivia rules variation, players must continue to place cards in the same range until cheating or all players pass. Thats how the game continues.

England Variant

In Englad, Bullshit card game is called as Cheat and it had a totally different gameplay. In this variation, players get more chances to lie. For example, the dealer can deal few cards to himself than any other player, as long as he is careful and will not be caught on the spot. If they find out, they need to negotiate again. Similarly, in cheat the players can hide the cards in their sleeves and manipulate them as needed.

Canadian, Spanish, Australian Variant

In Canada and Spain, this game is called Bluff instead of Bullshit card game. While the Australians call it “Fours hit” when playing with single deck of cards and “Eights hit” when playing with two 52 cards decks or pack shuffled of double decks. Can jokers be used in these? Well, it is upto the players whether to include them or not. In this variation, the dealer can deal more cards from the stock pile to a specific player, and the first player to lose is chosen by another player of their choosing in the Canadian game. While in the spanish variant, the player with the highest rank card gets chance to play first. The main objective of these countries is not necessarily winning, but not to be the one player with the most cards at the end of the game that is to get rid of all cards. Until then, the play continues.

China/Iranian Variant

In china, specifically in the fujian province, a variant called Brag (吹牛) or Lie (说谎) is played without restriction on the range that can be named in each round and simply requires each sentence to be played as directed to the same number. Each turn, a player can “pass” instead of playing. If all players pass in turn, the deck of cards played face down is removed from play until the next bluff is called. After this, the player called rank earlier is the one to begin playing again.

This version, sometimes called the Iranian Bullshit, is often played with two or more packs shuffled, allowing players to play (or claim) a large number of cards of the same rank.

Moglen – German And Austrian Variant

The German and Austrian variants are intended for four or more players and are known in various ways such as Mogeln (cheating), Schwindeln (cheating), Lügen (lying), or Zweifeln (doubting). A 52-card pack is for four or fewer players used and each player receives the same number of cards, if there are extra cards remaining, they are being placed face down on the table. In case, five or more players, several decks can be used.

A player plays who has Ace of hearts is the one to lead by placing the cards face down among the extra cards. The player on the left goes on and names his discard as two of hearts and so on until the king. Then the next suit starts. Each player can play a different card than the correct one in the order, but if his opponents suspect that he is cheating, they call it gemogelt! In this version, all suits of cards, from ace to king, are called in increasing rank until a bullshit is made.

Then the card is checked & if it is the wrong card one then player has pick up the entire deck. But if the played cards is correct then the challenger has pick up the whole pile which is all the cards present on the table. The winner is the first to discard all his cards and survive whatever challenges arise from their final play; the loser is the last one left with cards.

FAQs

Can you call BS on yourself?

No. None of the players are allowed to call BS on themselves.

If the play ends without anybody lying their cards or calling BS, then where do all the cards go from that play?

When the cards are all played out and not challenged that are thrown faced down into the discard pile. This is the discard pile that is drawn when BS is called on them and they lied.