Game Description:
Cheat is a game of deception, with cards being played face down and players being permitted to lie about the cards they have played. A challenge is usually made by players calling out the name of the game, and the loser of a challenge has to pick up every card in the middle.
Age Range:
Number of Players:
Objective:
Be the first player to get rid of all their cards.
The Pack:
Normally, a standard deck of 52 playing cards is used, however, the game can accommodate more players by shuffling together multiple packs of cards and may include the jokers as wild cards.
The Deal:
Deal the cards out evenly. If there are remainders, place them face down in the center of the table as the beginning of the discard pile.
The Play:
The first player is either the first player dealt to or sometimes in variants the first person with a specified card (usually the Ace of Spades).
Play proceeds in the order of the deal.
A turn consists of a player placing a specific number of face down cards into the middle of the table, from their hand, and making a claim as to what those cards' rank is (e.g. "two sevens"). They are permitted to lie about the rank of these cards, and the claim may have to be a lie if the player has no cards of the required ranks. The first play of the game must call aces; subsequent calls must be exactly one rank higher, with kings being followed by aces and continuing again.
Once a player has made a claim, every other player has until the next player places their cards down to call "cheat" (or a similar phrase) if they think the player was lying. If a claim is challenged in this way, the cards played by the challenged player are revealed. If the challenge was correct and the player was lying, the lying player must take the entire stack of cards as a punishment. If the challenger was wrong, however, they must take the stack. Play continues in normal rotation as the next player starts a new pile.
The first player to empty their hand (and not lose a challenge on the final play) is the winner. The game may be continued to determine second and subsequent places, and in some versions the game continues until a loser has been established.