AKA Bullsh*t, I doubt it
Decks One
Players Ideally four or more
Aim To get rid of all your cards without being rumbled
Difficulty 1/5
How to play
In his Oxford A-Z of Card Games, the otherwise faultless David Parlett opines that "Cheat is a good game for children ... if you want to teach them dishonesty". The implication is that the game, like nuclear technology, should be passed on with extreme caution, and even then only into the most bright and responsible hands.
The fact is, the bright and the responsible will not be remotely interested, because cheat is only played by two kinds of people: those too young to drink, and those too drunk to think. Even with this proviso, it's pointless for two players, and rubbish for three - but gets far better with every extra player thereafter.
Ace is high and low, and suits are irrelevant. Deal out all the cards. The player to dealer's left places a number of face-down cards on the table. They then declare a number, plus a rank - for example, "three queens". If no one disputes this, play passes to the next player, who places more cards on the pile and announces a number of cards of a value one higher or one lower (to follow our example, "one king" or "one jack"). Whether or not you are holding cards of the right ranks, you must lay at least one card down. If aces are played, the next player can go "through the roof" up to twos.
If anyone thinks the discarder is lying, they shout "Cheat!" before the next player begins their turn, and the cards are turned over. If they are as announced, the doubter picks up the entire pile. If a deception is revealed, the deceiver picks them up.
The main drawback to the basic game is that, once you are reduced to a few cards, finishing is nigh on impossible. If you're left with a five, what are the odds the player to your right is going to play a four or six? You can lie, but you're bound to be called. Just forge ahead on a wing and a prayer.
How to spice it up
Play with two packs, which makes it harder to keep track of things. Allow players to lay cards ranking equal to the card just played as well as one above or below. Apart from anything else, this can give rise to such droll sequences as four queens, four queens, four queens. The truly depraved can try a further variation, where you can also lie about the number of cards played. So you might say, "three fours" as you lay two twos, two sevens and a three.
Then there's extreme cheat, where anything goes: slipping cards into your opponents' hands, setting fire to the dealer etc. Now, teaching that to your children might actually not be a great idea.
Top tips
Get good at lying, or at spotting when your mates are fibbing.
How evil will I become?
This is psychological warfare. You do the math.
