I Doubt it

Number of players: Any amount up to twelve or thirteen.

The Deck: If you have five or fewer players, select a single 52 card deck. Five players should use either a single or double pack. Six or more players should use a double pack.

Shuffle and cut: The first dealer is selected by the others in any mutually acceptable manner. Any player may shuffle. It doesn't matter whether or not the cards are cut.

Object of the game: To get rid of all of your cards.

Rank of cards: Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

The play: The player at the dealer's left starts by putting on the table, face down, any amount of cards from one to four. While the player does this, he or she must announce that they are putting down as many aces as the number of cards. For example, Three cards may be down while saying, "Three aces" but the cards need not be aces. The player is not obligated to tell the truth.

Any player at the table is then free to say, "I don't believe you." In this situation, the cards are turned up. If the player's statement was true (that is, the three cards were really aces), then the doubter must take them, along with all the other cards which have been played.

But if the announcement was false, that player must take all the cards on the table, including his or her own.

If two or more players doubt the announcement, the one who speaks first is the official doubter. Suppose two players express simultaneous doubt. The on closest to the player's left is the official doubter.

Assuming the announcement is not doubted or challenged, then what? The cards played remain on the table in front of the player until, but the rules of the game, some player is obligated to pick them up and add them to his or her hand.

If the first player's announcement has been challenged or not, the player on the left must put down one to four cards and announce that he or she is putting down so many kings. Next, the player at his left will put down and announce so many queens: and so it goes around the table, so that when a player in turn has announced deuces, the next player must start with aces.

If the double pack is being used, the player is allowed to put down any number of cards from one to eight. The principle here is that a player must be permitted to put down every card of a group if held; four of a kind with a single pack, eight of a kind with a double pack.

Game: If a player puts his or her last card on the table and either is not doubted or, upon being doubted, is shown to have announced correctly, the game ends. Each player pays one point or one chip. Variation: Some play that each player must give one chip for every card remaining in his or her hand.

Note: If a player doubts a player's announcement before it is made, this doubt is declared void. No one can doubt the players announcement while it is made. There is no misdeal. If there is an irregularity in dealing, it must be corrected as well as possible by adjusting the cards in the respective hands even if the players have already seen them. It is considered ethical to make so called false statements, such as saying, when in turn to play eights, "I haven't any eights" when the fact is the player has one or more eights in his hand.