Cheat

Cheat is a bluffing card game. Play against a bot right here in your browser.

How to play

You and your opponent are dealt the whole deck between you (suits don't matter). Players take turns. On your turn you:

  1. Play one or more cards face down.
  2. Claim what they are — e.g. “2 Kings”. You don't have to actually be holding what you claim. That's the whole game.

Your claimed rank must be the same, one above, or one below the previous claim (Ace counts as both low and high, so King and Ace are adjacent). The very first play of the game — and whoever plays again right after a challenge below fully clears the pile — can claim any rank.

After a play, the other player can call Cheat!:

First to run out of cards wins.

Choose your opponent

Plays legal moves and calls Cheat completely at random. A fair, beatable opponent.

Plays truthfully whenever it safely can, bluffs only when forced, and will catch you outright if you ever claim more cards of a rank than could mathematically still be unseen. A real challenge.

Everything the smart bot does, plus it counts cards through the pile, learns how often you lie from every challenge, and always calls your final play. Beats the smart bot ~93% of the time. Good luck.

The sharpest Smart bot there is: hypergeometric lie detection, EV-calibrated bluffs, and a knack for shedding junk when you're not watching. Beats the smart bot ~65% of the time.

Nobody programmed its tactics: a small neural network trained by reinforcement learning against the other bots (and itself). Plays a randomized style all its own.

A fresh neural network with its own architecture and feature set, trained via evolution strategies. Never peeked at the existing neural bot's code. Bluffs aggressively, accuses shrewdly.