Liar's Poker Guide | Super Liars Poker SLIPS
Terms Explanation | Special Rules | Game Mechanics | Liars Poker SLIPS App
In this installment of Liar's Poker Guide we describe special rules and mechanics that elevate garden variety Liar’s Poker to "Super" status and make playing a truly sublime affair.
For a refresher on basic Liar's Poker rules see our earlier post How To Play Liar's Poker
Terms Explanation
SLIPS - Slips is shorthand for the game, a recursive acronym actually, for Super Liars Poker SLIPS. Like an infinite series of fun; random numbers with friends. In the vernacular, "Let's play Slips" or "Slips anyone?" It derives from the paper slips originally used for play.
Hand - hand actually has two meanings. One is a player's set of 8 numbers e.g. "my hand" or "your hand", and two "the hand" or "a hand" meaning a round of play.
Bid - a bid states how many times a particular number (1 thru 9 or 0) appears across all player's hands. It is expressed as two numbers, the level (how many), followed by the number itself. A bid of 4 6s says there are four or more occurrences of the number six across all player's hands.
Challenge - a challenge refutes the bid, saying "no, there aren't that many out there, the bid will not succeed."
Count - a count ends the hand, reveals what everyone has, and determines if the last player to bid (the bidder) won or lost. Upon winning the bidder collects equally from the challengers and vice versa distributes to them upon losing.
Round of play - a hand starts with a player making an opening bid. Each player in turn makes a higher bid (in level or number) or challenges. When a bid is challenged around by all other players the bidder has the option to end the hand with a count.
Special Rules
1. First and foremost is the ability to make a 2nd bid. When a player's first bid is challenged around they can either declare a count or make a new, higher bid. If that bid is challenged around again without an intervening bid a count is forced and the hand ends. The extra opportunity to bluff gives the game a whole new strategy dimension that greatly adds to the action.
2. Second is an increase in stakes as a) the bid level rises and/or b) the bid number is 6. The key point here is that the increase only applies to what a bidder can win while the downside is limited to whatever the hand started at. Increased stakes are represented as a multiple - a number appended with an x e.g. 2x, 3x, 4x, etc.
a) bid level rises. When the bid level reaches 3 more than the number of players the multiple goes to 2x (double). 5 more than the number of players gets it to 3x (triple), 7 more 4x (quadruple) and so on
b) bid number is 6. Whenever 6s are bid the stakes automatically double. This multiple works in concert with the bid level multiple, raising stakes in compound fashion. In a 5-player game for instance a bid of 8 6s will have a multiple of 4x, 2x for the level and 2x for 6s
3. Carryover effect. This rule serves to vary the initial stakes based on what happened in the previous hand by way of rule 2. So if the stakes reached say 3x because the bid level was 5 more than the number of players the starting multiple on the next hand will be 3x. The standard pot size has tripled and this is just the starting point. Rule 2 escalation from here can easily get the multiple to 6x, 12x or higher!
4. None Bid. This rule provides another way to win. A none bid wins if the number is instead absent from everyone's hand - there are none of that number across all hands including the bidder's. Payout is by formula, initial stakes times max(0,2n-6) where n is the number of players. A special case of the none bid called a Hero occurs when the bidder has none in their hand but the count is still made from the other player's hands. The hero payout is also by formula, initial stakes times 1x above whatever multiple the hand would have earned by rule 2. The carryover effect or initial stakes on hands following a none bid are set to 2x. Although not a high percentage play none bids can be an effective bluffing tool.
Game Mechanics
In order to provide structure and maintain fairness and integrity in play the following constructs were adopted:
Fifteen Hands per Slip
A physical "Slip" as it was called when the game ran on paper, contains 15 randomly generated 8-digit hands arranged in a column. The hands are indexed by letters, A thru Q (skipping O) to track which hand was in play. Each Slip begins by playing row A at the top.
Ten Hands are played
Hand progression through a Slip is also randomized, based on whether the last digit in everyone's hand is odd or even. The odd count determines how many unplayed rows are skipped, cycling back through the top upon reaching the bottom, until 10 hands are completed. This is done in order to deter players from boosting the multiple in advance of a favorable hand e.g. 4 of a kind.
Turn Order
Players generally sit in a circle with turns proceeding in clockwise fashion. The last player to bid in a hand retains the turn and makes the opening bid in the following hand.
Tenth Hand
The stakes on the 10th or final hand of a Slip are double what they would normally be based on the carryover effect.
Units
The score in Slips is kept in units, in other words whatever players decide to play for. A unit can be a dollar, two dollars, ten dollars, points, euros, basically anything players agree to and their risk appetites can digest.
Liars Poker SLIPS App
If you've read this far you might be thinking heck, there's a lot of stuff to keep track of. And you're right as that's what Wall Street traders and numbers people do, fill their heads with figures and make split second decisions based on fear and greed, emotions that ultimately move markets up and down. In a way, playing with these rules is a virtual training tool, one might think of Slips as the original FinTech game.
We love Slips and enjoy playing remotely too so to keep the fun in and take the hassles out we encapsulated it all with Liars Poker SLIPS. The app enhances the experience, tracking the action and permitting players to focus on strategy. It shows what's at stake, what transpired, and how much everyone is up or down. All players need to decide, and this can be a very big all depending on what's at stake - is whether to Bid or Challenge. Buy or Sell, that simple and that hard.
Good Luck Playing!
The Slips Multiple can empty even savvy player’s pockets in a hurry!