Liar's Dice

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A cup and five dice used for Liar's Dice.

"Wondering how it's played?"
"I understand. It's a game of deception. But your bet includes all the dice, not just your own. What are they wagering?"
"The only thing we have. Years of service."

―Bootstrap Bill Turner and Will Turner

Liar's Dice, also known as Pirate's Dice or Pirate Dice, was a class of dice games played for two or more players requiring the ability to gamble, deceive and detect an opponent's deception. In this game of deception, each player would have a set of dice, all players roll once, and the bids related to the dice each player could see (their hand) plus all the concealed dice (the other players' hands) passed from player to player. Although the game was played by sailors, pirates, and wenches around the world, the most notable variant of the game was played by Davy Jones and the cursed crew of the Flying Dutchman. It was during the search for the Dead Man's Chest that a dangerous game of Liar's Dice was played, where Will Turner learned that Davy Jones kept the key to the fabled Dead Man's Chest around his neck, though his father Bootstrap Bill Turner was condemned to spend an eternity on the Dutchman.

History

"Any member of the crew can be challenged?"
"Aye."
"I challenge Davy Jones."
"Accepted."

―Will Turner, Bootstrap Bill Turner and Davy Jones

By the Age of Piracy, Liar's Dice or Pirate Dice was a gambling game played by sailors, pirates, and wenches around the world, with the aim of the game being to guess how many dice of a chosen face value were under all of the players' cups. 1 (aces) were wild and counted toward the current bid. Each player had five dice which were hidden under a cup, which no one can see the others' dice. Players take it in turns increasing the bid until they think the previous player is lying (overestimating the number of dice of their value) or is exactly correct. At this point, all the cups would be removed and the dice were counted up. The winner being determined depending on the bid, the call, and the dice count, while the loser must pay some loot to the winning player.

At some point after Davy Jones became legendary and feared to the death as the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman, offering poor souls who died at sea the chance to live by joining his crew aboard his ghost ship, Liar's Dice was chosen as a given pastime, in which the cursed crew of the Dutchman would wager the only thing they now had: years of service.

Liar's Dice being played by Will Turner and Davy Jones.

During the search for the Dead Man's Chest, as Bootstrap Bill Turner and Will Turner reunite on the Flying Dutchman, both father and son were determined to help each other escape from Davy Jones' clutches before watching Liar's Dice being played by Maccus, Koleniko, and Clanker. Upon learning that any member of the crew could be challenged, Will boldly announced that he challenged Davy Jones to a game, after which the crew went silent and Jones appeared to accept the challenge. Will wagered one hundred years of service against his father's freedom, having thought he had no need to wager against his own freedom as he was already free, though had no idea Jack Sparrow had already bargained with his soul. Jones took a seat across from Will and eagerly rolled first, having learned of Will being in love and hoped to be married, and remarked that Will was a desperate man whose fate was to be married to the ship; despite Will saying he chose his own fate, Jones denied his claim otherwise by saying it wouldn't be fate. The game ended with Jones calling Will a "Liar", only for Will to have won the first round with his father free. As Jones rose to leave, Will wanted another game, though the cursed captain cautioned, "You can't best the devil twice, son." Will offered the stakes of his soul and an eternity of servitude, then presented Jones the drawing of the key to the Dead Man's Chest that Jack Sparrow obtained in the Turkish Prison, showing he wanted the key, which Jones revealed he kept around his neck. Though Jones wanted to know how Will knew of the key, Will only wanted to play the game and remarked that Jones could still walk away. Not wanting his son to lose, Bootstrap Bill joined Will and Jones the dangerous game of Liar's Dice, in which Jones called Bootstrap Bill a liar, thereby having lost his freedom to spend an eternity on the ship.

At some point later, "Liar's Dice" was among many details Joshamee Gibbs wrote for his book.

Rules

Three Fives, a Two, and a One; an average Liar's Dice hand.

Five dice are used per player with dice cups used for concealment.

Each round, each player rolls a "hand" of dice under their cup and looks at their hand while keeping it concealed from the other players. The first player begins bidding, announcing any face value and the number of dice that the player believes are showing that value, under all of the cups in the game. Ones are often wild, always counting as the face of the current bid.

Turns rotate among the players in an anticlockwise order. Each player has two choices during their turn: to make a higher bid, or challenge the previous bid- typically with a call of "liar". Raising the bid means either increasing the quantity, or the face value, or both, according to the specific bidding rules used. There are many variants of allowed and disallowed bids; common bidding variants, given a previous bid of an arbitrary quantity and face value, include:

• the player may bid a higher quantity of any face, or the same quantity of a higher face (allowing a player to "re-assert" a face value they believe prevalent if another player increased the face value on their bid);
• the player may bid a higher quantity of the same face, or any quantity of a higher face (allowing a player to "reset" the quantity);
• the player may bid a higher quantity of the same face or the same quantity of a higher face (the most restrictive; a reduction in either face value or quantity is never allowed).

In Dead Man's Chest, Bootstrap Bill's bid has a reduction in face value from the previous bid made by Davy Jones, meaning the third variant listed above is not the one used in the movie.

If the current player challenges the previous bid, all dice are revealed. If the bid is valid (at least as many of the face value and any wild aces are showing as were bid), the bidder wins. Otherwise, the challenger wins. The player who loses a round loses one of their dice. The last player to still retain a die (or dice) is the winner. The loser of the last round starts the bidding on the next round. If the loser of the last round was eliminated, the next player starts the new round.

Behind the scenes

The rules

Liar's Dice was first named in Richard Platt's reference book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide, later republished in Glenn Dakin's reprint The Complete Visual Guide. The game first appeared, albeit unnamed, in Irene Trimble's junior novelization for the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. In the audio commentary of Dead Man's Chest, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio said that Liar's Dice was put into the film after actor Jack Davenport introduced the game to the cast and crew. Liar's Dice was playable as "Pirate Dice" in the video game adaptation of the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, as well as being detailed in the book The Pirates' Guidelines.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, Will Turner played Liar's Dice with Davy Jones two times, with Will beating Jones the first time and winning his father Bootstrap Bill's freedom. The scene never made it to the final cut of the film but was retained in the film's junior novelization, as well as the deleted scene "Married To The Ship" featured in Blu-ray releases beginning in 2011, despite producer Jerry Bruckheimer's statement that the additional footage would be on the initial 2006 DVD release.

Hasbro released "Pirate's Dice" which is exactly the same as Liar's Dice, it just has a different name. When you lose you take a die out of the loser's game.

Appearances

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization) (First appearance)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (comic)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game) (First identified as Pirate Dice)
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• DisneyPirates.com (First identified as Pirate's Dice)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide (First mentioned) (First identified as Liar's Dice)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
• The Pirates' Guidelines

External links

• Liar's Dice on Wikipedia