If you’ve ever watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, you might recall the hilarious card game scene that highlighted the art of bluffing and clever misdirection. That game was none other than I Doubt It, aka Cheat or Bull****, a classic party card game that’s all about deception and quick thinking. Whether you're channeling your inner movie star or just looking for a fun way to entertain friends, I Doubt It is the perfect game to test your poker face. Dive in to uncover the rules of this iconic game from the big screen!
Card Game Rules
I Doubt It is a classic party game for three or more players. The game requires a standard 52 playing card deck with Kings high and Aces low. The objective of the game is to be the first person to get rid of all of their cards.
For more classic card games, check out our guides for Solitaire and Cribbage.
If you are looking for cards to play I Doubt It with, check out a standard deck here or one of our more recent arrivals here.
Set Up
Before game play can begin, a dealer must be selected. To do so, players must choose a random card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with repeated drawings. The dealer shuffles the deck and passes out all of the cards face down to every player one at a time.
How to Play
The game starts with Aces. The player left of the dealer begins by stating how many Aces they will be putting face down in the middle of the game play area. Play moves clockwise and the rank for the turn increases to 2 and so on. Players have to lay down at least one card even if they do not have the specific rank in their hand. For example, if the rank a player must lay down is a 5 and they have no 5s, they can secretly lay down a Queen and a Jack and say they are laying down two 5s.
Before the next player lays down their cards, anyone who thinks the current player is lying can say “I Doubt It”. If the player was lying, they must take all of the cards in the middle and add them to their hand. If the player was telling the truth, the player who said “I Doubt It” must take all of the card in the middle.
The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins the game.
For more information about I Doubt It and its rules, check out Wikipedia's article here or Pagat's article here.
Looking for more card games to play? Check out this article:
40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions
About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.
3 comments
So, 14 seconds into Gundam: Witch of Mercury episode 8 this game came was shown being played and I didn’t know what was, it wasn’t mentioned in the episode transcripts that I found either. It’s wildly specific but I just wanted to say thanks for teaching me how to play and sating my curosity
Oh the best way to play this is with the jokers being wild cards! It adds a new dimension to the game. You can trick people into challenging you. If one player has most of the deck, and you play your joker/wild card, or add it to something you already have 3 of, you can be assured of a challenge and watch in glee as your opponent sees you tricked them into picking up the deck. It’s hilarious!
this is amazing