Liars Poker

SheetWise · #1 08-23-2005, 11:24 AM

We play a game we call "liars poker" using the serial numbers on bills (I'm sure most of you have played). The zero counts as 10 and the 1 as an Ace. The game is played in a ring, and each player (seeing their own bill only) must either challenge or beat the previous "hand". The game ends when all opponents challenge the last call. The win is confirmed if the last call can be made from ALL bills in the game -- so in a game of 12 players you could call "10 Aces", which could be beat by 11 threes, etc. The last call either collects or pays all opponents. In the past I've had games of up to 12 people playing for 20's, and had several games playing for C's. I've made some really good money at the game.

I've never studied the game, but here's my strategy. If I'm first to call, I will call a reasonable number of some number I have none of. There are 8 digits in a serial number, so in a game of 10 players I might call 7 nines --I figure that by the time it gets back to me, it's going to be a really outrageous bluff. If I'm not first, I don't incrementally increase my call. If I'm 3rd, and player 1 calls 2 aces, Player 2 calls 3 aces, I call 7 nines.

Has anyone ever studied this game? Are serial numbers random?

joshman1204 · #2 08-23-2005, 02:36 PM

I dont know about the game but I can say that serial numbers are not random. They do have a meaning and if you play this game after payday where you have all just cashed your checks it is very likely that you have lots of bills withing a certain range. I work for a bank and when we get money deliveries from the fed the bills are always in very close to sequential order.

#3 08-24-2005, 03:53 PM

it is a great book too

#4 08-24-2005, 04:27 PM

There's an easy way to make the serial numbers nonrandom. Go to ebay and search for liar's poker. Right now there's a $1 bill with 7 aces going for more than $20.

canis582 · #5 08-24-2005, 04:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
There's an easy way to make the serial numbers nonrandom. Go to ebay and search for liar's poker. Right now there's a $1 bill with 7 aces going for more than $20.

[/ QUOTE ]

Be sure to buy some gauze pads on ebay too. They will come in handy after you get stabbed for using a ringer.

SheetWise · #6 08-24-2005, 06:36 PM

We use either Keno runners or cocktail servers (how politically correct) to "wash" the bills through the cage. We draw from the pool at random.

When I mentioned random, what I meant is -- is there bias based upon what federal reserve district you are in, or -- are the serial numbers overkill leaving 90% starting with an ace or ten? Any bank tellers out there, or is this public info?

SheetWise · #7 08-24-2005, 07:01 PM

I agree.

joshman1204 · #8 08-26-2005, 11:54 AM

While not a bank teller I do work with them and I talked to the vault teller who handles all of the incoming money. He basically said that brand new clean money will have nearly sequential number but that as far as he knew the serial number did not indicate the fed district that it came from. He was under the impression that the two letters before the number had more to do with the series of the bill and also the fed branch it was distributed to. I have know way to verify this without calling our fed rep or the FDIC which I dont have time to do right now so I am going to assume this is correct.