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You're Bluffing

Reviewer	Reviewed On	Publisher	Designer	Published In	Rating
	April 30, 2003	Ravensburger	Rudiger Koltze	1985	8.5

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I have to admit, I didn't have high expectations and hopes for this game when I opened it up. The cards looked kind of goofy - and who uses cards for money?! (Of course, many games do - but I love little plastic coins) And it was in a long line of new games that I had just purchased, so we were playing games just for the sake of getting them played.

You're Bluffing was the first game in this series that we played twice, immediately. And then we played it again the next day. It was simply fun! My family and friends, who aren't always keen on all my board games, loved it on the spot.

Your Bluffing comes with 2 decks - a deck of 40 animal cards (4 each of 10 different animals), and 55 money cards. Each animal card has points on it, ranging from the chicken, at 10 points, to the horse, at 1000 points. The object of the game is (surprise!) get the most points. The only way to get points is to get all 4 of the animals of each set. So, once I get all 4 chickens, I get 10 points total, while if I get the four horses, I'd get 1000 points. The catch in scoring is that if you get 2 sets, both sets are doubled, 3 sets, all three sets are tripled, etc. Rarely will a person get more than 3 sets.
So getting the chickens might be worth it just to double the points of your other sets that are worth more points (like the horses).

Each player starts out with 7 money cards, 1 worth "50", 4 worth "10", and 2 worth "0". The animal cards are shuffled and placed in a stack down on the table. On each turn, a player has 2 choices: They can auction off the top card, or then can "cattle trade". Obviously, when the game starts, auctions are the only option.

So, in an auction, you turn over the top card, and everyone starts yelling out bids, each higher than the previous. When the bidding stops, the auctioneer can either buy the card for the final price - to the person who bid that price!, or take the final amount from the person. There is no change in the game, so if you bid "30", and only have a "50" card in your hand, hand it over - you're out of luck!

The game starts with a small amount of money. However, whenever a donkey card is turned over (They're worth 500 points), more money is handed out to all players. The donkey is then auctioned off like a normal animal. The first time the donkey is turned over, everyone gets another "50" money card, the second, a "100", and the third and fourth, a "200", and "500". So, by the end of the game, there is a lot of money flying around.

The "cattle trading" is the core of the game, however. If, and only if, you and another player have the same type of animal card (i.e., you both have 1 chicken card), you can offer them a "cattle trade." First of all, you slide 1 or more money cards face down towards them. If they accept your offer (having no idea what it is), you "buy" their animal from them. This is where the "0" cards come into play. If I slide 2 cards to you, have I slid 2 "0" cards, or "250" total? If the player decides he doesn't want the offer (for whatever reason) he can make a counter offer. He slides some cards to the other player, and they both keep the cards given. Whoever gives the higher amount, gets both animal cards!

If each player has 2 of each animal, they are making a trade for both animals. The game is over when all the animals have been auctioned off, and all animals are in sets of 4. Then, points are totaled, and the game is over. Our games lasted a little over an hour. But what a fun hour!

Bluffing is a big deal in this game, as well as bidding. Decisions are crucial - should I bid a lot of money on this card, because I'll be giving that much money to the auctioning player? Should I bid high, and then have someone offer me a cattle trade and take my card for a small amount of money? What animals should I bid for, trade for?

Bluffing is a great aspect of the game. One time I offered my wife 5 cards for an animal. Little did she know that all 5 were "0"s. She assumed that she'd be getting some money out of the deal, but didn't. That was the high point of my bluffing, as I was burned many times by others. Bluffing is so crucial to the game - should you take what they offered, hoping that it's a good amount of money you can add to your own bidding in the next auction, or are they offering you no money or very little?

We had a blast playing, bidding, and bluffing. The game went very quickly, and we all wanted to play again. We played with 4 and 5 players, and enjoyed both of them.

I highly recommend this game. It's inexpensive, easy to teach, fun to play, and has great replaying value.

- Tom Vasel