The questions people ask when they discover Menteur: why the called rank isn’t yours to choose, when to shout “Liar!” and what a wrong accusation costs, and what the table does when you don’t play.
It’s a card game of bluff, with every player for themselves. Taking turns, each player plays cards face down in the middle and calls their rank, and the first to empty their hand wins.
Nothing forces you to tell the truth: playing two cards when the game expects kings, without holding a single one, is allowed. But any other player can shout “Liar!” The cards are then turned over, and whoever was in the wrong — the liar, or the accuser — picks up the whole pile.
Three to six, with no teams: everyone plays for themselves. The fifty-two-card deck is dealt out in full, one card at a time: with four players, everyone gets thirteen; otherwise, the first players to be served get one more than the others.
It takes at least three players for the game to start, and the table can’t be filled with bots.
There are no rounds and no points: just one game, which ends as soon as a player has emptied their hand without being caught in a lie. So its length isn’t set in advance — every pile picked up puts cards back into a hand, and lengthens the game accordingly.
Each turn, on the other hand, has a limit: forty-five seconds at most, after which the table plays for whoever is taking too long.
No: the game sets it, and you have no say in it. The first player calls aces, the next one twos, then threes, and so on up to kings; after kings, it goes back to aces. The expected rank is shown in the middle of the table, on a large card.
Only one thing interrupts this sequence: after a challenge, the winner starts again on the same rank as the one that was just challenged. The sequence doesn’t move on.
No. On your turn, you play one to four cards, and the whole table sees how many: the screen shows it, for example “Called: 2 × R”. That number is always true. Only the rank can lie — nothing forces you to play the cards you call.
You can’t pass either: when your turn comes, you have to play at least one card.
Not yet: your final play can be challenged like any other. The next player can no longer play; they either shout “Liar!” or choose “Let it stand”, and the others can shout too, as long as the next player hasn’t let it stand.
If nobody challenges, you win. If someone challenges and you were telling the truth, the accuser picks up the pile and you win anyway. If you were lying, you are the one who picks up the pile, and the game goes on.
As soon as another player has played, even if it isn’t your turn — and also when it is: you can challenge instead of playing. You only need to have a bullet left, and you can never challenge your own play.
Only the most recent play can be challenged: as soon as the next player has made their own play, it is too late for the previous one. And a play can be challenged only once — if two players shout at almost the same moment, only the first one counts.
The cards from the challenged play are turned over, and only those. If they are all of the called rank, it was true: you pick up the whole pile in the middle, and the bullet you spent is lost. The accused player then starts again on an empty pile, calling the same rank.
Conversely, a single card of another rank is enough to make it a lie: the liar is the one who picks up, you get your bullet back, and you are the one who starts again.
For accusing. Each player receives three at the start of the game, and shouting “Liar!” costs one. You get it back if the accusation was right; it is lost if it was wrong.
Bullets are never won any other way. With no bullets left, the “Liar!” button stays grayed out: all that remains is to play, and to hope the others make mistakes. Each player’s bullets are shown next to their name, along with their number of cards — enough to know who can still accuse you.
From the home page: choose Menteur from the games, then “Create a Menteur table”. Your table appears among the public tables, where other players can join it, and you can also share its code. To keep it among yourselves, check “Private table”: it no longer appears in the public lobby, and the code is the only way in.
To join a table that is already open, pick it from the same list, or go through “Join with a code”. The host is the one who starts the game, when three to six players are seated.
No. A bot would have to decide when to lie and when to accuse, that is, guess what the others believe, and none of the site’s computer opponents can do that. So a Menteur table is played between humans, and the host can’t fill it with bots.
That is also why Menteur tables appear among the public tables: if you come alone, you can join other players there, or wait for them there.
Each turn lasts forty-five seconds at most. Once that time is up, the table plays for you: it plays a single card, of the expected rank if you have one, and otherwise the first card in your hand — which is then a lie, one the others can challenge. It never shouts “Liar!” on your behalf, and faced with a final play, it lets it stand.
A disconnection changes nothing else: you keep your seat and your cards, the table waits out your forty-five seconds on each turn, then plays for you in the same way. Nobody takes your seat, and when you come back, you get back your hand and the time you have left.
For now, a game of Menteur doesn’t count toward your progress or the leaderboard. Questions about your account, the shop or privacy apply to every game on the site. They are in the general FAQ.