The player who sits to the dealer's left (clockwise) usually takes the first turn and calls aces.

Play continues like this, increasing rank each time, with aces following kings.

If the accused player was lying, they must take the whole pile of cards into their hands.

The game is commonly known as "Cheat" in Britain and "Bullshit" in the United States.

[6] The German and Austrian variant is for four or more players and is variously known as Mogeln ("cheat"), Schwindeln ("swindle"), Lügen ("lie") or Zweifeln ("doubting").

The player who has the Ace of Hearts leads by placing it face down on the table (on the surplus cards if any).

[8] The Russian game Verish' Ne Verish' ("Trust, don't trust")—described by David Parlett as "an ingenious cross between Cheat and Old Maid"[9]—is also known as Russian Bluff, Chinese Bluff or simply as Cheat.

[9] Whenever players pick up cards due to a bluff being called, they may – if they wish – reveal four of the same rank from their hand, and discard them.

[citation needed] Similar to Russian Bluff, it is a version used by at least some in Canada and known in Spain.

After any challenge, the winner begins a new round by making a claim of any amount of any card rank.

If a player fails to do this and later leads a round with this rank, they automatically lose the game.

In the Fujian province, a version of the game known as 吹牛 ("bragging") or 说谎 ("lying") is played with no restriction on the rank that may be called each turn, and simply requiring that each set is claimed to be of the same number.

If all players pass consecutively, then the face-down stack of played cards is taken out of the game until the next bluff is called.

Players are given six (or seven) cards at the start of the game, and the remainder make a pile.

Players are restricted to follow suit, and play a higher rank, but are allowed to bluff.