- ''For Dudo, the Norman historian, see Dudo of Saint-Quentin.
Dudo (Spanish for I doubt), also known as Cacho, or Cachito is popular dice game played in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and other Latin American countries. It is a more specific version of a family of games collectively called Liar's Dice, which has many forms and variants. This game can be played by two or more players and consists in guessing how many dice, placed under cups, there are on the table showing a certain number. The player who loses a round loses one of their dice. The last player having a die is the winner.
Each player starts having five dice and a cup, which is used for shaking the dice and concealing your dice from the other players. Players roll die in order, to determine where and in what order they sit. Highest first, then next lowest and so on. In the event of a tie between 2 players, they simply re-roll until one gains a higher score. After deciding who starts the game (this can be done by making each player roll one die, for example), the players shake their dice in their cups, and then each player looks at his or her own dice, but keeps these dice concealed from the other players. Then, the first player says how many dice are showing - at a minimum - a certain number (for example, "five threes", meaning there are at least 5 die showing a three, which can be fact or fictional) and tells the next player (play ALWAYS moves clockwise) to raise
or spot on
- Raise: If the player wants to increase, he/she increases the number of dice (e.g. from "five threes" to "six threes") or the die number (e.g. "five threes" to "five sixes") or both.
- Another variant of the "Raise" is for the player to reveal a certain number of dice that they have rolled (e.g. place 2 dice showing "fours" on the table next to their cup), reroll the remainder of the dice in the cup, and make a raised bet based on the dice that were revealed (e.g. "six fours"). For the remainder of the round, the dice that were revealed remain in play (exactly as if they were hidden under the cup, but now all players are able to see them). If a revealed dice is the joker, it still counts as a joker for the other called numbers.
- Call: If the player calls, it means that they do not buy or believe the correctness of the previous call. The dice are shown and, if the guess is not correct (i.e. there are less than the number of die showing the number called - as in the example above, only 4 die show threes), the previous player (who made the call) loses a die. If it's correct, the player who doubted loses a die. After calling a new round starts with the player that lost a die making a new initial call of their choice. The game continues until one player remains with dice.
- Spot on: If he/she calls spot on, this means that the player is sure that the previous announcement is the exact guess, so the number of dice, and the face value called will be exactly correct when all are revealed. The dice are shown. If the guess was correct, the player wins a die from the table (up to the maximum five original dice). If not, the player loses a die and puts it in the bag.
In Dudo, the ace (die showing one) is a kind of Joker
. When checking the dice, aces are counted as the dice that were announced if there's at least one die of the number announced (e.g. If the final announcement is "three twos", the aces are counted as twos if there's at least one 'true' two).
The aces have special rules when increasing. You can increase (actually, decrease) a number to ace by dividing the quantity of dice by two, rounding up if it's necessary. For example, "six twos" can be transformed into "three aces" and "eleven fives" into "six aces" (11/2 = 5.5, then, 6). Also, you can increase aces, but this is performed by doubling and adding one to the quantity of dice. Example: "Four aces" is transformed into "Nine (anything)" (2*4 + 1 = 9) or "two aces" are "5 (anything)" (2*2 + 1 = 5). Obviously, you can increase "three aces" into "four aces" as normally. These rules are not followed when the player who begins a round starts with aces. In those cases, the aces can be transformed into anything (including decreasing the number) by the next player. Then, the special rules are again used.
When a player that had two dice loses one, an "obliging" round is made (obviously, this player will start the round because of losing a die).
The rules in these rounds are different.
- The aces don't count as jokers
- No one can equalize or pass. The round ends when someone doubts.
- Only players having one die can see his dice. Other players can't see them until the round is over.
- When increasing, the die number can't be changed (i.e. "five fours" can't be increased to "five sixes").
- Each player can "oblige" only once during the whole game. If the player wins a die by equalizing and then, he/she loses it, there's no "obliging" round.
The Dudo terminology in Spanish
These are the original names of the various "commands".
- Cacho = cup
- Dudo = (lit.I doubt) call
- Calzo = (lit. I stick) spot on
- Obligo = I oblige
The dice number, even while playing in Spanish, have their special names. These names are given to avoid cacophony (for example, "seis seis" to call six sixes) and to "spice up" the game. The names can also have slight variants depending on the country and even the group of players.
Common dice number names are:
- 1 = As (pl. ases)
- 2 = Tonto (pl. tontos, lit. silly), pato (pl. patos, lit duck, a common drawing of a duck is based on a big number 2), don (pl. dones, lit. Mr.)
- 3 = Tren (pl. trenes, lit. train)
- 4 = Cuarta (pl. cuartas, lit. fourth), cuarto (pl. cuartos, lit. room), cuadra (pl. cuadras, lit. block)
- 5 = Quina (pl. quinas, the word 'quina' in Chile and Argentina is used for saying 500 pesos), burro (pl. burros, lit donkey, as stated as if a donkey had 5 legs)
- 6 = Sexta (pl. sextas, lit. sixth), cena (pl. cenas, lit. dinner), diablo (pl. diablos, lit. "demons")