Blind Man's Bluff uses one standard deck consisting of 52 cards. Every individual card in this deck has a relative rank. The ranking of the cards in the deck are as follows, from high to low; Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In order to differentiate and rank cards of the same denomination, the suits also have a relative ranking. The ranking of these suits are, from high to low; Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs. The game can be played by as few as 2 and as many as 20 players, but is usually best for from 3 to 12 players.
To determine the first dealer and seating positions, each player can randomly draw a card from the face-down shuffled deck. The player drawing the highest card gets first selection of seats at the table and becomes the first dealer. The player drawing the next highest is the next player to select a seat, which continues until every player is seated.
After the players are seated and the first dealer determined, the deck should be thoroughly shuffled and offered to cut to the dealer's right hand opponent. After the cut the dealer then deals each player one face-down card, starting with the player to his immediate left and continuing in a clockwise direction until every player, including himself, has one face-down card. The players should not look at this card.
After the cards have been dealt the dealer then gives a signal and all the players should then pick up his card and hold it up on his forehead, with the face of the card facing outward so all the other players can see the rank of the card. The player himself should not see the denomination of his own card.
After all the players have had the opportunity to see everyone else's cards, the bidding begins, starting with the player to the dealer's immediate left. Each player can make one of two possible bids. The bids a player can make are an In Bid or an Out Bid. An In bid is a bid indicating the player wants to remain in the hand and an Out bid is a bid indicating the player intends to drop from the hand, believe he will not have the highest card in the hand. When a player makes an Out bid, he is dropping from the hand and, after making the Out bid, he indicates this by throwing his card face up on the table in front of himself, such that he can see the denomination of the card. The Bidding continues around the table in a clockwise oration until a full rotation has occurred with no player making an out bid (all having made In bids). Once a player makes an out bid he is out for the remainder of this hand and may not make further bids until the next hand. If all players but one drop from the hand, this last remaining player is immediately declared the winner of the hand.
After the bidding ends, all the remaining players then toss their card face up on the table such that they can see the card. The card of each player remaining in the hand is compared to the other cards and the player who had the highest card wins the hand. The hand is then scored as follows:
- Each player who made an Out bid loses 1 point.
- Each player who stayed in the hand but did not win the hand loses 3 points.
- The winning player of the hand earns 5 points.
Up and Down: Up and Down is a version of Blind Man's Bluff that the Cats developed to add even more flavor to this already exciting game. In this version, each hand can be played in one of two ways. The dealer deals out one card to each player in the normal method. However, before anyone touches his card, he deals one more card from the deck face-up. If this is a black card (a card in the suits of Spades or Clubs), the hand is played Down. If the card exposed is a red card (a card in the suit of Hearts or Diamonds), the hand is played Up. An Up hand indicates that the hand will be played exactly the same as in standard Blind Man's Bluff as described below (with each player's card held up). However, if the hand is to be Played as a Down hand, the hand is played differently. In this case, each player picks up and looks at only his own card, being careful that no other player can see the card. After each player has had an opportunity to view his card, a bidding round occurs exactly the same as in the standard variant. A player who makes a Down Bid throws down his card in the middle of the table such that all other players can see it's denomination. After the bidding is complete, each remaining player places his card face-up on the table in front of himself for comparison. As before, the remaining player who had the highest ranked card wins the hand. Scoring is exactly the same as in the standard game.