Setup
Two dice, one cup, and a way to track lives — a spare die each turned to six, or the sheet. Agree the starting lives, whether a Meyer costs one life or two, and whether Little Meyer is in play, before the first roll.
How to play
Roll both dice under the cup and look at them without showing anyone. Announce a result. Your announcement must be strictly higher than the one you were given, whether or not your actual roll is. Then pass the cup along.
The next player has two choices. Believe you, in which case they roll and must announce something higher still — or, if passing unseen is allowed, simply repeat your claim and pass it on. Or lift the cup. Lifting ends the round immediately and settles it.
The ranking, highest first:
2-1 (Meyer), then 3-1 (Little Meyer) if it is in play, then the pairs 6-6, 5-5, 4-4, 3-3, 2-2, 1-1, then the mixed rolls read as two-digit numbers: 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 54, 53, 52, 51, 43, 42, 41, 32, and finally 31 at the very bottom when Little Meyer is switched off.
Scoring
Only the round's loser writes anything down, and what they write is lives lost.
- The cup is lifted and the roll is equal to or better than announced — the announcer told the truth or better, so the challenger loses 1 life.
- The cup is lifted and the roll is worse than announced — it was a bluff, so the announcer loses 1 life.
- Everybody else records 0.
When the announcement in question was a Meyer, the loss is 2 lives by default, whichever side was wrong. Little Meyer costs the amount set for it, one or two, when it is in play at all.
Lives remaining is derived as startingLives − sum of that player's cells, so a player on six lives who has lost a Meyer challenge and one ordinary round shows 6 − 2 − 1 = 3.
A player reaching zero is out. With the second-chance setting on, they may come back once with one life, which is recorded as a negative entry of the same size.
Ending the game
The last player with lives left wins. There is no score to compare and no tiebreak, since lives are lost one round at a time.
Common variations
Some tables let a player who is passed a Meyer double the stake back rather than lift or roll. Others treat 3-2 as a joker. A common closing rule is that once two players remain, every loss costs two lives so the game does not limp.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | Last standing |
|---|---|
| Played to | 6 points by default |
| Score sheet | Counting up to or down from a limit |
| Typical round score | 0 – 2 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | Nothing is added up. A cell records the lives that player lost in that round — almost always 0 or 1, and 2 when a Meyer is involved. Lives remaining is derived. |
Meyer — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: Lives each6, A Meyer costs2, Little Meyer (3-1)Not in play — 3-1 is the lowest roll, Second chanceoff. Players: Anna, Ben, Cara, Dan.
Entries are lives lost in that round, so the sheet counts down. A player on zero lives is out and takes no further part.
| Round | Anna | Ben | Cara | Dan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 1 | — | 0 | 1 |
Lives remaining:
| After | Anna | Ben | Cara | Dan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 — out | 5 | 6 |
| 6 | 3 | out | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 2 | out | 5 | 5 |
Ben loses three lives in round 5 — a Meyer called against him costs 2, plus one for losing the round — reaching exactly 0 and being eliminated. His column stays on the sheet showing 0 and takes no entries from round 6 onward.
Expected standings after round 7: Cara 5 and Dan 5 lead, Anna 2, Ben eliminated. the game is still running — three players are still alive.
Tools for Meyer
Set up the way this game wants them.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Meyer a little differently. These are the 6 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Lives each: what is the default in Meyer?
How many lives everyone begins with. Six is standard and is easy to track on a spare die; three or five make for a much quicker game.
Default: 6. Adjustable from 1 to 12 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Lives each”.
A Meyer costs: what are the options in Meyer?
Announcing 2-1, the top roll, raises the stakes. Most tables double the loss, so whoever ends up wrong about a Meyer — the bluffer or the person who lifted the cup — pays two lives instead of one.
Default: 2 lives. Two options:
In the app: “A Meyer costs”.
Little Meyer (3-1): what are the options in Meyer?
With this on, 3-1 jumps from the bottom of the ranking to just below a Meyer, which gives bluffers a second big claim to make. Decide before the first roll, because it changes which rolls beat which.
Default: Not in play — 3-1 is the lowest roll. Three options:
In the app: “Little Meyer (3-1)”.
Passing the cup on unseen: on or off in Meyer?
Lets a player accept what they were told without looking, repeat the same announcement, and shove the cup to the next player. Turn it off and every player must roll and look on their turn.
Default: on.
In the app: “Passing the cup on unseen”.
Player on their last life: what are the options in Meyer?
In Denmark a player down to their final life is said to be "på røven" and many groups grant them a small mercy. Pick the one your table uses, or leave it off.
Default: No special treatment. Three options:
In the app: “Player on their last life”.
Second chance: on or off in Meyer?
A player who loses their last life may buy back in once with a single life, so nobody sits out the rest of the evening.
Default: off.
In the app: “Second chance”.
Variants of Meyer
Mia / Mäxchen
The German version. Identical ranking, and the top roll gives the game its name.
Joker 32
The lowest ordinary roll, 3-2, is treated as a joker that can be announced as anything.
Escalating stakes
Each life lost in a round costs one more than the last, so games that drag on end abruptly.
Meyer is also known as
Meier, Mia, Mäxchen, Lügen, Meyern. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.