Play Mia Online

What Is Mia?

Mia is a bluffing game with two dice and a cup. The roller shakes, peeks, and announces a value. The announcement may be the truth, or it may be a lie, and the only way to find out is to lift the cup. Because every announcement has to beat the one before it, the values climb around the table until someone is forced to claim more than the dice can plausibly show, and someone else decides to look.

The game is tiny, ten seconds a turn, but it packs in every ingredient of a good bluffing game: a hidden roll, a public claim, an escalating ladder, and a penalty that lands on whoever is wrong. It rewards the same skills as Liar’s Dice, reading probabilities and reading people, but with no counting across the table and no wild faces. If you would rather roll the same two-dice ladder without any lying at all, Mexico uses the identical ranking with an honest roll-off, and Cee-lo offers a three-dice cousin from the same family of bar games.

A Short History of Mia

Mia belongs to a family of two-dice “liar” games played across northern Europe under a crowd of names. In Germany it is Mäxchen (little Max), Meiern or Lügenmäxchen, and regionally Mäxle, Schummelmax or Lügenpaschen. In Denmark it is Meyer, played in bodega bars with leather cups, where the 2-1 roll is called Meyer and the 3-1 has its own name, Lille Meyer (“little Meyer”), and ranks second. Dutch and Scandinavian tables use variations of the same rules, and in English the game is usually Mia, with Kuriki, Kariki and Mire as regional spellings that show up in older sources.

The origins are folklore. British and Danish enthusiasts like to say the game “goes back to the Vikings,” pointing to dice found in pairs in Scandinavian graves and to mentions of dice games in the Icelandic sagas. Pairs of dice are certainly old, but there is no documentary trail connecting any Norse game to the specific 2-1 ranking, and the claim should be treated as a good story rather than history. What can be said with confidence is that the modern rules were well established in German and Danish student and pub culture by the second half of the twentieth century, when the drinking-game form (a lost life becomes a swallow or a finger of beer) made it a staple of student parties. German toy companies eventually boxed it: Fun Connection sold it as Fun Can in the early 1990s, and Milton Bradley published Affengeil in 1995, with banana-decorated dice and the same rules.

The English name Mia and the “must announce higher” rule are the version documented in English-language references; the German rules more often allow passing the cup unseen, and the Danish rules allow matching the previous call rather than beating it. The version on this page is the strict English one, which makes the best two-player-plus-computers game because nobody can dodge a decision.

Mia Rules

Equipment

• Two six-sided dice
• One opaque cup (a dice cup, a mug, anything that hides two dice)
• Life counters for each player: coins, matchsticks, or a third die showing the number of lives left. The game on this page uses three lives each

Object

Be the last player with lives. You lose a life when you are caught lying, when you lift the cup on an announcement that turns out to be true, or when you concede rather than lift the cup on a Mia.

Ranking the Rolls

Two dice are read as a two-digit number with the higher die first: a 4 and a 5 is 54, never 45. The ranking is not numerical, though. The full order from highest to lowest is:

How a Turn Works

1. The opener rolls both dice under the cup and looks without showing anyone.
2. The opener announces a value. It may be the true roll, a higher value, or even a lower one. Nobody else has seen the dice.
3. The next player decides. There are two choices: - Believe. Accept the announcement without looking, take the cup, roll, look, and announce a value strictly higher than the previous announcement. If the new roll does not beat the previous announcement, the player has no choice but to lie. - Call. Lift the cup. If the dice show the announced value or higher, the announcement stands and the caller loses a life. If they show less, the announcer was lying and loses a life.
4. If Mia is announced, nothing can beat it, so the next player cannot believe and roll on. They must call (lift the cup) or concede a life without looking.
5. When a life is lost, the round ends. All lives are counted, the dice go back under the cup, and the player who lost the life opens the next round. A player with no lives left is out; if that player would have opened, the next player in turn order opens instead.
6. The last player with lives wins.

Penalties

The double penalty for a challenged Mia is a widespread house rule rather than a universal one. Danish Meyer commonly plays it, English Mia rules usually charge the caller two lives for lifting on a real Mia while charging the liar only one, and some German tables charge one life either way. We chose the symmetrical two-and-two version because it keeps a false Mia as dangerous as a real one.

Worked Examples

All examples use the three-player game on this page: you, Ingrid and Klaus, three lives each.

• You open and roll 5-3. Announcing 5-3 is honest and gives Ingrid a target that a fresh roll beats 56% of the time. Announcing 6-1 instead is a small lie that a fresh roll beats only 44% of the time; Ingrid is more likely to have to bluff, but also more likely to call you. Both are reasonable openings.
• Ingrid announces 6-4 and you believe. You roll 4-3. That does not beat 6-4, so you must bluff. The smallest legal lie is 6-5. Klaus will see an announcement that a random roll reaches only 28% of the time, so expect a call about half the time.
• Klaus announces 5-5. Only 4 outcomes in 36 reach 5-5 or better: the two ways to roll 2-1, plus 6-6 and 5-5. That is about 11%. Unless Klaus was forced up there by a high announcement in front of him, this is a lie about nine times in ten. Call.
• You announce Mia with 2-1 under the cup, and Ingrid lifts. The dice show 2-1. Ingrid loses two lives.
• You announce Mia with 6-2 under the cup, and Ingrid concedes. Ingrid loses one life and never sees the dice. Your bluff worked, and the cup stays shut.
• Klaus announces 3-2, the second-lowest value, as an opener. It is almost certainly true (only 3-1 is lower), and a fresh roll beats it 89% of the time. Believe, roll, and tell the truth.
• The table stands at 6-6 and it is your turn. The only legal announcement after believing would be Mia. Lifting the cup on 6-6 wins 35 times in 36. Call.

The Odds

There are 36 equally likely outcomes on two dice. Mia (2-1) occupies two of them, so P(Mia) = 2/36 = 5.6%. Each double occupies one outcome, so P(any double) = 6/36 = 16.7%, and every other value occupies two. Adding up the table above gives the chance that a single random roll reaches or beats any given announcement:

• P(roll ≥ 5-4) = 20/36 = 55.6%. This is why 5-4 is called the median roll: the chance of beating it is exactly 18/36 = 50%.
• P(roll ≥ 6-1) = 18/36 = 50%. Anything 6-1 or higher is a coin flip for the next player to beat.
• P(roll ≥ 6-5) = 10/36 = 27.8%. From here up, most announcements are lies.
• P(roll ≥ any double) = 8/36 = 22.2%.
• P(roll ≥ 5-5) = 4/36 = 11.1%.
• P(roll ≥ 6-6) = 3/36 = 8.3%.

These figures describe a fresh roll. The real question at the table is conditional: given that the announcer had to beat X, how likely is it that they rolled Y? If the previous announcement was 6-3, an honest roll beats it only one time in three, so two announcers in three are lying whatever they say. That means a claim of 6-4 after a 6-3 is much less trustworthy than a 6-4 opening, even though both are the same value. The best rule of thumb is to combine the two numbers: how likely the announced value is on a fresh roll, and how likely the announcer was to have been forced into a lie.

Lives also change the math. Lifting the cup on a Mia risks two lives; conceding costs one for certain. With Mia true only 5.6% of the time on an honest roll, calling costs 0.11 lives on average against a random announcer and far less against someone who had to beat 6-6. Calling is right unless you are on your last life and the announcer has been honest all game.

Mia Strategy

1. Know the median

5-4 is the middle of the ladder. Any announcement above 6-1 is more likely false than true on a fresh roll, and anything from 6-5 up is false at least seven times in ten. Fix those anchors in memory and most decisions become quick.

2. Tell the truth when the truth is low

An honest 4-3 or 5-2 gives the next player room to roll something legal and keeps you out of trouble. Beginners inflate low rolls because a low announcement feels weak; in fact it is the safest thing on the table, because whoever lifts the cup on it loses a life.

3. Bluff by the smallest step

When your roll does not beat the table, announce the next value up, not a spectacular one. A 6-2 after a 6-1 looks like a normal roll. A 6-6 after a 6-1 looks like exactly what it is.

4. Judge the announcer’s position, not just the value

Ask what the announcer had to beat. Someone forced to top 6-4 has a 28% chance of an honest roll, so their 6-5 is mostly a bluff regardless of how calm they look. Someone opening with 6-5 had no reason to lie and is probably telling the truth.

5. Do not believe what you cannot beat

Believing is not neutral. If you believe a 6-6 you must then roll and announce Mia, and your Mia will be called. Every time you consider believing, ask whether you are happy to be the next announcer.

6. Pass the problem along

With three players the cup circulates. Sometimes the best play is to believe a borderline announcement and make an honest-looking small raise so that the next player has to decide whether to lift the cup. This is a real advantage of the three-player game over a duel.

7. Announce Mia only when the table leaves you no choice, or when the truth backs you

A Mia bluff at a low point in the ladder is a needless two-life gamble. A Mia bluff after a 6-6 is forced and costs you two lives most of the time, so it is better to lift the cup on the 6-6 in the first place. A real Mia should always be announced; the worst case is that the next player concedes and you win a life for free.

8. Count lives at the end

With two players left, every decision is heads-up. If you have two lives and your opponent has one, refuse all Mia gambles and take the coin flips; if you are the one on a single life, the only way back is to catch a lie, so call more often than the odds alone suggest.

Common Mistakes

• Reading the dice the wrong way round. 4-5 is 5-4. The high die always comes first, and the doubles and Mia are exceptions to the numerical order.
• Believing a 6-6. It leaves you with nothing to announce except Mia.
• Conceding on every Mia. A real Mia is a 1-in-18 roll. Concede only if a two-life loss would end your game and the announcer has been reliably honest.
• Bluffing big. Overshooting the table by several steps makes the lie obvious. The smallest legal step is nearly always the best bluff.
• Forgetting who was forced. A high announcement after another high announcement is far weaker evidence than the same announcement as an opener.
• Lifting the cup on low values. A 4-2 announcement is true nearly every time; lifting on it just donates a life.

Variants and House Rules

• Passing unseen (German Mäxchen). A player may pass the cup to the next player without looking, in which case the next player must announce higher than the last announcement without knowing what is under the cup. Some tables also allow rolling once more without looking (“a second chance”). Our version omits this so that every player who believes has to roll and announce.
• Equal or higher (Danish Meyer). Announcements may match the previous value instead of beating it, and a second-best roll, Lille Meyer (3-1), sits under Meyer. In the common Danish scoring 3-2 is the lowest roll and, in the drinking version, everyone drinks when it is revealed.
• Doppelmeier. A German variant in which 4-2 rather than 2-1 is the top roll.
• Reversed doubles. Some tables rank 1-1 as the highest double and 6-6 as the lowest.
• One-life Mia. Lifting the cup on any announcement, including Mia, costs exactly one life either way.
• Drinking game. Lost lives become swallows or fingers of a drink, which is how most people first meet Mäxchen at a German student party.
• Points instead of elimination. Each lost life is a point against you and the game runs to a set number of rounds, which keeps everyone playing. This works well alongside honest two-dice games such as Mexico and quick push-your-luck games such as Sevens Out.

If you enjoy the bluffing more than the dice, Liar’s Dice scales the same idea to five hidden dice per player, and if you enjoy the ladder of two-dice values, Craps turns the same 36 outcomes into a betting game.

Glossary

• Mia: The roll 2-1, the highest value in the game, and the game’s name. Called Mäxchen or Meier in Germany and Meyer in Denmark.
• Announcement: The value a player claims after rolling, true or false.
• Believe: To accept an announcement without looking, take the cup, and roll.
• Call / Lift: To raise the cup and check the announcement.
• Concede: To give up a life rather than lift the cup on a Mia.
• Life: A player’s unit of survival; lose all of them and you are out.
• Median roll: 5-4, the value a fresh roll beats exactly half the time.
• Forced bluff: A lie made because the player’s roll does not beat the standing announcement.
• Lille Meyer: In Danish rules, the 3-1 roll, ranked second behind Meyer.

Play Mia Online on Dice.now

The game at the top of this page seats you with two computer players, Ingrid and Klaus, each starting with three lives. You open the first round. On your turn you press Roll to shake the dice under the cup; the dice are shown to you and hidden from everyone else. You then pick an announcement from the ranked list of all 21 values, on which only the values that beat the current announcement are enabled, and press Announce. A hint under the list tells you whether your selection is the truth or a bluff and how often a random roll reaches it.

When a computer player announces, you answer with Believe (take the cup and roll) or Call (lift the cup). If a computer player announces Mia, the Believe button is replaced by Concede, which costs one life without a reveal, while calling puts two lives at stake either way. Under the current announcement the game prints how often a fresh roll reaches or beats it, so the probability table above is always on screen.

The computer players roll, look and announce visibly, one step at a time, but you never see their dice until a cup is lifted. They tell the truth when their roll beats the table, occasionally inflate a very low opening, bluff by the smallest legal step when they are forced to, and call when an announcement is both unlikely and hard to beat. They always call a Mia. The loser of each round opens the next; the game ends when you run out of lives or when you are the last player standing. Your wins and games played are stored on your device only. Ready to lift the cup? Roll the dice.