How to play Mexican

Mexican, often simply called Mexico, is a fast dice game for two to eight players. You need two dice and something to keep track of lives: chips, matches or tally marks on paper. Everyone starts with six lives, or three if you want shorter games. All rolls are made in the open, so this is a game of luck and nerve rather than hidden dice.

The dice are read with the higher die first, so a 5 and a 3 make 53. From top to bottom, the order is:

• Mexico: a 2 and a 1, read as 21, is the highest roll
• Doubles: two of a kind, from 66 down to 11
• Ordinary rolls: from 65 down to 31, the very bottom

The first player rolls both dice and may reroll up to twice, so three rolls at most. The number of rolls the first player uses sets the cap for the round: everyone else gets that many rolls or fewer, and the last roll counts.

Once everyone has rolled, the player with the lowest roll loses a life. If two or more players share the bottom spot, they roll off between themselves. The loser of the round starts the next one.

If anyone rolls 21 during the round, that is a mexico, and the round gets more expensive: the loser gives up two lives instead of one. Some groups double the loss again for every further mexico in the same round, which can sting badly at the bottom of the table.

Run out of lives and you are out. The winner is the last player with lives left. A full game only takes a few minutes, which makes Mexican a good warm-up or filler between longer games.

The game exists in plenty of house versions, and in some places the loser of a round takes on a small forfeit instead of losing a life. With lives and chips it stays perfectly family friendly. Its hidden cousin Mia uses exactly the same dice values but keeps the rolls under a cup and rewards convincing lies.

The values are identical, with 21 at the top, but the two games feel completely different. In Mexican everything happens in the open: you roll, hope and count lives. In Mia the dice are hidden, and the game is about lying well and catching others in the act. Know one and you can learn the other in a minute.