Games Like Dealer's Tell: All Bets Are Final

Every cheat has a tell. This one has a rule.

A roguelite deduction game at a blackjack table. The devil deals — and cheats by a secret rule. Beating him isn't enough. You have to catch him.

The felt says the dealer stands on 17. He doesn't.

Every floor, he follows one secret scheme: he stops on exactly 18, turns up the card you were dealt first, deals you exactly twelve. 16 schemes — and the cards give every one away.

Every hand lands on your tablet. Cross out the suspects the cards don't back up.

It won't do the counting for you. Want the numbers? Pay — every check on a floor costs more than the last.

One left? A screen drops from the ceiling. Write down what he does and when.

Right — he slides you the key himself. Wrong — the marks pile up.

Every hand you win is a mark. At the sixth, the dealing stops: name the scheme now.

Miss, and the floor beneath your chair gives way.

Fifteen floors — one room, and every descent makes it worse. A working club. A hall being packed away. Walls that bend. Columns turned to ribs — breathing. At the end, a throat, and heat beyond it.

He changes too. On the first floor:

Good evening. Do sit — the previous guest has just vacated the seat. The felt is clean after him.

On the fourteenth:

CLOSER. the rings tighten. more. more.

Before every floor the dealer lays out three house rule cards: blackjack pays six to five, the readouts go dark, his hole card lies face up. Hard cards pay an advance, soft ones help. Choose your price.

Between floors waits the Changer. She came down like you — and stayed. She sells the things of those who didn't make it: over forty, from a marked deck to an IOU.

Between runs, the Black Market trades in what outlives your death. Six deals — and each one you sign raises the price of the rest.

The stairwell walls carry writing from someone who came down before you. One new line per run; the last ones only for those who reach the bottom. Whose hand it is, you won't see at once.

Every chip is fake: no real-money gambling, no microtransactions. The only real stake is your soul.

Take a seat. He's already shuffling.