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If players are holding their cards in a "fan" arrangement, anyone should be able to easily count them. However, my brother prefers to hold his cards all in a single stack, with their number concealed by his hand. When asked how many he is holding, he refuses to disclose the information. My sister supports him, saying that it's good strategy to keep that information a secret. However, I believe the number of cards each player is holding should be common knowledge, and if you prefer to hold your cards a certain way, you should be required to fan them out and/or show how many you have when asked.
Given this is a Looney game, and Looney also made Fluxx, and in Fluxx that information cannot be concealed, I believe that rule can probably be applied here. However, there is no official rule either way in the BTTF rule book, so I pose the question here: Is it legal to conceal the number of cards you are holding in your hand, or do you have to disclose that information when asked?
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YaVerOt YaVerOt
United States
Arvada
Colorado
Armchair warriors often fail, and we've been poisoned by these fairy tales.
Aoi Aoi toki ga toke dasheta.
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To my knowledge, it is only newer games that encourage deception of some sort that have an explicit "the number of cards in your hand is public information" rule, many others rely merely on the historically definition of "Card Game". So it is actually more important to state when that isn't the rule, and games that do that generally have a different way of tracking that information, and/or provide a "shield" to hide your non-public playing pieces behind.
I didn't see an explicit statement in the rules, so I guess is that BttF probably relies on the historical definition of Card Game.
I also thought about how to counter this strategy ingame. The problem here is that the game doesn't have hand management. You have an unlimited hand size. (If there was a max size hand, then they have to show the number of cards inhand at that step so show they're not cheating.)
The best I can think of is (can't find suitable word). Put a tally mark on a piece of paper each time a player draws, and another mark (in a different spot) each time they play a card. You can then look at the sheet of paper at any time and know how many cards they have.
I look forward to seeing other answers, as I've argued both sides.
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I just received an email from Andy Looney about this!
Andy Looney wrote: Hello Chris,
It is NOT legal in any of my card games to conceal the number of cards in your hand. You are free to hold them in whatever way you prefer, but if another player asks how many you hold, you must fan out your hand and allow the cards to be counted.
Thanks for playing my games!
-- Andy Looney
(emphasis mine)
Good to know! 
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King Hayden
United States
North Port
Florida
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That's cool because I always hide my cards.
 
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