Guide to Drinking Games

There are many drinking games that can be played with from the really complex tournament style games to simple card or observation games. There are variations to all these games and many people personalize them and have strange rules.

One of the most common drinking games is beer pong. For this game, you'll need a long table, ping pong balls and a lot of plastic cups. The game is set up with a triangle of cups on either end of the table. You can play with as many cups as you wish but generally people play with 6 or 10 and they are arranged the way bowling pins are. You can play one on one or in teams. You play by taking turns tossing or bouncing the ball across the table and attempt to get it into the opposing team's cups. When you make it in, the opposing players have to drink the beer in that cup. For this reason, to prevent alcohol poisoning, cups are usually filled less than halfway. The team who has no cups left on their side is the losing team and sometimes they will be required to drink the other team's remaining cups as well.

Another fun drinking game goes by many different names including Circle of Death, Ring of Fire and Kings. But the concept is always the same. You'll need a deck of cards and people who can really hold their alcohol. This game is fun because you can play with a lot of people at once. You'll want to arrange the cards face down in a circle around a full bottle or can of beer. Each player takes turns drawing a card and doing the designated action and then places the card on top of the beer in the middle of the table. As cards begin to get stacked up, it gets harder to balance and the person who makes the cards topple over has to drink the beer. But the real fun part of the game is drawing cards. All the cards in each suit are designated have different designations. Though the rules vary, here is an example of a one of the ways you can play:

Ace is waterfall. How waterfall works is all the players start drinking at the same time but you can't stop drinking until the person before you stop. So this is often bad news for the last person in the circle who ends up drinking longest.

Two is for "you." The person who picks the card picks anyone at the table who must drink.

Three is for "me," me being the person who draws the card so that person must drink.

Four is for whores. If this card is drawn, all girls at the table drink.

Five is for Jive. A person must make a gesture and everyone else has to copy the same gesture. The first person to mess up takes a drink.

Six is for dicks. When this card is picked, all the guys have to drink.

Seven is for heaven. This card is tests your reflexes. When this card is drawn everyone must point up. The last person to do so has to drink.

Eight is categories. The person who picks a card has to come up with a category like "Department Stores" or "cars." Then you go around in a circle naming items in that category. The first person to draw a blank must drink.

Nine is for rhymes. The person who draws a card must say a word or phrase that rhymes. Everyone after them must say a different phrase that rhymes until someone can't think of anything or repeats a word.

Ten is Never Have I Ever. This is a favorite of many people. The person who draws the card thinks of something they have never done and everyone at the table who has must drink.

Jack is Questions. The first person asks a question and you must respond with a question. An easy way to get someone to lose if this card is picked is to ask, "Wait, what's going on?" when someone asks you a question. Someone will be sure to try to explain it and lose.

Queen is Make a Rule. The person who draws this gets to create their own rule to get people to drink, like no using proper names, no cursing or having to hold your drink in a certain hand. The rule is in place until the next queen card is picked or the cards run out, whichever comes first.

King is King's Cup. You can pour whatever you're drinking into the "King's cup." Each person who picks the king after that does the same and the person who picks the last King has to drink it.

You can also play High or Low with a deck of cards. A player picks a card and then guesses whether the next one will be higher or lower. You must drink if you guess wrong and if you guess right, you pick another card. Once you have three cards, you can choose to pass. One strategy is to build up a lot of cards and then pass it on, since you must drink for every card.

Another simple drinking game is quarters. All you need to play quarters is a quarter, a shot glass and a hard surface. You play by bouncing quarters into shot glasses. This can be really hard and if you practice and develop a strategy, you can become really good at it. When you make a quarter in, you pick a person to drink the shot. If you make three quarters in a row in, you can come up with a rule, similar to that of Ring of Fire.

Sometimes people also play drinking games while they watch a movie or TV show. You have to come up with a set up rules beforehand and every time a character says a catchphrase or two people kiss you all have to take a drink. It is even possible to play with game shows like Deal or No Deal, by picking cases and drinking if you guess a case with a high amount of money. You get bonus points if your case holds the million dollars.

These are just some of the drinking games that exist but you can make just about anything into a drinking game or make different rules to existing games. So pour yourself some beer and start drinking!