There are many types of beer drinking games, making it possible for you and your friends to find an activity that you can all enjoy.
Card Beer Drinking Games
Looking for an alternative to your typical poker night with your friends? Drinking card games add a whole new dimension to the idea of “card night”. There are two types. One is to take a traditional game, like blackjack, but replace the stakes with alcohol. Instead of losing your chips, you have to take a drink. Some players will gamble with “glasses”: “I’ll take your two glasses, and raise you one.”
There are also specialty card beer drinking games. Some of the most popular and better know varieties are Fuck the Dealer, Liar’s poker, Pyramid, Whirlwind, Ride the Bus, and Asshole.
In the Asshole drinking game, for example, players try to get rid of all of their cards first. The winner is declared the President of the round, allowing him to declare the rules of the game (the term of each “presidency” must be pre-agreed upon by the players). In the Fuck the Dealer drinking game, people have to guess the cards the Dealer is holding. With each correct guess, the dealer must drink for 10 seconds. With each incorrect guess, the player must drink.
Coordination Games
One of the first things you lose after one too many beers is your coordination—which is what makes these types of drinking games so fun. This is a test of physical ability and alcohol tolerance. For example, in the popular Chandeliers drinking game, players must throw quarters into other people’s glasses of beer. If you successfully reach the center glass, then you can choose who drinks it. If you miss, but it lands in someone else’s glass, the owner has to drink it. Other popular games include Beer Pong, Flip Cup, Jackball, Land Mine, Moose, and Pennying.
Thinking Drinking Games
While you’re not expected to be a rocket scientist—the questions posed in thinking games are not exactly mind-rocking—the game becomes more interesting and silly as the night progresses. People’s answers start bordering on the absurd, the alcohol affecting their brain, resulting in some hilarious moments. There are observation games (which involves watching out for a particular phrase or moment and having to drink when it occurs, ex. “When someone asks a question”). There are also Memory games, where the participants must each repeat a sequence of things—adding a name or fact with each turn so the list becomes longer and more challenging. Common thinking games include
Bullshit, Beer Checkers, Caps, Matchboxes, Roman Numerous, Profigliano, and Captain Pat.
Speed and Endurance Drinking
This game is simply a matter of who can drink the most number of beers in a given time. This is very popular at bars, who often hold this as a contest or promotion, particularly during Oktoberfest.
At one point the Guinness (Book of Records, not the beer) held a call to find out who was the world’s strongest drinker. These games often involved lining up a sizeable amount of beer—such as a yard of ale glass—and seeing who could consume it at the quickest rate. The final record for that belongs to Steven Petrosino, who was (amazingly) able to finish an entire litre in just 1.3 seconds. However, Guinness has discontinued holding these contests due to litigation concerns.
Loser Buy Drinking Games
These games aren’t a test of drinking ability, but are more to determine who has to pay for the next round. One very popular version is Spoof, which follows the very simple mechanics of guessing how many objects a player is holding.
Miscellaneous
There are some drinking games that (as proof of the kind of variety you get from beer drinking games) simply defy any category. They’re just…so different.
One of the more popular “unique” games is called Wheel of Goon, or Goon of Fortune. Developed in Australia, it is derived from two cultural icons: the goon (or the wine cask) and the hills hoist (or standard rotary clothesline).
Basically, you hook up the wine cask (or in this case, a burlap bag full of beer cans) onto the clothesline. Give it a spin. Everyone yells out “Goon…of Fortune!” Like the game show that it spoofs, once the clothes line stops spinning, whoever is standing closest to where it stops must drink its contents for a minimum of ten seconds. If it’s cans of beer, participants have to decide how much to consume.
