Ten Fun Drinking Card Games For Just About Any Occasion

You know the score of when you occasionally wander into a party that is full of different groups of people who don’t really know each other and thus have to stand around making small talk awkwardly? Of course, you do. That sentence can basically sum up most college parties. These interactions can be quite painful. You know you want to meet new people, interact, and make random new friends. But also, no one can ever completely let loose around total strangers, and conversations often veer on ticking off generic topics in the hopes of coming to some common ground. In these instances, it’s generally a great idea to do two things: first, consume alcohol to shake off those inhibitions, and second, play some game that would force everyone to come together rather than be in isolated clusters. However, what’s an even better alternative than those two options is to combine the two for epic drinking card games?

So here are a couple of great drinking card games, the purpose of which is to drink as you play cards and make some quick friends along the way. Or, at the very least, shake all the awkward energy out of a dying party.

1. Asshole – 5 Players

All you need for this game are about five players and 1 deck of cards. Oh yes, and shit loads of booze. This is fairly simple.

The cards are distributed to the players. The first player has to then lay down their cards with the same face value (for example, two sixes, or three fours, etc). The next player has to then put down cards of the same or higher value (for example, two tens). If the next player can’t lay down cards of a higher value, they are skipped and have to take a swig of beer. If all the players are skipped, i.e., if no one can top the cards on the table, then the table is cleared, and the game is started again.

This is a hierarchical play with four grades: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Asshole. This hierarchy is decided based on who gets rid of all the cards first (President) to the last (Asshole.) The President can trade two of his worst cards for the Asshole’s best cards and can make him drink whenever he wants.

2. Give and Take – More Than 2 Players

This is quite similar to Truth-or-Dare, with the use of Cards to make everything all the more random. Players can either choose between truth/ dare/ or drink alcohol. Again, all you need are a deck of cards and plenty of booze.

For this game, cards have to be dealt with all the players face up for all to see. Then two separate rows of six face-down cards have to be made. The left row represents truths, and the right represents dares.

Furthermore, the placement of the cards in the rows determines the number of times you have to drink incrementally. Once the gameplay begins, the cards from the two rows have to be alternatively flipped up. Whoever has a corresponding card in their deck has to accept a Truth or a Dare either, depending on the row of the card or drink for a few seconds, depending on its location in the row.

3. Beer 99 – 2 or More Players

Looking for strange drinking card games? This is it! And, this surprisingly combines mathematics with drinking! Never a good idea, but then again, drinking games aren’t technically ‘good’ ideas. You need a deck of cards and beer. Your goal is to keep piling cards up one over the other till they total a value of 99.

You have to give out four cards to each of the players, and the remainder has to be placed in a pile, the top card facing up. The players have to then add a card to the pile while keeping track of the total value. However, if you have a ‘four’, then you can skip out on drinking and pass the responsibility to someone else. If you have a ‘ten’, then it will drop the value of the pile by ’10’ if the total value has surpassed the 90s.

If the total value of the deck ends with a 9, e.g., 19, 29, etc., then a Social occurs, in which case you have to all take a drink. And you have to drink twice during the special social of 69 or 71. Once the total value reaches 99, the person next to the one with the final card has to drink half a glass of beer. However, if he has a King, he can avoid this and get someone else to do it instead.

4. Circle of Death – More Than 2 Players

This is one of the fairly simple drinking card games in which each player has to draw one card from the lot and perform certain actions based on the colour or type of card. All you have to do is place a cup of strong liquor in the middle of the table and then pile up the cards next to it. People have to pick up the cards in turns.

• If the player gets a “King”, he can make his own rules, but the person who gets the 4th King has to drink the cup of alcohol.
• If you get a ‘Queen’, then you ask someone a question; who has to respond by asking a question to another player? Whoever can’t answer with a question loses.
• If you get a ‘Jack’, you become ‘Thumb Master’ and can place your thumb down on the table at any time, making everyone scramble to do so as well. The last one to do so loses.
• If you get a ’10’, you may state a category, and others have to list out things that fit into that category.
• If you get a ‘9’, then you can say a word, and everyone has to recite a rhyming word. The first person that fails or repeats has to drink.
• If you get an ‘8’ or lower, you have to drink a number of times as corresponding with the number (if it is red.)
• If you get an ‘Ace’, you have to chug a drink, starting a domino effect wherein the one next to you has to also chug, followed by the one after, till the circle is complete.

5. Beeramid – 2 or More Players

For this card game, you need to set up the cards in a Pyramid fashion, with about seven cards at the base and going up till there’s only one on top. The remaining cards are distributed to the other players, who can’t show it to anyone. The cards are flipped from the bottom of the Pyramid one by one. Every time a card is flipped, the person who has a card with the same value can get someone else to drink.

The person who is asked to drink can either drink as asked or call the bluff by saying “bullshit.” In this case, the respondent has to reveal his card. If he was actually bluffing, then he has to drink twice. If not, the person initially asked to drink has to do so twice now.

6. Indian Poker – More Than 2 Players

One of those great drinking card games if you’re not really into heavy rules and such, as this involves short snappy rounds. First, deal out one card to each player who has to stick it up on their foreheads without looking at it.

Finally, you have to decide whether to fold or not based on what the others have. Once everyone has decided whether to fold or not, they have to keep their cards down on the table. The one with the highest card wins. The one with a lower card than the winner must drink twice. The one with a higher card than the winner who folds has to drink the value of the card. If someone who doesn’t fold loses, they have to drink the difference in value between their and the winner’s cards.

7. Black or Red – 2 Or More Players

This is a guessing game in which the dealer has to keep the deck of cards faces down on the table. Then the guessers have to position around it and try to guess whether the card at the top is red or black.

The goal for any player is to guess correctly thrice in a row. However, if they guess wrong, they have to drink up a number of times equal to the times they have been successful plus one for their failure. For example, if they’ve been successful in guessing two cards but failed in the third, they have to drink thrice. If they successfully guess the colour thrice in a row, then they can pass the cards to the next player, who also has to guess the colour.

However, the stakes for them are even higher; if they guess wrong, they have to drink their own successful attempts and failure, plus the successful attempts of the previous players combined. Once all the cards are cleared, the dealer can then become the player, and someone else can become the dealer.

8. Bus Driver – 2 Players

This is one of that fun and snappy drinking card games. However, it’s only intended to be played between two players. The objective is to reach the front of the bus in a single go.

One player takes the position of the ‘driver’, and the other is the ‘rider’. The driver has to place five cards face down on the table and ask for their colour. If the rider gets the colour wrong, he has to take a swig of his beer, and five more cards are placed over the remaining 4. If he gets it right, he is asked whether the consecutive card will be of higher or lower value. If he guesses wrong, the previous process is repeated. But if he guesses right, then the card is flipped, and he has to guess the same for the next card.

As such, he has to make his way down the line to the end of the bus. If he makes a mistake in between, he has to drink to the number of times he got it correct, plus his failure. Once you get to the front, every player must down their drinks.

9. Spoons – More Than 2 Players

This is really fast gameplay. Cards are rapidly distributed among players, and once someone has four of a kind, everyone has to immediately grab their spoons. There’s got two spoons available for every player, minus one so that one is left without a spoon. All the players must position themselves around the table and grab a deck of cards, leaving a single set of 4 per player on the deck.

In each round, one player has to take on the mantle of the ‘caller’ who gets to decide when to call ‘pass’ and make the players pass the cards. This needs to be done rapidly in order to cause greater confusion. Once a player has four of a kind, he puts them down and grabs a spoon, and the others must also race to do so, as there’s one less spoon available. The loser has to chug a drink.

10. Cheat – More Than 2 Players

The main objective of this type of drinking card game is to be the first to get rid of all the cards. First, a player must put down one or more Aces and call out its name for all to know. The next player has to put down cards, either one more, one less or the same in value as the card put down before him. So, in this case, he can put down a king, a two or another ace. You can still put it down and call out the right value if you don’t have the right value.

However, if someone doesn’t believe you, they can call out your bluff by saying, “Cheat!” following which the cards will be revealed. If you really did bluff, you have to drink; if you didn’t, the person who called the bluff has to drink. Whoever drinks also has to pick up all the cards and add them to their own deck. Once someone gets rid of all their cards, the remaining players must all chug a drink.

So these are some great drinking card games for those socially awkward encounters at parties. However, when you play these drinking card games, be sure to drink responsibly and remember, there’s no shame in bowing out gracefully when you feel you’ve had one too many drinks.