Drinking Games with Cards for 2, 3, 4 or More

A deck of cards turns a few drinks into a game. These are the classics, all played with one ordinary deck. They are for adults of legal drinking age — and every one of them plays just as well with soft drinks. Set your own pace, and make sure everyone has a way home.

A sip is a sip, not a glass. Use your judgement.

Higher or Lower — for 2 or more

The simplest of all.

1. Turn up a card.
2. The next player guesses whether the next card will be higher or lower.
3. Wrong guess: drink. Right: pass the deck on.

Same rank as the last card counts as wrong. Great for two.

Ride the Bus — for 2 to 6

The dealer asks each player four questions in turn, dealing them a card after each answer:

1. Red or black?
2. Higher or lower than your first card?
3. Inside or outside your first two cards?
4. Which suit?

Each wrong answer is a drink. In the full game, the player who ends with the most cards "rides the bus": they must get through all four questions in a row without a mistake, starting again every time they get one wrong.

Kings — for 4 or more

Spread the deck face down in a circle around an empty cup. Players take turns drawing a card; each rank has a rule. A common set:

• Ace — waterfall: everyone drinks, and nobody stops until the person to their right does.
• 2 — you: pick someone to drink.
• 3 — me: you drink.
• 4 — floor: last to touch the floor drinks.
• 5 — guys drink. 6 — girls drink.
• 7 — heaven: last to point up drinks.
• 8 — mate: choose a partner who drinks whenever you do.
• 9 — rhyme: say a word; go round rhyming until someone fails.
• 10 — categories: name a category; go round naming things in it.
• Jack — make a rule that lasts the game.
• Queen — questions: ask someone a question; they must answer with a question, and so on.
• King — pour a little of your drink into the cup.

Whoever draws the fourth King traditionally drinks the cup. Plenty of groups skip that part. Rules vary by house; agree them first.

Pyramid — for 3 to 8

Deal each player four cards face down; they may look once, then not again. Lay out a pyramid of 15 face-down cards: rows of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Turn up the pyramid cards one at a time from the bottom row. If you have (or claim to have) a matching card, you can give drinks — one for the bottom row, rising to five at the top. Anyone challenged must show the card. Caught bluffing, you drink double; telling the truth, the challenger does.

The Horse Race — for 4 or more

Take out the four Aces — they are the horses — and line them up at a start line. Lay six face-down cards in a row beside the track. Everyone bets sips on a suit.

Turn cards from the deck one at a time; each card moves the Ace of its suit one step forward. When all horses pass a track card, turn it — that suit's horse goes back a step. The first Ace past the line wins: its backers hand out their bet; everyone else drinks theirs.

Which game for how many

• 2 players: Higher or Lower, Ride the Bus.
• 3 players: Ride the Bus, Pyramid.
• 4 or more: Kings, Pyramid, the Horse Race.

The right deck for it

Drinks will be spilled on the cards. A waterproof plastic deck wipes dry and never swells or sticks — keep one just for game nights. And for a party centrepiece that needs no cards at all, a drinking roulette wheel with numbered shot glasses does the job with a spin.