Best Drinking Games

With another generation of young americans heading off to college and the last of the summer weekends upon us as we hit the back half of august it seems like a good time to consider the best way to speed up a pre-game or get a party going.  From the Classics to a few lesser known games here are my favorite games and in my opinion the five best games in reverse order.

1. Slap Cup– If you’ve been to more than a couple parties chances are you’ve heard of this game.  Probably the second most famous of the Red Solo cup variety this game can bring a ton of energy to any party.  It’s a pretty simple game all you need is a bunch of Solo cups and two pong balls.  The rules are pretty simple if the person to your left bounces their pong ball in their cup before you do than they get to slap your cup to the moon and you have to take another cup from the pile and start the process over again.  This game can really get people going people will be screaming at each other to pass the ball freaking out when they can’t make a cup.  Downside is that cleanup is a bitch and if you’re good at this game you probably won’t get to drink much.
2. Racing Ace’s- This is a lesser known card game but a great one because it mixes drinking and gambling and all you need is a deck of cards.  For this game you lay the four aces down on a table and everyone bets on the ace they think will win, instead of cash you bet seconds of chugging.  So if i bet five seconds of chugging in the ace of diamonds, I drink for five seconds and if the Ace of diamonds wins everyone else drinks for five seconds.  How the game works is that you put ten cards on the right of the aces and then flip cards from the deck if you flip a diamond then the ace of diamonds moves up once every ace has moved up a level you flip one of the cards on the right over.  The ace that matches the suit of the card you flipped gets sent back a level.  This game is great because it relies on chance so everyone usually ends up drinking easily and people will lose their minds like they’re watching a real horse race.
3. Beer Pong- The go to drinking game for people across the country beer pong is a test of skill, accuracy and ability to filter out distractions like the drunk do you’re playing against hurling abuses at you like he found out you knocked up his sister.  Beer pong every group of friends has the pair of beer pong players who are so insinc they can hit death cup on demand and everyone remembers the night they ran the tables at a party and went on a run of eight straight cups snatching victory from their opponent whose fireball shot hit them half way through the game and couldn’t hit the table anymore.  However every State school’s favorite past time has it’s distraction.  Many a party has been ruined by the guy who takes the rules to serious or the kid from out of state who wants to play so obscure rule that they brought with them from the west coast.  Also after a couple of games and the ball rolling around the floor no one actually want to drink from those cups.
4.   Higher Lower–  Back to the card games, higher lower or any of it’s variations (ie. ride the bus, Purple haze etc…) is as simple as it gets you have to get a set number of cards right calling if the next card will be higher lower or same as (sometimes red or black) if your right you move on but if you lose you start again.  Seems innocent enough but a run of bad luck will have you pounding multiple beers in a round wondering why your chosen God has forsaken you.  What makes this game different from all the others is that it can bring an element of suspense that doesn’t exist in other drinking games.  Whether you’re sitting in the hot seat or are in the on deck circle you get butterflies waiting for that last card to be flipped wondering if you’ve finally made it to the other side right before your shit luck shows up again and a two gets flipped when you just called a low on a three.
5. Beerio Kart– While not the traditional Solo cup or card game, it would be a glaring absence in any long weekend.  Mario Kart is the greatest multi-player game of all time and adding alcohol to that is like adding hot fudge to a sunday it just feels right.  The rules are simple the players crack a beer at the start of the race and have to have it finished by the end of the race the only catch is you can’t drink and drive.  It’s probably the best game for speeding up a pre-game since you’re basically killing a beer every two minutes and before you know it you’re thirty rack is gone and it’s time to hit the bar.  Tons of fun easy, clean up, skill based, quick drinking, and friendly and fun for newcomers makes this the king of drinking games.