Five Best Drinking Games - Your Social Life

Beirut

Beirut, sometimes called Beer Pong, is the classic drinking game and the favorite at Hopkins, especially in the fraternity scene.

Combining precision and coordination and stealing its arrangement from bowling, beirut is a demanding yet rewarding drinking game.

"Beirut, because you're under pressure and in direct control of how much the person next to you drinks," said sophomore Jaan Y.

Although Beirut can be played in singles, it is usually played in pairs, in which a duo, working together, gets a ping-pong ball into the opposing teams cup as often as possible. There are different rules for re-racking, so ask your host.

Not everything about Beirut is glorious though. The downsides involve serious health concerns when your ping pong ball rolls under that fraternity basement couch and the need for a long table, something most dorm rooms don't accommodate.

A number of house rules are common -- knocking a cup over is grounds for a penalty chug (but no points); ball may not be "auto-returned" via a fortuitous bounce off the cup, etc. The trajectories of the volleys should be high arcs, to keep things civilized (and to maximize your chance at a poofter).

Kings

For the less physical, card games are a way you can get drunk and sit down at the same time.

"It's always hilarious" said sophomore Josh Chaffee of the card game in which participants draw a card from a face down circle and do whatever the rule of that card is.

The name, sometimes called "Circle of Death," stems from the rule that when players draw a King they can pour as much beer into a cup in the center of the circle as they like. The person to draw the fourth King, however, has to drink everything from the cup.

"Kings is my favorite," said sophomore Jen Kim. "Because it always ends up in drunken debauchery, but in a fun way."

Although there is a variety of rules for each card, my personal favorite goes as such: On a two, you drink; on a three, it's me; on four, touch the floor; on five, raise your hands to the sky; on six, chicks drink; on seven, boys drink; on eight, start a sentence; on nine, bust a rhyme; ten is for categories; Jack is for a rule; Queen is the question master; Kings, pour it in; Ace is a waterfall. Most of these are self explanatory. Some of my favorite rules are not using the word "the" and making players do some action each time before they drink.

Asshole

There is nothing more glorious than being the president in the game of asshole. Ok, that's not true, but it is quite enjoyable.

"Freshman year, me and some kids were bored one night and played Asshole for three hours, the kids down the hall joined in and next thing you know we have five games of asshole going in a little dorm room. It was awesome," said sophomore Ryan MacCaffery.

The rules of asshole are a little more consistent than Kings, but some people change them up. Approximately six or seven cards are dealt to each player. The rank of the cards is (most powerful to least powerful) 2, A, K, Q, and 3. A two always clears and a four is a social drinking round.

After the first person plays a card the following person can play a higher, but not equal, card or pass.

This continues until the first person gets rid of their cards. This person is the president. The last person to get rid of their cards is the Asshole and on the next round the Asshole has to give his two best cards to the president.

There are different variations of the game, but those are the ground rules.

Flip Cup

"Flip cup is my favorite, because I'm one flip queen," said sophomore Deepa Ghandi. "I've definitely played in a few bars in New York. We just go and buy cups and play in the bars."

In flip cup, two teams line up on opposite sides of the table. The first person in each line has to drink his beer and flip the cup over until its standing up straight. Then the next person goes. The first team to finish is the winner.

Flip cup is one of the easiest drinking games to play and doesn't take much skill or thought besides the ability to chug and the balance of an empty cup on your fingertips. But be careful; if your team loses because you couldn't get your cup to stand up straight, you might have a lot of angry friends on your hands.

Beer Battleship

Although not nearly as popular as the previous four drinking games, I think Beer Battleship can kind a place here at Hopkins, because it combines the excitements of board games and intoxication.

Most people are familiar with the childhood game of battleship. You set up a block of cups and put beer in the ones that represent where you ships are. Your opponent does the same thing, out of sight from you. When someone guess the right space for ships, the ship is "sunk" and you have to drink the beer from your ship. The more of your ships that are sunk the more you have to drink.

"The rules are intricate and everyone winds up just wanting to drink, but while it lasts, its great," said an unidentified sophomore.

The complete rules can be found at http://www.collegehumor.com/?textfile_id=109323.