The idea to spice up your gathering and play a drinking game usually comes at a random moment during a party or social gathering. Therefore, it’s useful if these games can be played without much preparations or required equipment. Most of you do have a deck of playing cards laying around, and luckily there are many fun drinking games with cards!
Here, we will take you through our list of best card drinking games, suitable for any setting. Most of these games require a minimum of two players and maximum of 12 players, which is perfect for your table group at a party or your standard Friday evening with friends.
1. Higher Lower Drinking Game
Number of players: 2 or more
Higher Lower is a fun combination of strategy and luck with medium drinking intensity.
In this game, the objective is to predict whether the next card will be higher or lower than an already revealed card. If you’re right, you’re good! However, if you’re wrong, you must take a number of sips based on the location of the card in the playing field. There’s no winner or loser; it’s all about sips.
In case you do want to play with more social interactions and fun moments, you should try the Higher Lower x King’s Cup version. Here, you’ll play with the same Higher Lower rules, but then with additional mini-games or challenges for each card face.
2. Find the Queen
- Number of players: 3 or more
In Find the Queen, it’s important that you can drink quietly and have a good poker face. It’s easy-to-play and guarantees hilarious social interactions, which makes it perfect for any setting. The drinking intensity of this game completely depends on the roles that you receive.
All players randomly receive a card that counts for the role of Jack, Queen or townsman. While all players have their eyes closed, the Queen tries to drink a shot as quietly as possible.
After the ten seconds, the Jack reveals himself and tries to guess who’s the Queen. The Queen drinks if the Jack’s right, and if he’s wrong he drinks himself.
3. Beeramid
Number of players: 1-8 per deck of playing cards
The name of this game already explains a lot. In Beeramid, you hand out sips if your cards match those in the pyramid on the table. It’s similar to the pyramid game from Ride the Bus, but the addition of a bluffing element makes it a fun game on its own. This makes it a fun combination of luck and strategy where you try to hand out as many sips you can, while minimizing the amount you receive.
4. Slapjack
Number of players: 2 or more for individual play, 4 or more for teamplay.
Orginally, Slapjack was founded as a normal card game, but the addition of some sipping rules makes it a good drinking game perfect for both individual and teamplay. This game is best played when everyone’s still fresh and ready to go, because it does require a certain level of reactivity.
The main objective is as follows: be the first player (of your team) to slap a Jack whenever it’s played. By being the quickest, you can prevent yourself or your team from taking sips, while overflowing your opponents with it. Additionally, there are some fun extra card rules that you can add to make the game more interactive and complex, or you can make these up yourself. Play it however you like!
5. Ride the Bus
Number of players: 3 or more
Ride the Bus is one of the most popular drinking games with cards out there, so you have probably played it before. Nevertheless, it’s definitely worthy of a spot on this list. The drinking intensity of this game depends on how well you’re playing. As long as you’re not the losing player, you’re good.
This game consists of three different stages with increasing drinking intensity. Only one player will get to the last stage ‘Riding the Bus’, where they will try to get off the bus as soon as possible unless they are very thirsty. Your main objective in this game is to not get on the bus and instead enjoy someone else’s bus ride.
6. Screw the Dealer
Number of players: 3 or more
Screw the Dealer is another classic deserving a spot on this list of best drinking games with playing cards. In this game, everyone plays against one person, the dealer. The dealer reveals cards from their hands onto the table, while others in turns guess what the next card will be. The dealer drinks with correct guessers, the players with incorrect guesses. When three players in a row make a wrong guess, the dealer role is passed to the next person.
As the game progresses, the number of cards on the table increases. This means that you don’t want to be the dealer towards the end of round, as it is much more difficult to pass the role. It’s a very fun game with medium drinking intensity, and can be played with large groups.
7. Horse Race
Number of players: 3 or more
The Horse Race drinking game is completely build around luck. In this game, you choose an ace as your betting horse. The race track is marked by facedown cards, and you race your horse closer to the finish whenever drawn cards match the symbol of the ace horse you bet on. However, if your ace matches the symbol of race track cards, your horse loses a spot.
The winners of the race are safe, while the losers must drink. It’s a fun game that doesn’t require any skills or thinking, so it’s easily introduced.
8. King’s Cup
King’s Cup is probably one of the most popular card drinking games as its contains the good elements for a good party game. The drinking intensity is high enough to get everyone started, and the challenges and minigames that come with each card make it a perfect stimulator of social interaction.
In this game, you draw cards from a circle of playing cards placed around a central cup, the King’s Cup. Each card comes with a challenge, rule or minigame. Breaking rules results in taking sips, and many rules will be broken! King cards require players to add a portion of their drink to the central cup, and the person drawing the last King must drink its contents.
9. Wink Killer
In the Wink Killer game, your main aim is to secretly eliminate as many players as you can without getting caught. At the same time, you make sure to not get eliminated yourself. It’s like the simple but fun version of the roleplaying game Werewolves, where you use your poker face to outsmart other players.
Your card’s color determines whether you’ll be the serial killer or a detective. Each eliminated detective must drink, while the detective drinks times the number of players left at the moment of getting caught.
10. Spoons
Number of players: 3 or more
Spoons is another fun game where your reactivity is put to the test. By passing around cards, players try to get four of the same kind. The first player to do so quickly grabs a spoon from the center of the table, after which the other players follow. One person will be left out, and this person receives a letter and chugs half their drink. When a person has the full word SPOON, they are out of the game and chug a full drink.
11. Give and Take
Number of players: 3 or more
Give and Take is the beer-filled twist on Truth or Dare. Two rows of 12 cards each are placed on the table. One row is the ‘truth’ row, the other the ‘dare’ row. Players take turns in revealing cards from their hand. If a card’s face value matches one of the cards on the table, you must do a truth or dare depending on what row it’s in. If you can’t complete a dare, you must drink for as many seconds as the card’s place in the row.
12. Screw Your Neighbor
Number of players: 3 or more
Screw Your Neighbor is a very simple but fun game that evolves around luck. It can be played both as normal or drinking game, therefore it’s included on our drinking games with cards list. All players have one card, and they can decide whether they want to trade it with the player to their left or not. When all players have made their choice, the cards are revealed. The player who has the lowest card loses the round and drinks.
13. Card blowing
Number of players: 2 or more
You might have seen this somewhere in your social media feed. It’s very simple, but fun nonetheless. It can get quite intense, depending on the number of players and your own rules.
In general, it goes like this: you fill a glass of beer, and put a stack of playing cards on top of it. Players then take turns in blowing at the stack. Each turn, at least one card must be blown off the stack. The person to blow off the last card chugs the drink.
Wrap Up
Drinking games with cards are classics for a reason! Everyone has a stack of cards laying around, and most games are easily introduced at a spontaneous moment. Some involve more drinking than others, but they all have one thing in common: they will keep you and your friends entertained.
In addition to playing cards, everyone has dice at their home. And of course, there are many good drinking games with dice as well! From intense drinking games to active games similar to Beer Pong, there’s a game for any setting.
Always remember to drink with moderation. Know your limits, and make sure that everyone’s doing okay at all times. Never pressure anyone into drinking and don’t let others do this to yourself. It’s all about having fun and this doesn’t necessarily include drinking.
Do you know any other fun drinking games with cards that deserve a spot on this list? Let us know!
