We aren’t just talking about King’s Cup or Presidents and A——s, either. While those classic games are party staples, there are tons of other card drinking games that use cards that will help you get your buzz on. Some of these games put a boozy twist on classic playing card games like Slapjack and Old Maid (just requiring a deck of cards), and others are commercially packaged with the sole purpose of getting the players sloshed. Test one out at your gang’s next game night—clear the beer pong table and make room for cards. But remember—please drink responsibly! Here at Parade.com, we’re all about sharing products we love with our audience. When you make a purchase on an item seen on this page, we may earn a commission, however, all picks are independently chosen unless otherwise mentioned.
35 Drinking Card Games
1. Socials
Every single card in the game of Socials results in someone—or everyone—drinking. For this game, you should have at least three players in the group and keeping the jokers in the deck of cards is optional. To play Socials, shuffle the deck and scatter all of the cards across the table, so that each player has access to them. Starting with the person seated to the dealer’s left, each player takes a turn flipping over one card and doing the corresponding action. Here are the rules applied to each card: • Ace: Take a sip. • Two: Take two sips. • Three: Take three sips. • Four: Assign four sips to other players (the drinks can be split up). • Five: Assign five sips to other players (the drinks can be split up). • Six: The player to your left drinks. • Seven: The player to your right drinks. • Eight: Assign eight sips to other players (the drinks can be split up). • Nine: Everyone takes a sip. • Ten: Everyone puts their thumb on the table; the last one to do so drinks. • Jack: Finish your drink. • Queen: Pick someone else to finish their drink. • King: Everyone drinks in a “waterfall” effect and players can’t stop until either their glass is empty or the player next to them has stopped drinking. • Joker: (If being used) Everyone finishes their drink. The game of Socials ends when the entire deck is flipped over.
3. Up the River, Down the River
You just need a regular deck of cards to play this game, but if you are playing with more than four players, grab a second deck. Each player, including the designated dealer, is given four cards placed face-up in front of them. The dealer then puts and additional card face-up in the middle of the table. If any player has a card in front of them that matches the card in the middle, they must take one sip of their drink. The suit of the card does not matter; you just need to match the number or face value. And if a player has more than one card in their hand that matches, they must take one sip per card. Next, the dealer puts a second card in the middle of the table, and anyone with a matching card must take two sips of their drink. The dealer then flips over a third card for three sips and a fourth card for four sips, concluding the “up the river” part of the game. After the fourth round, the dealer moves “down the river” and the game continues in reverse. For this part, the dealer again flips over a card, but this time, any player with a matching card assigns four sips to the other players at the table. These “down river” sips can be split up in any combination, so they can give four drinks to one player, or divide them among the group. The game continues with the same rules as “up the river” but in reverse, moving from four sips to three sips, two sips, and finally one sip. At the end of the round, the cards are collected and shuffled, and the game is repeated with the next person as the dealer. Keep on going until everyone at the table is drunk—or the booze has run dry.
5. Ace of Spades
This drinking game is typically a one-player game, should you want to do something instead of just drink alone. Shuffle the deck and place it face-down. Say “Ace of Spades” and then flip over the top card—if it’s not the Ace of Spades, take a sip. Variations of this game can be calling out King of Diamonds, or whatever other card you’d like. This drinking card game can be adjusted to play as a group with each player taking turns calling out a card from the deck and then flipping the top card over.
7. Across the Bridge
Deal 10 cards, placing them face-down in a line. These cards form a “bridge” that the players will have to get across by flipping over one card at a time. If a player flips over a numbered card, then they can move on and flip over the next card. However, if the card flipped over is a face card, then the player needs to drink according to the values assigned to those cards: • Jack: One sip • Queen: Two sips • King: Three sips • Ace: Four sips After the player is finished drinking, the face card is removed from the lineup, and the same number of cards as sips taken is added to the bridge, extending it. So one card is added for a Jack, two cards for a Queen, etc. The turn then passes to the next person, and the game ends when one player has successfully “crossed” the bridge.
8. Buzzed, $20 at Walmart
The box of this card game says it all: This is the game that will get you and your friends tipsy. Each player takes turns pulling a card, and the whole group must drink according to the prompts. Drink if you’ve ever owned Crocs… Everyone must take a sip of their drink without using their hands… The player with the longest middle finger takes a drink. A grown-up version of Never Have I Ever, Buzzed has become a drinking-game sensation on TikTok. Buzzed, $20 at Walmart
9. Dice and Deck
This game works best with three or more players, and you will need two dice as well as a deck of cards. Shuffle the cards and place them face down on the table. The first player to go draws two cards from the deck and places them face up so everyone in the group can see them. That player then places a bet with the rest of the group for a number of drinks; for example, three sips. Next, the player rolls the dice and the total number between the two dice must be between the face value of the two cards. So, if the two cards on the table are a 5 and a 10, then the sum of the dice once rolled must be 6, 7 or 8. If the total of the dice is not one of that player’s cards, then they must take however many drinks they wagered in their bet. If the total does add up to one of the player’s cards, then they win the round, and the rest of the players must drink the number of sips wagered. However, if a double is rolled with the dice, then that doubles the drink wager.
11. Dictator
If you ever wanted to make all the rules and have your friends follow your every command, then Dictator is the game for you! To play this game, a new dictator is selected for each round by having every player draw a card; whoever is holding the highest card gets to be the dictator. The dictator then gets to set the rules for the round. For example, this could be needing to drink the number on the card whenever the heart suit is drawn, or you need to down your entire drink if you draw a joker. Next, the dictator deals out the deck amongst all the players. If a player has a card that meets one of the dictator’s rules, they must take a sip. If the dictator, however, has any of those cards in their hand, then they can assign their drink to one of the other players. At the end of their round, the dictator can enact a “game rule” that must be followed for each subsequent round, and anyone who breaks the rule must drink. After each round, the cards are shuffled, a new dictator is selected, and the game starts over with the previous dictator’s (or dictators!) rule in place.
13. Drown the Clown
How quick you are to recognize a matched pair of cards will determine how successful you are at playing Drown the Clown! To play, the dealer gives one card to each player, face down. At the count of three, everyone flips their cards over. Players quickly scan all of the flipped cards, and if any player has a card that matches another player’s, they must point at them and yell, “Drown the clown!” Between the players that have matching cards, the last one to point and shout is the loser and must drink for the number of seconds matching the value of the card, starting with Ace being one second. So, if the matching cards are both fives, then the loser must drink for five seconds. Then the game starts over with the dealer giving everyone new cards. Since there’s no official end point to this game, keep on drinking until the keg is kicked… or everyone is passed out.
15. Friends and Enemies
If you were ever looking to get some payback for a time a friend did you dirty, then this card game could provide it! To play Friends and Enemies, a deck of cards is dealt out to everyone around the table. The first player to go picks a card and places it in the middle of the table, calling out another player’s name. That chosen person then must drink for as many seconds as the number on the card. For example, if the card drawn was the 10 of hearts, then the selected “enemy” needs to drink for a count of 10 seconds. (Suits don’t matter in this game, and picture cards are assigned a value of 10.) But since there is also a “friend” component to this game, if another player at the table has the same card, they can save the “enemy” by assigning the drink to someone else. This can continue to go on if yet another player has the same card. When that happens, however, the value of the numbers on the cards stacks up. So that 10-second drink can quickly multiply to 20, 30 or even 40 seconds! Yikes!
16. The Game For Drunks, $15 at Walmart
The Game For Drunks is a hilarious voting game that is guaranteed to get any party started. Each player is assigned a number, and the entire group is given “voting” cards that have the opponents’ numbers on them. Players take turns drawing and reading prompt cards, each of which includes a crazy question. (Who would show up late to their own wedding? Which girl is most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse?) The group then cast their votes by putting the number card face down. After all the number cards are counted and a “winner” is determined, the person who’d been chosen must follow the drinking instructions included on the card. The Game For Drunks, $15 at Walmart
17. Killer
For this game, you will need one card from a red suit (any card will do), one Ace of Spades, and as many black numerical cars as there are players. After shuffling those cards, deal one card to each player. The player who was handed the red card is the “killer,” the player holding the Ace of Spades is the “detective,” and the players who received the numbered cards are civilians. To play, the “killer” kills one player by slyly winking at them. That “killed” player must announce “I’m dead” and take a drink. Next, the detective tries to determine which player is the killer. If they guess correctly, the killer must drink. Should the detective guess wrong, then they drink. Shuffle the cards once more to restart the game.
18. Cards Against Humanity, $29 at Target
While Cards Against Humanity technically isn’t a drinking game, it’s super simple to assign drinking rules to this game to make it one! For example, when the Card Czar is selecting the winner for their round, they can also rank the other answers in first, second and third place—and then the players who provided those white answer cards need to take as many shots or drinks as their answer placed. The group can also determine a certain drinking word, have a player take a shot each time a body part is mentioned, or a player can chug a drink in exchange for new white answer cards. Cards Against Humanity, $29 at Target
19. Loose Tongues
Being able to think quickly is an asset when it comes to playing Loose Tongues. For this game, players are paired in sets of two. The dealer then counts down from three and shows the two players a card. The players then need to quickly think of a word that starts with the same first letter as the suit of that card and shout it out. (So, if the card shown is the seven of clubs, then some words could be cat, Christmas or can, for example.) The winner is the person who shouts out a word first, and the player who is slower to do so must take a drink. You can also up the ante by determining categories ahead of time for each card, like sports that begin with the first letter, or naming words that begin with the second letter in the suit. If playing Loose Tongues with a large group, it may be a good idea to limit each pair’s turn to three or five cards. Sotally Tober includes 125 cards that are divided into five color-coded different categories: Activity, Skill, Curse, Secret and Decree. If you draw an Activity card, you must perform the command, like take a sip and hold it for 30 seconds while everyone else tries to make you laugh; if they fail, they all drink. The Skill cards give players special “powers” to use on other players, like making someone drink if they get up from the table. The Curse cards are designed to make players suffer, like keeping one eye closed for two rounds and drinking if you open it too soon. Secret cards are hidden tricks you can use on other players, such as giving an Activity card to someone else, and Decree cards set game rules upon the entire group, like everyone must drink with their pinky extended moving forward and whoever forgets takes a penalty drink.
21. Give And Take
Give And Take (also known as Give One, Take One) uses a deck of playing cards to put a boozy twist on a game of Truth or Dare. To begin, the group chooses a dealer, who then lays out two parallel rows of six cards face-down—one row is the “truth” row and the other the “dare” row. Each of those cards also represents the amount of time players will need to drink, starting with the first card being two seconds, the second card being four seconds, and so on. Each player is then dealt four cards, which are placed face-up on the table. Starting with the player seated to the left of the dealer, a single card is flipped over from each row, alternating between the Truth and Dare rows. After each flip, any player who has a matching card in front of them must either answer a Truth or perform a Dare (depending on which row the card was from). The person who flipped over the card determines what the truth or dare will be. But should the player with the matching card fail to complete the Truth or Dare, then they have to drink for the amount of time determined by the flipped card’s placement in the row. The game ends when both rows have been turned over.
22. First & Last, $20 at Target
Gather up your most competitive pals to play this drinking game! To play First & Last, players take turns being the judge, who takes the top card from the deck and reads it out loud. The rest of the group races to follow the card’s crazy instructions, like the last person to turn their shirt around without taking it off, or the first player to twerk. The judge then determines who was the first player and who was the last player to complete the task, and those players then give out a drink or take a drink depending on the card’s instructions. First & Last, $20 at Target
23. Blow Cards
All you need to play this game is a deck of cards and a bottle of beer (or a cup filled with a drink). After placing the deck on top of the bottle, each player takes a turn trying to blow off just one card from the deck—without using their hands and only using one breath. If the player is successful, everyone else in the group must take a drink. If the player whose turn it is doesn’t successfully blow off a card, or blows off two or more, they must drink. Are you a pro at deciphering drunken gibberish? If so, that skill will come in handy while playing Incohearent. Each double-sided card in this game features a nonsense phrase on one side and the answer on the other. To play, each person takes a turn being the judge, and times the rest of the group on deciphering the gibberish. Using the included hourglass timer, the judge holds up the nonsense side of the card, and the rest of the group must translate what the phrase actually is. Whichever player guesses correctly gets the card, and the round is played until either three cards have been decoded or the timer runs out. Then the next player has a turn at being the judge.
25. The Lady Has the Deck
The Lady Has the Deck is kind of like Old Maid, but with cocktails! This game works best with three or more players. Before you start, remove all but one Queen from a deck of playing cards and then shuffle the deck. Placing the deck in the middle of the table, each player takes a turn drawing a card. If a player is unlucky enough to draw the one Queen, then they must either take a drink or do a dare.
27. Kemps
Kemps is a game that needs to be played with an even number of people since players are paired off into teams of two. (Add a second deck of cards if there are more than six players in the game.) After each player is assigned a teammate, the pairs need to come up with a secret nonverbal signal. Then all players sit in a circle—but teammates should not be seated next to each other. Next, each player is dealt four cards and the dealer keeps the remaining pile. To begin the game, the dealer flips over the top four cards, and since the goal of Kemps is to obtain four of a kind, players can exchange cards in their hand for cards on the table. If no player wants any of the four cards on the table, the dealer clears them away and places four new ones. Once a player has four of a kind, they then secretly cue their partner. In turn, the teammate must shout out “Kemps” before the other players pick up on the silent signal and yell “Counter-Kemps.” At that point, whichever player has been called out must show their hand; if you called Kemps on your teammate and they are wrong, you lose and must drink. If other players Counter-Kemp’d you and they were wrong, they must drink. Whichever team wins gets a point, and at the end of each round, every losing player takes a swig. The team that gets to four points first wins the game.
29. Blind Squirrel
Blind Squirrel is another drinking card game that requires dice, a deck of playing cards, drinks for everyone, a bottle of hard liquor for shots and a lot of luck! With this game, Jokers are neither high nor low, Aces are considered high cards, and suit doesn’t matter. To play Blind Squirrel, everyone sits around a table and one person is designated as the dealer. Holding the entire deck of cards face down, the dealer flips the top card over and asks the player seated to their right if they think the next card will be higher, lower, or a tie. If the guesser is wrong, they take a sip and guess again for the next card that is flipped over. If they are correct, then they become the dealer and the player seated to their right becomes the next guesser. For example, if the card that the dealer flipped over is a Jack, and the player guessing says “lower,” then they are guessing that the next card flipped over will be lower than a Jack. But things can quickly get pretty messy once the additional rules of the game are added! If the next card that is flipped over matches the face value of the card currently on the table, unless the guesser guessed it would be a tie, they must take a shot. But if the guesser correctly called out that it would be a tie, then everyone else at the table takes a shot. When the first Joker is flipped over and the guessing player didn’t predict it would be the Joker card, then that player must roll the dice and take sips equivalent to that sum—and roll and drink again if their first roll landed on doubles. However, if they did correctly guess that the flipped card would be a Joker, then they roll the dice and assign that number of drinks to another player. The game ends when the second Joker is flipped over—and everyone must shotgun a full beer.
30. Escalation
To play Escalation, the dealer shuffles the cards and distributes the deck between all of the players, face-down. The game begins when the dealer flips over the top card from their hand, placing it in front of themselves. Next, the player seated to the dealer’s left does the same. If the cards don’t match, then the next player flips over a card, going around the circle until two cards match. When there are matching cards, then both players must take as many sips (or if you want to really get sloshed, make it shots!) as indicated by the value of the cards. In Escalation, Aces have a value of 1 in this game, Jacks are 11, Queens are 12 and Kings are 13.
31. Red or Black
Red or Black is another guessing game played with a deck of playing cards. Holding the entire deck of cards, the dealer flips over the top card, placing it in the middle of the table. The player seated to their left then must guess if the next card will be a black card or a red card. (Suit doesn’t matter.) If the player guesses the correct card color, they can guess another card. After a third correct guess, the player can opt to keep going or pass the turn on to the next person. They also get to add a drinking rule to the game! However, if a player guesses the wrong card color, they must then take one sip per card in the pile. (So three cards on the table means three sips.) The dealer then clears the pile, and the next player begins their turn of guessing whether the next flipped card will be red or black. And don’t forget the added game rules created by previous players! (For example, if a five is flipped, everyone at the table must drink for five seconds.) When playing Red or Black, you want to pass your turn on to the next player whenever possible so that the pile of cards in the middle of the table gets bigger, eventually resulting in another player having a lot of cards to drink for. If the dealer flips over an Ace, then the dealer must take a sip for every card in the pile and the table is reset.
32. Spoons
Best played with three to 12 players, you need a deck of cards to play Spoons and… well, spoons. Make sure that there is one less spoon than the number of players since this is a game of speed and whoever doesn’t grab a spoon when the time comes is the loser! Before starting the game, weed out the deck so that you are only leaving in one set of four of a kind per player. To play, the dealer hands out four cards to everyone in the group. The game begins when the dealer calls out “pass,” and every player passes a card, face down, to the person on their left. (The dealer can also declare “pass right.”) The object of the game is to get four of a kind in your hand. Once you do, grab a spoon from the middle of the table! If you see another player grab a spoon, grab one yourself—the player left without a spoon at the end of the round is the loser and must drink!
33. Slapjack
Slapjack is a game of coordination and quick response—not easy after a few drinks! To play, one person deals out a deck of cards evenly among the players. Each player places their stack face-down on the table in front of them, and players take turns flipping over the top card in their pile—drawing it away from them so they don’t see the card before the rest of the group—and placing it in the center of the table. If the flipped card is a Jack, the first player to slap the Jack wins the pile of cards and adds it to their stack. However, if a player slaps a card that isn’t a Jack, they must then take one penalty card from the middle pile and do a shot or take a drink. The winner of Slapjack is the player who ends up with the entire deck of cards in their hand. Players are still in the game even when they have no cards left since they can “slap” the Jack to get more cards back. Slapjack is a kid-friendly card game but adding in a few drinking rules makes it fun for the party crowd.
34. Mushroom Cup
This drinking game, which went viral on TikTok, is not for those with a weak stomach! Place an empty cup in the middle of the table, and each player pours some of their drink into it. (Yes, it’s as gross as it sounds.) The first player draws a card from the deck and places it on top of the cup. Going clockwise around the table, each player takes a turn drawing a card and placing it on top of the cup. As the pile gets higher, the trick is to not knock any cards off of the cup. But if a player does knock cards off the cup, they must then add up the value of the cards and drink for that many seconds as the rest of the group counts the time. Should a player knock the entire stack of cards off the cup… then they have to drink the combined contents of everyone’s drink that is in the cup. See? Gross. There are five different playing modes to Drink Drank Drunk, and six categories of cards, so no two games are ever the same. The card groups include: Action (to be performed immediately), Rule (which impact everyone in the group, with a max of two in play at any given time), Special (secret tricks you can use once during the game), Power (giving the person who pulled it special powers to use in the game), Wild Cards (that change what they do, depending on the game mode) and Weakness (personal rules for the player that draws the card). Next, check out this list of the best 25 board games for adults!
