Beer Pong Drinking Game

Beer pong is a classic drinking game that uses pong balls that are thrown into opposing plastic cups. The cups are arranged in a triangle at the edge of the table. Every time a player sinks a shot into a cup, the closest team removes it from the playing field and drinks it. The first team to clear the board and drink the least wins.

To play beer pong, also known as Beirut, start by arranging 6 plastic cups in a triangle (3, 2, 1 formation) on opposite sides of a table. Fill the cups about halfway with beer.

Each team has two shooters that rotate taking turns using a pong ball. When a ball goes into a cup, the losing team removes it from the board and drinks the cup. Play continues until one of the teams is able to land a pong ball in all of the cups.

What You Need

Number of Players: 4

• 12 or 20 red plastic cups (6 or 10 per side)
• 2 pong balls
• A table you don’t mind getting beer on
• Beer
• Optional: Beer Pong kit

Beer Pong Rules

• Set up a table that you don’t mind getting a little messy. A plastic folding table works great or you can buy a professional beer pong table.
• Arrange plastic cups in a triangle at the edge of each sides of the table with the tip facing in. You can use either a triangle starting with a base of 3 cups or 4 cups. The size of the rack depends on how long of rounds you would like to play. If you are playing with a large triangle, you would use 10 cups per side arranged in a 4, 3, 2, 1 formation.
• The traditional way is to fill the cups halfway with beer and drink them as they are scored on. Another option is to fill the cups with water and to drink from a personal drink that you hold. This is a good way to reduce beer spillage and not have to drink beer that has had a dirty pong ball in it.
• Each team has two players. To start, one player from each team throws a pong ball at the same time while staring at each other in the eye. The first player to sink a shot gets to go first.
• Both players on the first team get to shoot their pong ball and try to get them into a cup on the opposing side.

Scoring

• If a player sinks the shot, the opposing team removes the cup and has to drink the contents.
• If both players sink their shots in different cups, they get the balls back and can shoot again but backwards around their back.
• If both players sink their shots in the same cup before the cup can be removed, you can play an optional sudden death rule where they instantly win the game.
• Players can choose to bounce their ball into a cup and it will be worth 2 cups being removed. Beware though, the defenders can swat the ball away if it is bounced.
• Once per game, each team can request a “rack”, which will allow their cups to be rearranged so that they are touching in a triangle, stop-light, or straight line formation.
• The defending team cannot interfere with a thrown ball but can try to flick or blow the ball out of a cup if it is swirling around before it hits the beer. If they are able to get the ball out, the cup remains in the formation.
• The first team to sink all of their shots, wins the the game.

Beer Pong Variations

One fun variation of beer pong is flip pong. Flip pong is a combination of beer pong and flip cup. It is a fast-paced, energetic drinking game that lets a larger group of people get involved. It is possible to play with many more people instead of only 4 with beer pong.

To play flip pong, set up a beer pong table with 6 cups on each side. Split into two teams that line each side of the table with a cup with a small amount of beer in it. When someone gets a ball in a cup, both teams immediately start playing flip cup and race to finish first.

Another beer pong variation includes playing on a floaty in a swimming pool. This is a great way to keep cool on hot summer days while getting in some drinking games.