Up and Down the River Drinking Game

Up and Down the River is a drinking game that will make you drink every time a matching card is pulled. It is a fun way to spend some time with friends and family while getting a little silly!

The idea is for each player to be dealt 4 cards face up in front of them. The dealer flips over one card at a time from the rest of the deck. If the number of flipped card matches any of the player’s cards, they have to drink. This continues “up the river” for 4 cards and then turns back around “down the river”. When going down the river, players can assign drinks to other players when a matching card is pulled.

At the end of that game, the dealer moves to the second phase, which is flipping over 13 cards while counting to 13. If the card value matches the order called, everyone drinks. For example, if an Ace is pulled first, everyone would drink. Or, if a 6 of clubs is pulled on the 7th round.

At the end of pulling all 13 cards, reshuffle and continue to play up and down the river until you’ve had enough drinking!

What You Need

Number of Players: 6 or more

• Two 52-card decks (or use 1 deck if you have less people)
• Alcohol – we recommend beer

Up and Down the River Rules

• The players should sit in a circle and select a dealer to shuffle the deck of cards.
• The dealer will deal 4 cards to each of the players face up in front of them.

Going Up the River

• The dealer then starts to go “up the river” by flipping the first card from the rest of the deck.
• If the first card that has been flipped is the same rank as any of the cards in front of the players, the player must drink once. Suit does not matter. Drink once for every card that matches.
• The dealer will continue to flip another 3 cards for a total of 4. For each matching card, the players will take more drinks but are increasing each card. So, for the second card, drink twice. For the third card, drink three times per matching card. For the fourth card, drink 4 times per matching card in front of the players.

Going Down the River

• The dealer will then continue flipping another 4 cards but this time you are going “down the river”. While going down the river, the players do not have to personally drink when their cards match. Instead, they can assign drinks to any other player.
  • The drinks can be divided up any way the player wants. For example, one person could get all 4 drinks or 4 people could each get 1 drink.
  • The number of drinks start at 4 for the first card and decreases to 1 by the fourth card.
• When going down the river has been completed, move to the second phase of the round. The dealer will flip 13 cards while counting to 13. If the rank of the card matches the number called, everyone drinks. In this case, Ace is equal to 1 and King is equal to 13. If you really want to get drunk, you can drink the number of times that is called.
• Reshuffle the cards and start over by going up and down the river. Keep playing until you’ve had enough fun!