If you have ever enjoyed some kind of alcoholic drink, chances are that you have played a drinking game at least once. These games are basically ways to find new and different methods of having drinks with friends. They are not to be played by the social drinker, however, because the main objective of the game is to get as drunk as possible. In other words, everyone wins.

Classic (and Organized) Games

Like all sports, most drinking games have sets of rules. Organized games can involve playing cards, such as Circle of Death. In this game, a deck of cards is spread out into a circle and each player, one at a time, draws a card from it. If two cards have the same suit (hearts, diamonds, etc.) then both people have to drink for as many seconds as the total value of both of their cards. If one person has a 9 and the other has a 5, then they drink for 14 seconds. And if the next person to draw a card also has the same suit, all three drink for the combined time. If the suit does not match, then that player has broken the circle and has to drink double the amount of time of the previous match-up. This continues until all the cards in the circle have been drawn.

Cards aren’t always necessary for organized games, though. If you have a table and a ball, you have what you need to play one of the more popular games in the United States: Beer Pong. First, the table is divided into two sides. There are two players, or two teams; one for both sides of the table. On each player’s side, a series of ten cups of beer placed into a series of lines: first, four cups are queued up at the edge of the table. Three cups are set in front of the first four, then two cups are set in front of these, and finally, a single cup is placed in front of the two. This cup is at the center of the table. Each formation of cups should form a triangle, and the points of the triangles should meet in the center of the table.

Next, one player throws a small plastic ball (like a table tennis ball) toward his opponent’s side of the table. If it lands in one of the cups of beer, the opponent has to drink all of the beer in it. Then the game starts over, except that the player who did not throw the ball the first time is the one who does it next. Because the ball has to be taken out of the cup with a player’s hand, and the ball often rolls onto the floor, Beer Pong is not the most sanitary game. Keep in mind, though, that young adults in the U.S. are willing to drink potentially diseased beer in order to get drunk.

Television Games

Luckily, the people who like alcohol usually like television as well, and simpler games use this marvelous invention. To play one, watch a really bad TV program with your friends and drink a shot or a sip a beer every time you see a particular thing happen on the show. For example, whenever Homer drinks a beer on The Simpsons, or whenever the hosts speak in rhyme during Eurovision Song Contest. If you like Star Trek, you can drink every time a newly discovered planet is said to be “much like Earth.” It works with just about anything.

Drunken Games

Drinking games require a certain amount of thought, but the more the players drink, the less they are able to think. Even TV games can be too much to concentrate on. This is why there are games that are commonly played—and are the most fun—when the players are already quite intoxicated. Over the years, bar games became simpler and sillier. Rhubarb thrashing is possibly the best example. It is an English game in which two players are blindfolded and engage in combat while standing in dustbins.

Drinking games are easy and fun ways to enjoy alcohol with friends—or strangers, if that’s your thing—and they make drinking more interesting. So the next time you are at a party or a pub, think about playing a game with whatever’s lying nearby, whether it’s a deck of cards, a TV, or a couple of dustbins. Of course, some time and some drinks later, no one will even know what game is being played. But good times will be had by all.