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Beer Pong Game

What began as a drinking game in American colleges has developed into a world-famous party hit: Beer Pong, also called Beer Pong Beirut. Beer Pong is an easy to set up game that will make any party more exciting!

Hereā€™s everything that you need to know about Beer Pong.

What do you need for Beer Pong?

Equipment

  • Beer Pong Accessories: A smooth playing surface, 6 to 15 cups, balls (e.g., ping pong balls/table tennis balls)
  • Players: 2 or 4 or more
  • Drinks: Normal beer, non-alcoholic beer or other drinks, about 1 to 2 liters
  • Construction time: 3 minutes
  • Playing time: 10 to 20 minutes

Preparation and setup for a Beer Pong game

The great thing about Beer Pong is that it has many variations. The number of players, balls and cups are flexible. Beer Pong can also be played as a singles or a doubles match.

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  1. The table: For your Beer Pong game area, you can use any table, a table tennis table or any flat surface available. Your table will be your playing field and it should have a size of approximately 4 to 8 feet with a visible dividing line in the middle. You can also play without a dividing line.
  2. The cups: Place 6 cups on opposite sides of the table. The cups should be in triangle formation (3-2-1) on the playing surface, whereby 3 cups should be at the back and closer to the edge of the table.
  3. The drinks: As the name Beer Pong implies, fill the cups with beer or an alternative drink if you want. Here’s a tip: Your beer should not exceed 50 to 100 ml per cup - unless you want to get very drunk very quickly!

Setting up the cups for Beer Pong:

The arrangement of the cups should look like the following picture.

Setup of Beer Pong

How to start a Beer Pong game

Beer Pong Beirut can be played 1 against 1 or 2 against 2. There are two ways to select which team will start the game.

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  1. Rock Paper Scissors: Whoever wins gets to start the Beer Pong game
  2. Quick preliminary game:
  • One player from each team must simultaneously throw a ball into their opponentā€™s cup while looking at each other only.
  • The first player that is able to successfully shoot a ball into their opponentā€™s cup wins and will be the one to start the game.
  • If both players successfully shoot their balls into the other teamā€™s cup, they need to continue throwing balls until one of them misses a shot.
  • If a player breaks eye contact while playing, the other team wins as well and can start the game.

Base rules for Beer Pong

Beer Pong Beirut is a turn-based game. Every round consists of each player in a team trying to throw a ping pong ball into their opponent’s cup.

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If a player succeeds, the opposing team must drink the cup where the ball landed and the cup is taken off the table. If the player does not hit one of the cups, nothing happens.

Players take turns trying to shoot balls into the other teamā€™s cups until one team gets rid of all their cups.

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Then the big Beer Pong Final: The losing team will have to drink all the remaining cups on the table.

In addition to the basic rules, there are plenty of additional rules that can make your Beer Pong game more fun and challenging. Feel free to combine the rules and come up with your own version of Beer Pong! Below we have listed some additional rules for Beer Pong.

Beer Pong Cups + Beer Pong Balls

The Beer Pong Set

If you are looking for a complete beer pong set, we have found a cheap set here on Amazon:

Beer Pong Set

Beer Pong additional rules

If you want to make Beer Pong even more exciting, here are some additional rules you can try out during your next game.

Double hit

If both members of a team successfully shoot their ball on to the opposing teamā€™s cups, the team may throw again. This rule can be repeated throughout the game.

Same cup

If a team successfully shoots into the same cup, the team automatically wins the entire game, and the opposing team must drink all the remaining cups.

Rearrangement

Each team may ask the opposing team to rearrange the cups as they wish. Usually, there is only one reordering/re rack per team during a game.

Substitute

A team can make a substitution per game which means letting someone who is not part of the current team participate. When this happens, the team that made the substitution must drink an additional cup selected by the other team.

Blow and finger

This is an additional rule that allows balls that are still rotating in the cup and have not yet touched the beer to be blown or flicked out of the cup. Women can blow on a rotating ball to nudge it out of the cup while men can use their fingers to flick the ball out of the cup. Once the ball touches the beer in the cup, the players can no longer try to push the ball out of the cup.

No-Look-Shot

If a player successfully lands a ball on the other teamā€™s cup while their eyes are closed, the opposing team must drink a second cup. The mug is determined by the pitcher.

Behind-the-Back-Shot

If a player throws the ball behind his back and successfully shoots into the other teamā€™s cup, the opposing team must drink a second cup. The mug is determined by the pitcher.

Beer Pong table + cups + Pong Balls

Portable Beer Pong Set

If you donā€™t want to have to search for a suitable table that you can use every time you want to play Beer Pong, you should look into getting a portable Beer Pong table. Having your own Beer Pong table will make it a whole lot easier for you the next time you throw a party.

Beer Pong Table Set

Beer Pong tips

Want to be the ultimate winner in your Beer Pong games? Just like with anything else where you want to become the best, you need to put time and effort into it.

If you really want to level up your Beer Pong game, here are some tips and tricks that you can do to improve your Beer Pong playing skills.

Choose the right Beer Pong partner

If youā€™re serious about winning in your next Beer Pong game, choosing the right partner is important.

First of all, you need to choose someone who has great Beer Pong skills. Next, you need someone who will be a great match for you meaning your partner should be good at the things you may not be so good at. For example, if you tend to play badly the more you drink, you should team up with someone who gets better when he/she drinks more.

Make sure to team up with someone who is on the same wavelength as you. You should be able to agree on your strategy and have fun at the same time. Win or lose, you and your partner should be the ultimate Beer Pong duo!

Target the right cups

A simple yet effective strategy to rack up your Beer Pong points is to aim for the cups at the front first then work your way to the back. If youā€™re lucky, even if you miss one of the cups on the front, thereā€™s a chance that your ball might bounce into one of the cups at the back.

Itā€™s better that you get rid of the easy cups at the start of the game. You will be much more used to the flow of the game by the time you get to the difficult cups.

If youā€™re not that good at shooting the ball into the cup when there are fewer cups, you should try to score as many points as possible early in the game then let your partner do more towards the end of the game.

Decide how you will throw your ball

There are various ways you can throw your ping pong ball into a cup during a game of Beer Pong. You can choose the kind of shot you want to make depending on your playing style, how many cups you have or how lucky you are feeling at that moment!

Here are the three ways that you can throw your ball during a Beer Pong game:

  1. The Arc - when you lob the ball into the cup therefore shooting a long, high, slow descent into a cup
  2. The Fastball - a kind of shot where the ball goes on a straight direct line into the cup
  3. Bounce - when the ball is bounced on the table once the lands in a cup

Try to psych out your opponent

Thereā€™s nothing wrong with a little ribbing among friends during Beer Pong. Psyching out competition is a tried and true method that is part of many sports activities. You can try to intimidate them or say something surprising to throw them off their game.

Put pressure on your competition by teasing them and talking about how you will win the game. Thereā€™s nothing more irritating than listening to trash talk. Just remember not to go overboard since everyone is drinking. You donā€™t want people losing their tempers and putting an end to a perfectly good party!

Practice with water

If you know that youā€™re not so good at Beer Pong, and youā€™re not the kind of player who gets better later in the game, you should practice more to improve your skills. Since drinking more doesnā€™t improve your game anyway, you should try to practice with cups filled with water instead.

Before you go playing Beer Pong at your next party, practice at home with cups of water first. After you finish your practice, then you can treat yourself to a glass of ice cold beer!

Remember that itā€™s a drinking game

Playing Beer Pong is a great party game that will let players and spectators have an awesome time. In your quest to become the best Beer Pong player, donā€™t get too caught up trying to score points and remember that itā€™s a drinking game!

Keep on drinking to stay relaxed and confident while playing. Sometimes, playing well is just a matter of believing that you are the best! Thereā€™s nothing wrong feeling a little buzzed during a Beer Pong game, but donā€™t let yourself get so drunk that you start to see double the number of cups on the table!

Strip Beer Pong

If youā€™re looking to spice up your Beer Pong game, try playing Strip Beer Pong! Itā€™s another variation of Beer Pong thatā€™s not for the faint of heart! The mechanics of Strip Beer Pong are a lot similar to regular Beer Pong except players will have to take off their clothes piece by piece!

What you need to play Strip Beer Pong

  • 7 solo cups for each team (to be filled with beer)
  • 2 ping pong balls
  • 2 shirts/tops per person (bras included)
  • 2 bottoms per person (underwear included)
  • 1 pair of shoes per person (counts as one article of clothing)
  • 1 pair of socks or other accessory per person (counts as one article of clothing)
  • 1 sharpie marker

How to play Strip Beer Pong

  1. Set up your Beer Pong table similar to how you would do it on a regular game. You can play this with 2 or 4 players.
  2. Each side should have 6 cups filled with beer. Using a sharpie, label each cup with a piece of clothing. (For example: top, bottom, shoes, socks, etc.)
  3. Arrange the 6 cups in a triangle formation (3-2-1) and fill these with beer.
  4. Each side should also have an extra cup filled with water where players can rinse their ping pong balls in between shots. Players take turns throwing the ping pong ball into one of the cups.
  5. When a ball is successfully thrown into a cup, the opposing team has two choices:
  • Remove the piece of clothing that is labeled on the cup where the ball landed and ā€œsave the cupā€ so that it stays on the table
  • Drink the cup of beer where the ball landed and take the cup off the table.
  1. If the shot is bounced in, the opposing team should drink the cup and remove the corresponding piece of clothing.
  2. If two shots successfully land in the same cup, the opposing team should drink the cup and remove the corresponding piece of clothing.
  3. The game ends when all the cups are taken off the table. The losing team should remove all of their remaining clothing as penalty.

Beer Pong tournament and championship

You can take your regular Beer Pong game up a notch by turning it into a Beer Pong Championship tournament.

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If youā€™re only having a small impromptu tournament, one Beer Pong table should be enough. If you want to have a grand scale tournament with a lot of players, you will need more tables and more beer too.

Whatever you decide, you can organize your championship to be as casual or as formal as you want. Just remember to have a good time!

How to set up a Beer Pong Championship

  1. The number of Beer Pong tables should be half the number of teams that will be playing.
  2. Set up your Beer Pong area. If there are a lot of teams, make sure to set aside a separate area for the spectators.
  3. Get a facilitator who will run the tournament and make sure that the rules are observed.
  4. The championship rules should be announced before the tournament begins.
  5. For a seeding tournament structure, assign random numbers to the teams then come up with tournament brackets based on these seed numbers.
  6. Randomly assigning seed numbers will prevent teams from choosing their opponents and having an unfair advantage.
  7. The teams will play according to their team brackets and go through elimination rounds until there is a final champion.
  8. Arrange an awards ceremony to give out prizes to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners. You can give out plaques and trophies. If you want to add a fun twist, you can also hand out customized mugs or pitchers for beer!

Dangers of Beer Pong

Keep in mind that Beer Pong is a party drinking game. No matter how much fun you and your friends have while playing Beer Pong, you should drink responsibly. Always be careful when drinking alcohol and drink within your limits! Remember also not to drink and drive!

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