Looking for a fun drinking game but tired of playing Beer Pong and King’s Cup on repeat? Then “Ride the Bus” is perfect for you! With a standard deck of cards and some booze, you can create a lively and unique competition among your friends (while getting a little buzz along the way). Keep reading and we’ll break down the three simple steps to this beloved game (and a few common variations if you want to spice things up)!

[Edit]step

[Edit]exchange cards

1. Select a dealer and shuffle them. Assemble a group of 4-8 players and decide among your friends who you want to give cards to for the entirety of the game. Once you have selected your dealer, deal with the dealer to shuffle and/or cut the deck and begin working for part one.^[1]
   
   • The dealer doesn’t have any special powers in Ride the Bus, so they can easily be a fellow player. However, if you have people in your group who aren’t drinking for the night, it’s a good idea to choose them as dealers so they can keep track of gameplay and make sure players drink responsibly.
2. “Red or Black?” Have the dealer deal one face-down card to each player at a time. Each player must guess whether a card will be red (a diamond or heart card) or black (a spade or club card) when it is flipped over. Once a player has made his guess, ask the dealer to turn over the cards. If the player is correct, nothing happens. But if they are wrong, they drink.^[2]
   
   • For a more intense version of “Red or Black”, players who guess correctly can hand their drink to a different player instead of getting nothing.
3. “high or low?” After everyone has received their first card (including the dealer, if the dealer is playing), ask the dealer to deal another face-down card to each player. Players have to guess whether the value of this card will be higher or lower than the card in their hand. If their guess is correct then nothing happens. If they’re wrong, it’s time to drink again!
   
   • If the dealer is not playing, players may reveal the results of their flipped cards to the dealer so that no one else knows what is in their hand.^[3]
   • Ace is more in Ride the Bus.
4. “In the middle or outside?” Once each player has 2 cards in hand, ask the dealer to distribute the third face-down card to everyone. Players must now guess whether the value of this face-down card will fall between the values ​​of their 2 existing cards when it is flipped over. If they are correct, nothing happens. However, if they’re wrong, you guessed it, they drink.^[4]
   
   • For example, if a player currently has a 3 and a 7 in their hand, guessing “in-between” means that the player predicts that the new card will be a 4, 5, or 6. “Out” means the player is guessing. The card would be a 2 or less, or an 8 or more, since those values ​​all fall outside the 3-7 range.
5. Play “Guess the Suit”. Now that each player has 3 cards, the dealer deals 1 final face-down card to everyone. Players must guess the exact suit of a face-down card: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts or Spades. If the card is any of the 3 other suits, they must drink.^[5]
   
   • If you want, you can raise the stakes to “guess the suit”, asking players to take 2 drinks or a shot instead of just 1.

[Edit]building a pyramid

1. Build a 5-row pyramid with 1 card on top and 5 cards on the bottom. Ask the dealer to assemble the top 15 cards of the remaining deck into a pyramid, with all cards face-down. There should be 5 cards in the bottom row, 4 in the bottom to top row, and so on until there is only 1 card at the top of the pyramid. Each ascending row counts for an additional drink: the bottom 5 is worth 1 drink, while the top card is worth a total of 5 drinks.^[6]
   
   • Some sports suggest doubling the amount of drink with each passing line. Therefore, a 4-card row would be worth 2 drinks, a 3-card row would be worth 8, and the top card would be worth 16. With a low alcohol content such as beer or champagne.
2. Turn over the cards one by one. Once the pyramid is assembled, the dealer must begin flipping over cards one at a time, starting with one card in a 5-card row and moving that row up before moving up the pyramid. accomplish. Continue this process until the card at the top of the pyramid is flipped over.^[7]
   
3. Match the cards in your hand with the cards in the pyramid. After each individual card in the pyramid is flipped over, players may place a card in their hand on this flipped-over card if their hand cards have the same value. For example, if the dealer flips the 10 of clubs in the bottom row, the player with the 10 of spades, hearts or diamonds will place their cards in this 10 of clubs. The goal of each player is to get rid of all the cards in their hand by matching them with the cards in the pyramid.^[8]
   
   • If someone’s card does not match the card in the pyramid that was flipped, nothing happens and the dealer continues flipping the next card.
   • Multiple hand cards can be placed on a single pyramid card.
4. Assign drinks if you have a matching card. Players who successfully match a card in their hand with a card in the pyramid offer drinks to the other players. The number of drinks is based on the drink value associated with each row. For example, if a player matches a card in the third row, they can now take 3 drinks from the other players. These drinks can be distributed 1 drink to 3 different players, all 3 stacked on 1, or anything in between!^[9]
   
   • Players can wait to place cards in their hand on various pyramid cards to get higher drink values. For example, if a player has a matching card in a 5-card row, but wants to wait to see if there will be a match in a 2-card row, so that he can play 4 instead of 1. If they can assign drinks, they are allowed to do so. However, once the next card is flipped over, the previous card cannot be matched.

[Edit]ride the bus

1. Select your bus rider. Once all the cards in the pyramid are turned over, determine who in your group will play step 3 of the game: “Ride the Bus.” The bus rider is the player with the most cards remaining in their hand. All other players are safe.^[10]
   
   • If 2 players have the same number of cards in their hands, the player who has the highest value card in their hand gets to ride the bus. If both players tie for highest value, the next highest value card is lost.
   • If all 4 players successfully match their hands during the pyramid phase, the last player to match cards rides the bus.
2. “Ride the bus” by guessing the suit and number of different cards. After the bus riders are determined, the dealer places a face down card in front of them. The rider must guess whether this card is red or black. If they’re correct, they keep the card and move to the higher or lower side. If they’re wrong, they drink. The bus rider must successfully make it through all 4 rounds of the dealing portion of the game (finishing off by guessing the suit) without guessing wrong. If they guess wrong, they must start over with red or black.^[11]
   
   • Be safe while playing this stage of the game! If the rider asks for a bite or they keep drinking, consider changing the drinking penalty and have them play a game of “Truth or Dare”. Instead of drinking alcohol, for each answer the rider gets wrong, they must answer a revealing question or a silly challenge.
3. Play “Face Cards” with Bus Rider for an optional final round. Another way for the losing player to ride the bus is if the dealer places a row of 10 face-down cards in front of them. After this the rider turns over 10 cards one by one. If the rider flips over a card with a numerical value, nothing happens and they move on to the next card. If the rider flips over a face card, he must drink.^[12]
   
   • To proceed, assign different values ​​to each face card. Jacks are worth 1 drink, queens are worth 2, kings are worth 3 and aces are worth 4 or a shot.

[Edit]Advice

• If you want to play this game without alcohol, have your players drink water instead. Then, the last player to use the toilet wins!

[Edit]Reference