How to Play Beer Pong

Few
games are so well-known and well-liked across college campuses as
Beirut, which is also known as beer pong. While technically a drinking
game, beer pong requires a great deal of skill and a little luck, and
it can be enjoyed by just about anybody of legal age. Want to master
the art of beer pong? Read on.

Steps

A “regulation” beer pong setup. Click to enlarge.

Find a playing surface. A regulation ping-pong table is the ideal playing surface, but any long table will do in a pinch.

Find players. Beer pong can be played one-on-one or with teams of two.

Fill the 16-oz plastic cups with beer. You should fill
the cups about halfway. If you fill them close to the brim, the ball is
liable to bounce out too often, but if you want players to maintain a
bit more dignity and self-control, you can fill the cups less than
half-full.

Fill two 16-oz cups with water. These will be the
wash cups, in which you can rinse off balls that land on the ground.
While sanitation isn’t exactly the cornerstone of beer pong, nobody
wants to drink a tainted cup of beer.

Set up the cups at each end of the table. Arrange the
16-oz plastic cups in the shape of a triangle, such as bowling pins are
set up. There should be two triangles, one centered at each end of the
table. Typically each triangle consists of 6 or 10 cups, but more or
fewer may be used. The row with the greatest number of cups (typically
3 or 4) should be almost at the edge of the table, and the triangle
should point directly at the triangle at the opposite side. The cups
should be clustered together so that the rims touch.

Determine who goes first. To see who gets first throw
a member of each team lobs a ball at the other team’s cups at the same
time. This repeats until someone makes a ball into a cup. The first
person to make a cup gets both balls back and their team gets to throw
first, but the cup into which the ball was thrown remains on the table.

Throw or hit the balls into cups. The person or team
going first attempts to throw a ball or hit with the ping pong paddle
across the length of the table and into the cups of the opposing person
or team. In some variations, the ball must be lobbed (not bounced),
into the cup, but in others you can bounce the ball off the table and
into the cup. The latter version is often accompanied by a stipulation
that the opposing team may catch a ball that is bounced. Typically one
or two balls can be thrown each turn. After the turn is completed, the
other team throws at the first team’s cup, and the process repeats. If
playing teams, one person on the team will take one whole turn (that
is, he or she will throw both balls), and the next will throw after the
opponent’s turn.

Re-rack arrangements for beer pong.

Remove cups.
When a ball lands in a cup, that cup is removed from the table, and the
team to whom the cup belongs must drink the contents of the cup. The
remaining cups stay in their places, although in most variations of the
game the cups are rearranged to form a smaller diamond, triangle, or
line when a team has 4, 3, or 2 cups remaining.

Keep throwing or hitting until one team has no more cups remaining. The object of the game is make a ball in each of your opponent’s cups.

Tips

For all-ages fun, replace the beer with a non-alcoholic beverage.

There are many, many variations of beer pong or Beirut. For details and rules on several of these, check the External links.

Warnings

Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.

Always remember to obey all laws and regulations regarding alcoholic beverages, or else you can get in a lot of trouble.

In most variations, if your team is down to one cup and the
opponent makes a ball in that cup, you have a chance to save the cup if
you can make a ball in one of your opponent’s cups in one throw.

Some variations of beer pong are played with ping-pong paddles

Things You’ll Need

16 ounce plastic cups

A regulation ping-pong table, or any long table

Beer

Standard ping pong balls