Baskin Robbins 31

Baskin Robbins 31 is the Korean counting game where nobody wants to say 31. The group counts up from 1, each player says one, two, or three numbers on their turn, and whoever gets stuck with 31 drinks. It is the easiest of the drinking games without cards to explain, and the only one on this site with a provable winning strategy, which is why Korean students argue about it as much as they play it. The name comes from the ice cream chain’s 31 flavours. The game has nothing to do with ice cream.

What you need

• Nothing at all. No cards, no cups, no table
• A drink for each player
• 2 or more players. It is sharpest with 2 and chaotic with 6 or more

Setup

1. Sit or stand in a circle and agree on the direction of play. Clockwise is standard. With two players, just alternate.
2. Agree on the penalty. One shot of soju is traditional. A long sip of whatever you are holding is the sensible version, because rounds last twenty seconds.
3. Pick who starts. For the first round, the youngest goes first or whoever poured the drinks. After that the loser of each round starts the next one.

How to play Baskin Robbins 31

1. The first player says “1”. They can stop there, or carry on to “1, 2” or “1, 2, 3”.
2. Each player says one, two, or three numbers, in order. You must say at least one. You cannot skip a number, repeat one, or say four.
3. Keep counting around the circle toward 31. Say the numbers clearly and keep the pace up. Hesitating is not a loss under the standard rules, but most tables add a time limit by the third round.
4. Whoever says 31 loses and drinks. You are not allowed to stop short. If the count is at 30 when your turn comes, 31 is yours.
5. The loser starts the next round from 1. Play until the table wants a different game.

The numbers that win

Work backwards from the end. If you say 30, the next player has no choice but to say 31. To guarantee that you say 30, you need to say 26, because whatever they say next (27, or 27 and 28, or 27 through 29) you can finish on 30. The same logic runs all the way down: 26, 22, 18, 14, 10, 6, 2. Every safe number sits two below a multiple of 4, and you get from one safe number to the next by making your count plus the previous player’s count add up to 4.

Previous player said	You say	Result
1 number	3 numbers	You land on the next safe number
2 numbers	2 numbers	You land on the next safe number
3 numbers	1 number	You land on the next safe number

Two things to know before you try it. First, the forced win only exists in a two-player game, and it belongs to whoever says 2 first. If you open the game, say “1, 2” and stop, then follow the table. If your opponent opens with “1, 2”, they know the trick and you are going to drink. Second, with three or more players there is no forced win, because two other people are choosing between your turns. The maths only takes over in the last stretch, when whoever lands on 30 has effectively picked the loser. That is why big tables spend the last ten numbers forming alliances.

Variations and house rules

• 31 backwards. Count down from 31 and whoever says 1 drinks. The safe numbers turn out to be exactly the same (30, 26, 22 and so on down to 2), which surprises people, and the forced win still belongs to whoever says 30 first, which means the player who opens with “31, 30”.
• Baskin Robbins 41. Change the target to 41 and the advantage flips. The safe numbers become 4, 8, 12 and every multiple of 4 up to 40, and the first player cannot reach 4 in one turn, so in a two-player game the second player has the forced win. The same is true of 21 and 51. Pick the target to suit who you want to lose.
• Up to four numbers. Let players say up to four numbers per turn instead of three. The safe gap becomes 5 instead of 4, the safe numbers for 31 become 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5, and anyone who memorised the normal strategy will walk straight into it.
• Three-second clock. Hesitate for more than three seconds and you drink, whether or not you were going to say 31. This is the most common addition at Korean tables and it stops the person who counts on their fingers from holding up the game.
• No table talk. Nobody may discuss strategy or suggest numbers once a round has started. Breaking it costs a drink. Without this rule a five-person game becomes a negotiation.
• Count in Korean. Il, i, sam, sa, o, yuk, chil, pal, gu, sip, then sip-il, sip-i and so on. It is how the game is played in Korea, it slows everyone down evenly, and it is a better way to learn the numbers than any app.
• Thirty picks the punishment (house rule). Whoever says 30 decides what the 31 player drinks, within reason. Gives the strategy a payoff beyond not drinking.
• Fingers, not voices (house rule). In a loud bar, each player holds up one, two, or three fingers and the table counts along silently. Works, and is oddly tense.

Tips

• Learn the two-player trick and then do not use it against your friends more than once. It is a good party piece and a bad habit.
• With a big group, watch the player two seats before you. Whatever they leave, the player between you will try to hand you a bad number, so plan from 22 onward rather than from 30.
• Keep the penalty small. A round of Baskin Robbins 31 takes about twenty seconds, and a shot of soju every twenty seconds is how this game ends badly. Sips, or one shot per three losses, keeps it playable for an hour.
• Mix it with 3-6-9 when the table gets too good at it. Counting games are better as a set than as a loop.