Beer Pong

Beer Pong is two teams, 10 cups a side, and a ping-pong ball. You throw, the ball lands in a cup, the other team drinks that cup and pulls it, and the first side to clear all 10 wins. It is the beer game every party ends up playing, and the one with the most house rules, so it is worth knowing the standard version before the first argument about a bounce shot. The standard here follows the World Series of Beer Pong rules where they exist and common house practice where they do not.

What you need

• 22 plastic cups: 10 per side for the racks plus a water cup at each end (16 oz cups are standard)
• 2 ping-pong balls, with spares for the ones that roll under the sofa
• A table about 8 ft long and 2 ft wide, which is the official Beer Pong table size; a 6 ft folding table or a kitchen table works
• Beer, about 4 cans per side to fill 10 cups a third full
• 2 or 4 players, in teams of 1 or 2

Setup

1. Build a 10-cup triangle at each end of the table. Rows of 4, 3, 2, and 1 with the cups touching, the back row along the table edge, and the point facing the other team.
2. Fill every cup about a third of the way. Most party cups have a line for it. Some groups fill the cups with water and drink from a separate beer; see variations.
3. Fill a cup with water at each end for rinsing balls. The balls spend a lot of the game on the floor. Dunk before every throw.
4. Stand behind your own end of the table. Teams of 2 stand side by side; in a 1 v 1 game each player defends a full rack alone.
5. Decide who throws first with eye to eye. One player from each team throws at the same time while looking at each other, not at the cups. The first to sink a cup wins the first turn, and the cup goes back. Both in or both out, go again.

How to play Beer Pong

1. Each player on the throwing team throws one ball per turn. Throw from behind the edge of the table, overhand or underhand. A 1 v 1 game gives each player two throws.
2. A ball that lands in a cup means the defenders drink that cup. Pull it off the table straight away, drink it, and the rack is one cup smaller. In a team of 2, alternate who drinks.
3. If both teammates sink a cup on the same turn, the balls come back. The throwing team goes again before the defenders get a turn. Balls back does not apply to a 1 v 1 game.
4. A bounce shot counts for 2 cups but can be swatted. Once the ball has touched the table, any defender may slap it away. The extra cup is the defenders’ choice. Touching a ball that is still in the air costs the defender a cup.
5. Keep your elbow behind the edge of the table on release. A shot with the elbow past the plane of the edge does not count, even if it lands. See the table below for the wrist version.
6. Re-rack at 6, 4, 3, 2, or 1 cups. Each team may call two re-racks per game, at the start of their own turn and before either ball is thrown. The shapes are in the table below.
7. When the last cup on a side falls, the losing team shoots redemption. Each losing player shoots until they miss. Clear every remaining cup on the other side and the game goes to overtime with 3 cups in a triangle at each end. Miss and the game is over.
8. The winners win, and the losers drink what is left. Any cups still standing on the winning side are drunk by the losing team. A team that loses 10 to 0 with no redemption has drunk a lot already, so plenty of tables split those cups.

Cup setup and re-racks

The throwing distance is the table length minus the rack, which on an 8 ft table is about 6 ft to the point cup and 7 ft to the back row. On a 6 ft table take 2 ft off those numbers, which is why a kitchen-table game feels easy and a tournament table does not. Cups touch rim to rim in every formation.

Cups left	Formation	Shape and notes
10	Triangle	Rows of 4, 3, 2, 1. Back row on the table edge, point toward the thrower. The starting rack.
6	Triangle	Rows of 3, 2, 1. The first common re-rack, and the full starting rack for a 6-cup game.
4	Diamond	Rows of 1, 2, 1. Some tables play a 2 by 2 square instead.
3	Triangle	Rows of 2, 1. The last shape most players bother to re-rack.
2	Line	One cup behind the other, pointing at the thrower. Side by side is the house alternative.
1	Center	The last cup, centered on the back edge. Some tables let the defenders pull it forward.

House rule	What it means	Default
Bounce shots	A ball that bounces on the table before landing counts for 2 cups but may be swatted once it has bounced.	On
Elbow rule	Elbow behind the table edge on release. Wrist version: wrist behind the edge, easier to judge.	On
Balls back	Both players sink a cup on the same turn and the team shoots again.	On
Redemption	Losing team shoots back after losing their last cup; clear the table to force overtime.	On
Heating up	Make 2 in a row and you are heating up; make the third and you are on fire, shooting until you miss.	Off
Island	Call a single cup not touching any other cup; make it and it counts for 2. One call per player per game.	Off
Death cup	Sink a ball in a cup that has already been hit but not pulled, and the game ends on the spot.	Off

Variations and house rules

• Same cup. Both teammates sink the same cup on the same turn and it counts for 3: the cup itself plus 2 more of the defenders’ choice, and the balls come back. Some tables treat it as an instant win.
• Blowing and fingering. When a ball is spinning inside a cup and has not yet touched the beer, the defenders may blow it out or flick it out. Official rules ban this entirely, and so do we. Our house rule: a ball in the cup is a made cup.
• Water pong. Fill the racks with water and drink from your own beer or cup on the side. Every hit is a drink from your own supply. Cleaner, cheaper, and nobody drinks a cup a ball has been sitting in.
• 6-cup game. Rows of 3, 2, 1 at each end, one re-rack at 3. Half the beer and about half the time. The right version for a small table or the third game of the night.
• Beirut. The name for the same game in parts of the US northeast. Some Beirut tables have no re-racks at all and throw from the back edge rather than the side, but the rules are otherwise identical.

Tips

• Put an arc on the ball. A high, soft throw drops into a cup; a flat throw skips off the rims. Aim at the middle of the biggest cluster rather than a single cup, and the rims will do some of the work for you.
• Rinse the ball every throw and pull the ball out before you drink. A mouthful of beer with a ping-pong ball in it is the most common way a Beer Pong night goes wrong, and it is avoidable.
• Ten cups a third full is roughly 3 cans per side per game. Two or three games is a lot. Share the drinking evenly in a team of 2, and play water pong for the later games.
• Agree the house rules out loud before the first throw: bounce, elbow or wrist, re-rack count, and whether heating up is in play. Every Beer Pong argument on record comes from skipping this step.