Up and Down the River

Also called Up the River Down the River, Up and Down the River card game, Up the River

By Emma Lily Carter · Updated Aug 22, 2026

Players: 3 to 14
You need: Cards
Buzz: Strong
Time: About 15 min

Rules in 30 seconds

Every player gets 4 cards face up and the dealer flips 8 cards from the deck: on the first 4 you drink 1, 2, 3, then 4 sips for every card of yours that matches, and on the last 4 you give out 4, 3, 2, then 1 for every match. Luck decides everything, which is why it works with 14 people.

A river of face-up playing cards winding across a green table between two rows of drinks

Up and Down the River is the drinking card game with the least to remember: there are no turns, no decisions, and no strategy. You get four cards face up, the dealer flips eight, and the numbers tell you when to drink and when to hand drinks out. It scales to a whole house party because every card the dealer turns hits everyone at the same time, and the second half of the game, where you give drinks away instead of taking them, is where the grudges get settled.

What you need

One deck of 52 cards for up to 6 players, two decks shuffled together for 7 to 14
A drink per player
A table everyone can sit around with their cards visible
3 to 14 players; it is genuinely better with more

Setup

Pick a dealer and shuffle. The dealer plays too; dealing does not get you out of drinking.
Deal 4 cards face up to each player. Lay them in a row in front of you where everyone can see them. Nobody picks them up.
Keep the rest of the deck face down in front of the dealer. That is the river. The dealer flips from it, one card at a time.
Agree what a “drink” is. One sip is standard. A round can ask one player for 8 of them in a row, so keep it a sip.

How to play Up and Down the River

The dealer flips the first card: drink 1 per match. Anyone with a card of the same rank in front of them drinks 1 sip for each matching card. Suits do not matter. Two Kings on the table when a King is flipped means 2 sips.
Second card: drink 2 per match. Same rule, double the sips. Two matches means 4.
Third card: drink 3 per match. The top of the river is getting expensive.
Fourth card: drink 4 per match. This is the end of the trip up. One match is 4 sips; two matches is 8.
Fifth card: give 4 per match. Now you are coming back down. For every card of yours that matches, hand out 4 sips to any player. Split them or pile them on one person, your call.
Sixth card: give 3 per match. Then the seventh card gives 2 per match, and the eighth card gives 1 per match.
Collect the cards, shuffle, and pass the deal. The river resets. Eight flips takes about five minutes, so most tables play several.

Variations and house rules

Dealer’s count. After the eighth flip, the dealer counts “1, 2, 3” and so on up to 13, turning a card from the river with each number (Ace is 1, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13). If the card’s rank matches the number the dealer said, everyone drinks that many sips. A King on 13 is the worst thing that can happen in this game, and it happens about once a month.
Bus Driver finish. House rule. Whoever took the most sips going up the river drives the bus at the end of the night. It is a different game; the Bus Driver rules are here. This is the rule that makes people care about the river.
Face down. House rule. Deal the 4 cards face down and have players flip them only when they think they match. Nobody can see who is about to get hit, and someone always forgets they have a second 9 and gets called on it; the penalty for a missed match is double.
Six-card river. Deal 6 cards each and flip 12, going 1 to 6 up and 6 to 1 down. Needs two decks at 5 players. The 6-sip rounds in the middle are heavy; use it with beer only.
Doubles drink double. Our house rule. If the dealer flips a card and you hold 2 of that rank, the sips for that card are doubled rather than added. Two Queens on a 3-sip flip is 12, not 6. Play this once and you will never complain about the standard version again.
Two rivers. With 10 or more players, split into two tables with a deck each and merge after a full round. Two dealers keep the pace up and nobody waits.

Tips

Sips, not gulps. The fourth flip up the river can ask one player for 8 sips on its own, and the river does not care who got hit last round.
Spread your gives. Going down the river, 4 sips to one person is a strategy; 4 sips to one person every time is a vendetta, and they get to deal next.
Two decks above 6 players. With one deck and 4 cards each, 7 players use 28 cards and the river is only 24, which is fine for 8 flips but leaves the dealer’s count with nothing.
Leave the cards where they were dealt. Cards that get picked up, swapped, or slid toward the edge are how “I did not have a 9” starts.

Up and Down the River, answered

How do you play Up and Down the River?

Deal 4 cards face up to each player. The dealer flips 8 cards from the deck. For the first 4, anyone holding a card of the same rank drinks 1, then 2, then 3, then 4 sips per match. For the last 4, matching players give out 4, then 3, then 2, then 1 sips per match. Shuffle and deal again.

How many cards do you deal in Up and Down the River?

4 to each player, face up. Use one deck for up to 6 players and two decks shuffled together for 7 to 14.

Do suits matter in Up and Down the River?

No. Only rank matters. A 9 of hearts flipped by the dealer matches any 9 on the table, and if you have two 9s you drink or give for both.

Is Up and Down the River the same as Bus Driver?

No, though they are often played in the same night. Bus Driver is the game where the loser has to guess their way along a row of cards and goes back to the start on every miss. Up and Down the River has no guessing at all; your four cards and the dealer's flips decide everything.

What is the 3 6 9 game?

A different game, the Korean counting game Sam Yuk Gu, where players count up around the circle and clap instead of saying any number containing 3, 6, or 9. It needs no cards and pairs well with this one because it also works with a big group.

How many people can play Up and Down the River?

3 to 14. Three is slow because most flips match nobody; 6 to 10 is the sweet spot, where nearly every flip hits someone.