- The objective of beer pong is to eliminate all your opponents’ cups first. Toss ping pong balls into their cups directly or by bouncing the balls on the table.
- Each team is given ten 16 oz (450 g) plastic cups. When your opponent makes a ball into your cup, drink the beer in that cup.
- Beer pong can be played 1-on-1 or in teams of 2. In teams of 2, both players take turns shooting the ball (or, in some variations, each are given their own ball).
- To increase the difficulty of your beer pong game, try adding additional rules like eliminating a cup for every bounce a ball makes or going into sudden-death when both sides tie.
Setting Up the Beer Pong Tables
Play 1-on-1 or with teams of 2. Gather the players for your beer pong game and separate to opposite sides of your beer pong table. Sides can include 1 or 2 players each. If you’re playing in teams of 2, take turns throwing the ball each time you get a turn. Beer pong can be played on a table of any size, but if you want to make your own, tables are traditionally 8 feet (2.4 m) long x 4 feet (1.2 m) wide.
Fill twenty 16 oz (450 g) plastic cups halfway with beer or water. Place ten 16 oz (450 g) cups on each side of the table. Then, pour beer into the cups until each one has been filled about halfway. To drink more responsibly and avoid spreading germs, consider filling each cup up with water instead. Then, take a drink from your own beer can each time a shot is made.
Fill a bucket with clean water to rinse balls before throwing. While sanitation isn't exactly the cornerstone of beer pong, nobody wants to drink a tainted cup of beer. Have a bucket of clean water handy so players can rinse their balls before throwing and keep paper towels nearby to soak up spills. You can also designate 2 additional 16 oz (450 g) cups as “water cups” and keep one on either side of the table. But label the water cups clearly so players don’t accidentally sip them after they’ve had a bit to drink.
Arrange the plastic cups into a 10-cup triangle at each end of the table. Assemble the triangles so each top point is facing the opposing team. There will be 1 cup in the first row, 2 in the second row, 3 in the third row, and the base of the triangle will have 4 cups. Pack the cups cups closely together so they’re all touching. Do not tilt the cups. The base of each triangle should start about 1 in (2.5 cm) from each edge of the table. You can play with 6 cups or 15 cups instead, depending on how long you want the game to last.
Determine who goes first. Many games are started by a member of each team playing rock, paper, scissors. Winners go first. Another variation to choose who goes first is playing “eye-to-eye.” To do this, try to make a cup while maintaining eye contact with your opponent. The first player to land a cup goes first. You can also flip a coin.
Playing Beer Pong
Take turns throwing the balls into cups. Each team gets to throw one ball per turn. The goal is to throw the ball into a cup of the opposing team. Throw the ball directly into a cup or bounce a ball off of the table into a cup. Just keep your elbows behind the table when you throw, otherwise the point won’t count! Try to arc the ball when you throw. It is more likely to land in a cup. Aim for a cluster of cups as opposed to the edges of the triangle. Try throwing underhand or overhand and see which works best for you.
Drink according to where the ball lands. When the ball lands in a cup, drink the beer in that cup. If you’re playing in teams of two, alternate the drinking between you and your partner—if you drink the first cup, let your partner drink the second. Set the cup aside once you drink it. Do not throw again until a player has finished all the beer in their cup and removed it from play.
"Re-rack” the cups into a diamond when 4 only cups remain. Once 6 cups of beer have been drunk on your side of the table, restack the remaining 4 into a diamond shape. This process, called “re-racking,” will make shooting easier for everyone. Only re-rack if your side has lost the appropriate amount of cups. Re-racks often occur at different turns for each side, depending on how many balls have been sunk by each player. Some players include an additional re-rack each game. The re-rack may be when there are 6 cups remaining (with a triangle in a 3-2-1 formation) or in whatever shape the player requests. Check with your game’s players beforehand to determine what works for you.
Re-rack the last 2 cups into a single file line. Once 8 cups have been drunk on either side, arrange the last 2 cups into a vertical line, with the back cup approximately 1 in (2.5 cm) from the edge of the table. This re-racking style is sometimes referred to as “Gentlemen’s” or “Power Eye.”
Keep playing until one team has no cups remaining. Continue tossing the ball, one side at a time, until one player or team has sunk a ball into all of their opponent’s cups. The first player or side to do this wins the game. Sometimes, players will offer a “redemption” after a team makes a winning shot. In “redemption,” the losing team is allowed to toss once more. If they land the ball into a cup, the winning team’s toss is canceled and the game resumes. A redemption is different from a “rebuttal,” which is another rule variation.
Additional Rules
Throw 2 balls per round if you’re playing in teams. Beer pong can be played with many rule variations. In this version, throw 2 balls per round per team until there is a miss. After the turn is completed, the opposite team throws at the first team's cups, and the process repeats. If both your team’s balls land in the same cup, remove an extra cup from your opponent’s side.
Call out which cup you are going to hit before you throw. This is one of the most common variations on beer pong. If you hit the cup you called, your opponent drinks that cup. If you miss your target and it goes in the wrong cup, it counts as a miss, and that cup remains on the table. Another variation on this style, called “Island,” allows players to call 1 cup per game. If you make the cup you call, remove 1 extra cup from your opponent’s side. If you miss, do nothing.
Give the losing team 1 last turn after a team has won. In this variation, give the opposing team 1 last turn; this turn is called a “rebuttal.” The opposing team keeps shooting until they miss, at which time the game is over. If the opposing team makes the ball into all of the winning teams’ cups in their last turn, then a 3-cup overtime is played. Now, the teams compete in sudden death to figure out the final winner. In a 3-cup overtime, arrange your 3 cups into a triangle shape with 2 cups at the base and 1 cup at the point.
Make a bounce shot count for 2 cups. In this variation, a bounce shot counts as 2 cups. If you land your beer pong ball into a cup by bouncing it, choose which additional cup you would like to be removed. A lot of players use this rule variation, with the additional rule that players are allowed to swat the ball away after it has bounced on the table. Some rule variations count each bounce as an additional cup to be removed. Therefore, if your ball bounced twice before landing in a cup, you would select 2 cups to be removed. If it bounced 3 times, you would select 3, and so on.
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