Beer Pong Rules (2020)
If you want to know how to play beer pong, or you just want a quick refresher, these are the only beer pong rules you’ll ever need.
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Beer Pong Setup
Two teams of two stand on opposite sides of a long table. (Ping pong table, rectangular dining room table, etc.
Official beer pong table length is 8’ (2.44 m) long, 24” (61 cm) wide, at a height of 27.5” (70 cm).
Each team places six cups in a pyramid pointing towards their opponents. The back three cups should be six inches from the edge of the table.
Each team divides two beers evenly among the six cups on their side of the table.
Place an additional cup off to the side and fill it with water. This is the rinse cup where you can “clean” balls that have fallen onto the floor or have otherwise been contaminated.
Beer Pong Rules
Play
Each team has two players.
Each turn, each player gets one ping pong (table tennis) ball to shoot into the opposing team’s cups.
If a cup is made, the team on that side of the table must pick up the cup and drink the beer inside at their own pace.
Finished cups are then stacked to the side out of the game.
After both players on a team have shot, it’s the opposing team’s turn, unless both players make it, then they get another turn where each player gets to shoot again.
Bounces
Players can also bounce balls into the opposing team’s cups.
If a ball is bounced in, the opposing team must drink the cup that was made, as well as another cup of their choice.
Once a ball hits the table after being bounced or thrown, it can be caught or swatted away by the opposing team.
Fouls
If a ball is touched in the air during a shot before hitting the table, and goes in, it counts as two cups.
If a player’s elbow crosses the threshold of the table’s edge during a shot, the shot doesn’t count, even if it’s made, and the ball automatically goes to the other team.
Winning the Game
The first team to eliminate all of the opposing team’s cups wins.
Players can also win by making a ball into a cup they’ve already made a shot into, even if the cup is being held by someone on the opposing team.
Once the game is over, the losing team must drink all the remaining cups on the table.
Who Goes First?
The starting team is decided by one player from each team looking at one another, counting to three simultaneously, and then shooting a ping pong ball into the other team’s cups.
If both players make it, or both players miss, their teammates then shoot, until one player makes it and the opposing player does not. The team who made the winning shot goes first.
If it’s not the first game of the night, the winners of the previous game go first.
Re-Rack
Each team is awarded one re-rack per game. A re-rack allows you to have your opponents rearrange the cups on their side of the table into any shape you desire, as long as all the cups are touching at least one cup, and the back of the formation is six inches from the opponents’ edge of the table.
Rollbacks
If a ball rolls back across the table before the opposing team can grab it or before it hits the ground, the player who retrieves it can take an additional behind the back shot. If made, it counts the same as a normal shot.
Flick or Blow
If a ball rolls around the inside of a cup, players can flick the ball out, or blow down into the cup to try to force the ping pong ball out before it splashes down into the beer.
Redemption
If the last cup is made by the first person to shoot during a turn, don’t pick it up immediately. The other player on the team must take a turn. If they make it as well, the game is automatically over.
If they miss, the other team gets a chance at redemption by taking a turn of their own. Unlike a regular turn, each player shoots until they miss.
If they eliminate all the remaining cups in a single turn before missing, both teams must reset the game back to three cups on each side of the table in a triangle shape.
The game then continues as normal until one team wins.
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