Do You Have What It Takes to Ride the Bus? Here are the Rules of the Game

drink the bus rules

Living such fast-paced lives, we sometimes forget what it feels like to have some genuine, unadulterated fun. Do you even remember those Saturday nights when you and your family or friends would have barbecue in your backyard and play a good game of cards right after with a few drinks in between?

If you badly need a break but don’t have the budget to go on vacation, you can always invite family or friends over at your house just like the old times. But if you want to try something fun and competitive, you should never miss playing Ride the Bus Drinking Game. Here are the rules:

So, what exactly is Ride the Bus?

Ride the Bus is a classic card drinking game where you should be able to use luck and logic in making sure that you don’t get drunk after the game is done. The goal of the game is pretty simple: you guess right or take a shot.

All you need to play this game is a deck of cards, some friends and the drink of your choice. You could prepare beer, wine or other alcoholic drinks to make the game extra fun.

How is the game played?

Gather your friends and make sure they have a drink or two ready. Sit around a table in a circle and choose one player as the dealer who will handle the deck of cards.

Red or black?

As the game begins, the dealer will ask each player the first question, “red or black?” starting from the person to his left. Once everyone is done giving their answers, the dealer opens the first card in front of the first player.

If he guessed the color right, he will distribute drinks to everyone. But if his answer is wrong, he will need to take some shots. The same mechanics apply to all the other players until everyone already has their first card.

Higher or lower?

After the first round, the dealer asks another question, “higher or lower?” Each player should guess if the next card is higher or lower than his first card, with an Ace having the highest value.

If the player guessed right, he distributes some drinks. If he guessed wrong, on the other hand, he takes some shots. The game continues until everyone has their second card.

In the instance where two cards are the same, the dealer gets the cards back into the deck and reshuffles them. He then picks from the top of the deck again.

In-between or outside?

Following the same format as the first two rounds, the dealer now asks “in-between or outside?” This means that each player should guess if the next card falls in-between or outside the values of the first two cards?

So, if you received a Queen as your third card and your first two cards were five and eight, then your card will be “outside” the value of your previous cards. If you guessed it right, you are safe from drinking.

Otherwise, you should take some shots. If a card is the same as either the first two cards, however, the dealer will get the card back, reshuffle the deck and choose from the top again.

Pick a suit

For the final round, the dealer will ask each player to guess a suit. It could be a heart, diamond, spade or club. Every player who makes the right guess will be given five drinks to distribute to their player of choice.

A player can either distribute these five drinks to several individuals or stack it on one player. Meanwhile, incorrect guesses will be penalized with a drink.

Once the first stage of the game is done, each player will collect his four cards and hold it together. The dealer then creates a pyramid of face-down cards: five at the base, four in the next row and so on until there is only one card left at the top.

One card will be flipped at a time beginning at the bottom row. Any player who as a matching card can lay his card on top and will have the right to punish another player with the number of drinks for that row.

The bottom row will have one drink while the top tier will have five drinks. This continues until all the cards are laid out and all the drinks are distributed to the right players.

The final stage

To complete the game, each player will have to compare the number of cards they have left after all the pyramid cards are turned over. Ideally, all the cards should be used but the player with the most number of cards left will have to ride the bus.

If there are two or more players with the same number of cards, the one with the highest value of cards will ride the bus.

The dealer then lays 10 cards face down and flips it over. If a number card is revealed, the dealer moves on to the next card. But if it’s a face card or an Ace, the player riding the bus has to drink.

Are you ready to give this fun and extremely competitive game a try? Just make sure to drink responsibly and for sure, everyone will love to come back for more of your game nights.

Ride The Buses Rules Video