The Bus is an exciting drinking game which is also fairly simple to play. All that is needed is a deck of cards and a lot of beverage.

Preperations

Place nine cards face down on a table to create a 3 × 3 formation. Distribute the rest of the cards evenly among the players. Any remaining cards are placed to the side.

How to play

Round 1

One at a time, the game leader flips a card on the table. If a player has a card on hand that matches a card that is turned, they place that card on top of it. For each card they place, they may nominate a player who is allowed to drink two sips. Continue until all the cards on the table are turned facing up.

Round 2

The game leader then mixes all the cards on the table and again places 9 cards facing down on the table to form a diamond (1 – 2 – 3 – 2 – 1).

Now all players who still have cards on hand should “ride the bus”. All players who ride the bus now play together. The goal is to turn a card at the end of the diamond, and then turn the adjacent card to get to the other side of the diamond.

If a high card (Jack, Queen or King) or an Ace is turned up, all players who ride the bus must drink three sips. The game is over when the players have managed to get from one side to the other of the diamond without turning up a high card or Ace. If such a card is shown the game cards are mixed again and the game starts from the beginning.