drinking card game

Asshole is a popular, fun drinking card game. It’s probably way above other drinking games as far as complexity is conserned. That basically means that you should learn it or explain it to your friends before you start drinking.

What do you need?

Like for any other drinking card game you need players(at least 5), a deck of cards(2 if a there are a lot of players) and some booze. There are also some optional things you could get to help with the game, some status symbols.

As you’ll see later players get different statuses after each game, so it helps if you have something that shows what status they have in the current game. Some ideas for these simbols are: different chairs, hats, masks, shirts or you can just use cards, chips or whatever you find around the house.

How to play Asshole

The game starts with every player getting cards(5-8). Now the first player plays a card and the next player can either pass(and do nothing) or play a higher card, and then the next player does the same and so on until all players pass or someone plays the highest card. The last player to play a card then starts a new round. Play continues until everyone is out of cards.

If someone has two of the same cards(like two sevens), he can play both of them on his turn and now the next player has to also play a higher pair or pass(the same goes for trips or four same cards). The strongest card can be played even if it’s not in a pair, trips or four cards.

Then here’s what happens… the first player that ran out of cards is the President, the second is the Vice President, third and on are the People(you can make different names if you wish) and the last person is the Asshole.

Now that everyone has his rank, role, whatever you want to call it, here’s what they mean:

The President can make anyone drink and noone can make him drink but himself. He also starts each hand in the next round.
The Vice President can make anyone drink, except the President, he’s also always next to act after the President.

The People can make each other and the Asshole drink, also they act in the order in which they got rid of their cards in the previous round.
The Asshole can’t make anyone drink, he is always last to act and on top of that he has to deal cards and make sure that everyone has their drinks(basically he’s a dealer and bartender all in one).

These roles last for one round, after that they change. So you can play as many round as you want.

Last thing, card strength from the strogest to weakest is 2, A, K, Q, J, T, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, so the deuce is the strongest card. If less people are playing you can throw a few cards out(starting with threes) or if there are a lot of people you can add an extra deck.

Special rules

You can add all sorts of different rules, just use your imagination. You can add rules that say when someone has to drink(like if there is a specific card in play) or you can just add extra tasks that the Asshole must perform.

I’ll leave you with my favorit special rule:
The President can call a board meeting at any time. Everyone starts drinking and noone can stop until the person that outranks him has stopped.

Play carefully and enjoy!