The Blue Book

Alejandro’s Favourite Games

Alejandro Christoff Holic started his competitive refreshment career in 2006 after joining a British university (not listed as I’m sure they don’t want to be associated with beverage consumption games). He joined many sports clubs and eventually started leading the social events. He wrote a book to make sure the next social secretary could keep up the fun. Here are a few of his favourites so you can get a flavour of the book.

Rules:

Rules are simple games that are played throughout the entire evening, if you break a rule then you take a sip/gulp of your drink.

1. The word ‘drink’ must never be spoken; this includes use as a noun, verb, and adding the suffix ‘ing’. Words such as ‘beverage’, ‘consume’ or ‘imbibe’ are recommended.
2. A beverage must be at least a thumb’s distance away from the edge of the table, otherwise it is known as an ‘unsafe beverage’.
3. No pointing. There can be no use of fingers to indicate someone or something. Instead of using fingers to point, the use of a fist or an elbow is recommended. However, it is OK for fingers to be extended for use of showing numbers.

Give and Take.

This is one of my favourite games and a staple of most socials that I have run. It is a good game to start the night and get people consuming and talking to each other. This can be quite a lengthy game to explain. Thus it is easier for the dealer to just launch into the game, explaining as they go along. This game is best played with 3-8 players, any more and the game takes too long, any less and there is a good chance that the right cards will not come up.

A deck of cards is needed. The players are dealt three cards face up one at a time. These are the player’s cards to be used in the second half of the game. Before each player receives a new card, they are asked a question. The question depends on which card they are receiving, i.e. the first, second or third card. The questions are the following.

• First Card: Is the card red or black?
• Second Card: Is the card higher or lower than your first card?
• Third Card: Is the card inside or outside your two current cards?

If the player answers the question correctly then nothing happens; if the player answers incorrectly then they must consume the penalty. If the revealed card matches the player’s current cards then their answer was incorrect, e.g.\ with the second question, the dealt card was neither higher nor lower than their initial card. To add clarity for question 2, Ace cards are treated as high.

For example, player A guesses that their first card is going to be red. They are dealt a six of hearts, thus they guessed correctly so they do not consume. They then guessed that their next card would be higher and are dealt a 4. They must consume as 4 is less than 6. For their last card, they guess it will be outside a 4 and 6 and are dealt is a King. As the King is outside a four and six, (when the cards are arranged in order) they guessed correctly and do not consume anything.

Once three cards have been dealt to all players, eight cards are laid out on the table, face down, in two rows of four. One is chosen to be the nominate (give) row the other the consume (take) and each column is given a value. Values such as 1, 2, 3 and 4 or 2, 4, 6 and 8 are recommended, although they can be any numbers. See the above diagram for an example. The cards are then shown one at a time. If one of the three cards dealt to a player is of the same value (i.e. a queen not a diamond) as revealed, they either nominate or consume the corresponding number of fingers to the value of the card. For example, if a player has a card in the third column of the ‘take’ row, they would have to consume three fingers (playing with the column values being 1, 2, 3 and 4).

Screw the Dealer

This is one of the first games I learnt. It is best played early or in the middle of an event as it can lead to a large amount of beverage consumption for one person and, normally, reasonable amounts for everyone else. As the dealer asks each player their questions in turn, it can get boring for large numbers. Consequently, this game should be played with 3-6 players.

For this game, you will need a deck of cards. First, the players all sit in a circle and a dealer is chosen. The dealer then asks the player to their left to guess the value of the card on top (e.g. a queen not the queen of hearts or just a heart). If they get it right, the dealer consumes four fingers. If they get it wrong, the dealer tells them if the card is higher or lower than their guess (aces are low). The player then gets a second guess. If they get it right on their second guess, the dealer consumes two fingers. If they get it wrong the player consumes the difference between his second guess and the actual card in fingers. For example, if the card was a Jack and they guessed an 8, the player would consume three fingers (one for the nine, ten and Jack). After the second guess (or first, if the player gets it right on the first go) the dealer reveals the card to show if the player was correct.

The dealer then asks the next player to the left to guess the card, going around in a circle. If two people incorrectly guess the card in a row the dealer changes, and becomes the person to the previous dealer’s left.

Each time a card has been revealed, it is laid face up on the table. Thus, near the end of the game almost all cards will be laid face up and the remaining cards can be guessed fairly easily. It is this end period where the dealer is screwed.