Black or Red

Learn how to play the drinking card game Black or Red with easy to follow instructions

Requirements

– One standard deck of 52 cards

– Plenty of beverage

– A player who is willing to become the dealer

 

Play

To begin play someone has to offer their services as a dealer. The other players in the game then become the “guessers.”

The dealer grasps the deck face down and asks the first player to guess the colour of the card they are about to turn over. Obviously since there are only black or red cards in the deck there is a 50/50 chance of choosing correctly. If the “guesser” is correct in their choice then there is no consequence and the player chooses again, for they must correctly guess the colour of three consecutive cards before passing their turn to the next player. If the “guesser” is incorrect they then must take large sips of their beverage equalling the number of cards which they had chosen accurately up to that point, plus one for the mistake. For instance, if a player had accurately predicted twice but failed on their third attempt the penalty would be to 3 drinks.

Once an inaccurate guess has been made all cards are removed from the table and positioned in an individual pile. The “guesser” has to begin again to correctly predict the colour of three cards in a row.

Once a player has accurately predicted the colour of three consecutive cards they have two choices.

– First, they may pass their turn to the next player and with it the three successful cards. Basically, if the next player were to be inaccurate in their initial guess the total punishment would be four drinks.

– The second choice would be to continue predicting, with correct predictions accumulating cards to be delivered to the next player at any point. However, an incorrect prediction will force the player to again try to guess three cards in a row before passing. Furthermore, this player will have to drink a sum of all the correct guesses plus one for the failed attempt.

Once all cards have been used the dealer can be rotated or the current dealer can continue on using the cards formerly removed from the table.