Ride the Bus: A 3-Part Guide to Playing With Your Friends

Enhance your party with this drinking contest of chance and skill

Looking for a fun drinking game, but tired of rehashing Beer Pong and King’s Cup over and over? Then “Ride the Bus” is perfect for you! With just a standard deck of playing cards and some booze, you can create a lively and unique competition among your friends (while getting a little buzzed along the way). Keep reading and we’ll break down the three simple steps of this beloved game (and some common variations if you want to spice things up)!

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Dealing the Cards

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1
Select a dealer and have them shuffle. Gather a group of 4-8 players and decide amongst your friends who you’d like to deal the cards for the entirety of the game. Once you’ve selected your dealer, have the dealer shuffle and/or cut the deck and begin dealing for part one.^{[1]XResearch source}
- The dealer doesn’t hold any particular power in Ride the Bus, so they can easily be a fellow player. However, if there are people in your group who aren’t drinking for the night, it’s advised to select them as the dealer so they can keep track of gameplay and ensure players drink responsibly.
2
Play “red or black?” Have the dealer distribute a face-down card to each player one at a time. Each player must guess if the card will be red (a diamond or heart card) or black (a spade or club card) when it’s flipped over. Once a player has made their guess, have the dealer flip the card over. If the player is correct, nothing happens. But if they’re wrong, they drink.^{[2]XResearch source}
- For a more intense version of “red or black,” players who guess correctly can assign their drink to a different player instead of nothing happening.
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3
Play “higher or lower?” After everyone has received their first card (including the dealer, if the dealer is playing), have the dealer distribute another face-down card to each player. Players will have to guess if this card’s value will be higher or lower than the card they have in their hand. If their guess is correct, nothing happens. If they’re wrong, it’s time to drink again!
- If the dealer is not playing, players can reveal the results of their flipped card to the dealer only so nobody else knows what’s in their hand.^{[3]XResearch source}
- Ace is high in Ride the Bus.
4
Play “in-between or outside?” Once every player has 2 cards in their hand, have the dealer distribute a third face-down card to everyone. Players now have to guess if the value of this face-down card will fall in-between the values of their 2 existing cards once it’s flipped over. If they’re right, nothing happens. However, if they’re wrong, you guessed it, they drink.^{[4]XResearch source}
- For example, if a player has a 3 and a 7 currently in their hand, guessing “in-between” means the player predicts the new card will be a 4, a 5, or a 6. “Outside” means the player is guessing the card will be 2 or lower, or 8 or higher, since all of those values fall outside the 3-7 range.
5
Play “guess the suit.” Now that every player has 3 cards, the dealer distributes 1 final face-down card to everyone. Players must guess the exact suit of the face-down card: club, diamond, heart, or spade. If the card is any of the 3 other suits, they must drink.^{[5]XResearch source}
- If you want, you can raise the stakes for “guess the suit,” having players take 2 drinks or a shot instead of just 1.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Building the Pyramid

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1
Construct a 5-row pyramid with 1 card at the top and 5 at the bottom. Have the dealer assemble the top 15 cards of the remaining deck into a pyramid with all the cards face-down. There should be 5 cards on the bottom row, 4 in the row above the bottom, and so on until there’s only 1 card at the very top of the pyramid. Each ascending row counts for an additional drink: the bottom 5 are worth 1 drink, while the top card is worth 5 drinks total.^{[6]XResearch source}
- Some games suggest doubling the amount of drinks with each passing row. Therefore, the 4-card row would be worth 2 drinks, the 3-card row worth 8, and the top card worth 16. If you’re going to up the ante like this, make sure these drinks are small sips of a beverage with low alcohol content like beer or champagne.
Once the pyramid has been assembled, have the dealer begin flipping the face down cards over one at a time, starting with a card in the 5-card row and completing that row before moving up the pyramid. Continue this process until the card at the top of the pyramid is flipped.^{[7]XResearch source}
3
Match the cards in your hand with the cards in the pyramid. After each individual card in the pyramid is flipped over, players can place a card in their hand onto this flipped-over card if their hand card has the same value. For example, if the dealer flips over a 10 of clubs in the bottom row, players with a 10 of spades, hearts, or diamonds would place their cards onto this 10 of clubs. Each player’s goal is to get rid of all of the cards in their hand by matching them with cards in the pyramid.^{[8]XResearch source}
- If nobody’s card matches the card in the pyramid that was flipped over, nothing happens and the dealer continues to flip over the next card.
- Multiple hand cards can be placed on the same pyramid card.
4
Assign drinks if you have a matching card. Players who successfully match a card in their hand with a card in the pyramid assign drinks to other players. The number of drinks is based on the drink value associated with each row. For example, if a player matches a card in the 3rd row, they can now make other players take 3 drinks. These drinks could be distributed 1 drink for 3 different players, all 3 piled on 1, or anything in between!^{[9]XResearch source}
- Players can wait to place the cards in their hand on various pyramid cards to get a higher drink value. For example, if a player has a matching card in the 5-card row, but wants to wait to see if there will be a match in the 2-card row so they can assign 4 drinks instead of 1, they’re allowed to do so. However, once the next card is flipped over, the previous card can no longer be matched.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Riding the Bus

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1
Select your bus rider. Once all the cards in the pyramid have been flipped over, determine who in your group will be playing phase 3 of the game: “riding the bus.” The bus rider is the player with the most cards in their hand remaining. All other players are safe.^{[10]XResearch source}
- If 2 players have the same number of cards in their hand, the player with the highest value card in their hand has to ride the bus. If both players tie for the highest value, the card with the next highest value loses.
- If all 4 players successfully matched their hands during the pyramid phase, the last player to match a card is the bus rider.
2
"Ride the bus” by guessing the suit and number of various cards. Once the bus rider has been determined, the dealer lays a face down card in front of them. The rider must guess if this card is red or black. If they’re right, they keep the card and move on to higher or lower. If they’re wrong, they drink. The bus rider must successfully make it through all 4 rounds of the dealing part of the game (ending by guessing the suit) without guessing incorrectly. If they guess incorrectly, they must start over at red or black.^{[11]XResearch source}
- Be safe when playing this phase of the game! If the rider asks to be cut off or they keep having to drink, consider switching the drinking penalty and make them play a game of “truth or dare.” Instead of drinking, for every answer the rider gets wrong, they must answer a revealing question or do a silly challenge.
3
Play “face card” with the bus rider for an alternative final round. Another way for the losing player to ride the bus is to have the dealer place a row of 10 face-down cards in front of them. The rider then flips over the 10 cards, one at a time. If the rider flips over a card with a numeric value, nothing happens and they move onto the next card. If the rider flips over a face card, they must drink.^{[12]XResearch source}
- To up the ante, assign different values to each face card. Jacks are worth 1 drink, queens are worth 2, kings are worth 3, and aces are worth 4 or a shot.

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Tips

If you want to play this game without alcohol, have your players drink water instead. Then, the last player to use the restroom wins!
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