Poker Bowling & Beer

Are you playing poker and drinking a lot of beer at the same time? The two tend to go together (hence the blow). Here are my favorite beers for the combo:

1. Bud Light. Maybe it is all the great commercials, but they have me hooked. It’s light but has flavor and can be consumed a fair amount without getting too drunk.

2. Miller High Life: A bit cheaper, but a good ole favorite of mine. Tends to be good with drinking games but not much else. High Life Light is even better, but you may not be able to find it.

3. Michelob Ultra: A bit girly, but does the trick. A bit more expensive, but overall, worth it.

A fun way to spice up bowling is to mix it with a poker game. Here’s how the game is played:

Everytime a player makes a strike, they receive one card from a standard 52-card deck. The maximum number of cards a player can possess at once is five. So once a player has five cards and they bowl another strike, they get to draw a card and either discard it, or keep it while discarding something else.

The goal is to possess the best five card poker hand at the end of the bowling match. You can bet anything on this: money, a round of shots, lap dances, the bowling fee… you name it!

Strategically, you should try to estimate how many cards you think your opponents will be able to draw over the course of the match. Suppose your five card hand consists of a pair of Jacks with four hearts. If you think your friends (opponents) will be unlikely to make that many strikes and therefore have a tough time making a better hand than a pair of Jacks, you should avoid breaking up the pair in order to chase the flush draw. Another thing to consider is which non-paired cards to discard. Sometimes this game is played where you are able to see your opponents’ hands meaning you should be able to see which cards you have a better chance of drawing from the deck.

This game can be customized in many ways. You might also have to handicap it to make it more fair. For example, if you’re in a group of four with one girl, let the girl draw a card anytime she rolls a nine or better. Or if you’re not very good at bowling, allow a card to be drawn for a spare and two cards for a strike. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out a semi-fair way to enjoy this game of bowling poker.

The fun part with this game is when you play with the cards face down so you have to make some complicated decisions like whether or not to break up a pair in order to chase a straight or a flush.

Many people try to combine Texas Holdem (here are the rules of Texas Holdem) with drinking of some sort. The key to doing this is to not worry about the strategy in the game (the betting aspect) and instead just focus on getting drunk.

In my experience, the easiest way to do it is to just deal the cards, then deal the flop, turn, and river. Whoever has the worst hand at the showdown has to take a drink.

If you have girls around, the player with the worst hand has to take some clothes off.

Simple and fun. Don’t try to involve skill in this mess…it makes it not fun.

Since its creation, bowling has enjoyed a wonderful marriage with drinking. Most bowling alleys have bars and bowling is one of the few physical activities where alcohol doesn’t add too significant of a danger level to the proceedings. Heck, for some people, a little alcohol can actually help them bowl better!

On it’s own feet, bowling is a pretty fun game that doesn’t need any help being more fun. However, if you want to add a little pizazz to your bowling outting, try implementing some rules that involve the losers having to drink.

Some bowling drinking games will work great for some people while others won’t be as applicable. For example, a game where anytime you don’t strike, you have to take a drink would obviously not be suitable for any group short of a bunch of PBA pros. So assess your group’s skill level and try to use rules that balance things in a most appropriate way. Here are a few ideas:

Gutter Ball has to Drink

Simple enough. If anyone throws a gutter ball on their first shot of any frame, they have to take a drink. You can determine whatever “a drink” is. Usually it just means a large gulp of beer.

Proposition Frames

Before a frame starts, you can cut a deal with the group where everyone in the group has to drink after the frame except the person who bowled the best frame. If two people tie for the best frame, they carry over to the next frame to determine which one has to drink.

Every Nine-Gutter has to Drink

This one is popular among my friends and I since we’re a little bit more experienced bowlers. Basically we have a rule where everytime one of us gets a nine on our first shot and then misses the spare attempt they have to take a drink. You can apply this same basic concept to your group and tweak the rules so it’s more fitting.

Split has to Chug a Beer

If you really want to amp up the level of alcohol consumption in your group, you can have a rule where everytime someone leaves a split they have to chug an entire beer. Splits are generally not that common. They probably only occur about one frame per game on average. However, you can get a friend pretty tanked in a hurry if they are unfortunate enough to have three or four splits in a matter of a single game.

Be Creative!

The above rules were just ideas of how to turn bowling into a drinking game. Most of these rules could be made up off the cuff, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box a little bit and come up with some rules of your own. Bowling is one of the most social activities that can be done in public, so have fun, loosen up, and make it as fun as possible!