Poker Bowling & Beer

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!