How to Play Quarters

Anyone with a mouth, some beer and a quarter can play this drinking game, so naturally it's extremely popular at college parties. It's a game of skill, so unless you can party hard and hold your liquor, you might want to learn how to play or you'll end up hugging the toilet instead of partying.

Things You'll Need

• Drinks all around
• Glass
• Quarter

Instructions

1. Get a table and set down a board or a tablecloth (unless you don't mind dents and spilled beer all over your tabletop). Participants should surround the table.

2. Set a glass in the middle of the table--big ones for beginners, shot glasses for experts.

3. Grab a quarter between your index finger and thumb. You can hold it either by the sides or directly on the face and back. Either way is acceptable and your own skills will determine how you hold the quarter.

4. Hold the coin at about a 45 degree angle. Your hand should be about one foot above the surface of the table.

5. Bring your hand down onto the table, bouncing the coin off the table and (hopefully) into the glass in one bounce.

6. Did you miss? Then pass the coin to the next person.

7. Got it in? Great! Choose someone and make 'em take a drink! Then shoot again.

8. Know that if someone else makes a shot and chooses you, then you have to drink. If you are right-handed, you have to drink with your left hand and vice versa.

9. Miss, but hit the rim of the glass? You can be challenged. Any player can challenge the shooter if he hits the rim. If you miss the next shot, you have to take one drink for every challenge. If you make it, the challengers have to each take one drink for every challenge. If you hit the rim again, the stakes are automatically doubled for everyone and you go again.

10. Make three shots without missing and you get to make up a new rule for the game. Anything goes.

11. Are you losing miserably? You are out when you are unwilling or unable to drink anymore. The last person left wins.

Tips & Warnings

• Anything goes for making up rules, but here are some classic examples. In "name swap," everyone switches names and anyone caught using the wrong name has to drink. In "all in," all players automatically challenge when the rim is hit.

• Beer is the preferred drink for anyone but hardcore gamers.

• Rules on where you should bounce from will vary. Agree upon a distance to bounce from before the game begins.

• Players either drink from the cup that is in the center or their own drinks.

• This game is also known as coinage.

• You can buy a quarters board but it will cost around thirty dollars and barely affects the play of the game.