Flip Cup Drinking Game

Drink, set, flip - the fastest team relay in party sports.

Also known as: Flippy Cup · Taps

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Players 4-20 (2 teams)

You needTable, 1 cup per player

DrinkBeer

Intensity

Time5-10 min per race

Flip cup is the great equalizer of party games. No aim required, no strategy meetings, no expensive gear - Just two lines of players facing off across a table, each with one cup, in a relay that lasts ninety glorious seconds. Drink your cup, set it on the table's edge, and flip it upside down with one flick of your fingers. The moment it lands, your teammate launches. First team to flip all the way down the line wins.

What makes flip cup legendary is the energy. It's the loudest game per square foot at any party: whole teams screaming at a single wobbling cup, instant rematches, best-of-seven grudge series that outlive the party itself. It works with four players or twenty, takes thirty seconds to teach, and turns strangers into teammates faster than any icebreaker ever invented. Line up, hands behind your backs, and wait for the count of three.

What you need & setup

Split into two even teams and line up on opposite sides of a long table, each player directly facing an opponent.
Give every player one plastic party cup, filled to an agreed line - Typically a quarter to a third with beer, or with water plus your own drink on the side.
Line the cups up along each table edge in front of the players, open side up.
Agree on the direction of play: the relay starts at one end of the table and moves down the line.
Optional: mark a starting ritual - The classic is both lead-off players tapping cups, tapping the table, then drinking.

How to play Flip Cup

Start with the lead-off duel

On 'go' (or after the cheers-tap-drink ritual), the first player on each team drinks the contents of their cup as fast as they can manage. Nobody else on the team may touch their own cup yet - Hands stay off until it's officially your turn. The lead-off leg sets the tone for the whole race.

Set your cup on the edge

Once empty, place your cup open side up so it hangs slightly over the table's edge - Roughly a quarter of the base off the table. This overhang is your launch pad. Rushing this placement is the number one rookie error: a sloppy set means a wild flip, and wild flips lose races.

Flip it upside down

With one or two fingertips under the overhanging rim, flick the cup upward so it flips 180 degrees and lands standing upside down on the table. Only your fingertips may touch it during the flip - No guiding it down, no two-handed cheating, no slamming it into place. If it lands crooked or rolls, reset it and try again.

Pass the baton

The instant your cup lands flipped, the next teammate in line may start drinking. Not a moment before - Jumping the flip is a false start, and standard punishment is that the early player resets their full cup or the team repeats the leg. Watch your neighbor's cup, not the other team.

Anchor brings it home

The last player in each line is the anchor, and anchors win championships. The race ends when the final cup on one side lands flipped. Close finishes are contested constantly, so appoint a neutral judge at the end of the table before the race if any pride, prizes or Beer Olympics points are on the line.

Rematch, immediately

No flip cup game is played once. Losers demand a rematch, teams swap their weakest flipper to a new spot in the order, and a best-of-five becomes a best-of-nine. Shuffle the teams every few races so the same anchor doesn't carry all night, and keep refills small - This game runs many rounds.

The rules

One cup per player; teams must be even in number, and every player drinks and flips exactly once per race.
You cannot touch your cup until the teammate before you has landed their flip.
Cups must be fully empty before you flip - A splashy flip earns a reset (and jeers).
Flips must be executed with fingertips only, from the table's edge; no hand-guiding, no catching and placing the cup.
The cup must land upside down, flat and stable, on the table to count.
A missed flip must be reset upright on the edge and re-flipped - There is no flip limit, only lost time.
Jumping the start or flipping early: the offender resets and repeats their leg (house-dependent: the team forfeits the race).
A cup knocked off the table must be retrieved and flipped by the same player before play continues down the line.
First team whose final cup lands flipped wins; disputed finishes go to the appointed judge or an immediate rematch.
Table talk, screaming and psychological warfare are not only legal but expected - Touching an opponent's cup is not.

Variations & house rules

Survivor flip cup

After each race, the losing team votes one player off (or the slowest flipper walks). The shrinking team keeps racing the full-size squad, with remaining players drinking and flipping multiple cups to cover the gap. Last squad able to complete a race wins. Brutal, hilarious, and a great tournament finale.

Batavia downs / relay-back

Instead of ending at the anchor, the race turns around: once the last player flips, it comes back up the line in reverse, and every player drinks and flips a second cup. Doubles the race length and gives early-leg players a redemption arc when the return trip gets sloppy.

Slip 'N Flip

The summer supersize: players sprint and dive down a slip-and-slide before popping up to drink and flip at the table. One of the greatest backyard spectacles in drinking-game history and a full page on this site - See Slip 'N Flip for setup and rules.

Flip cup tic-tac-toe

Set a 3x3 grid of nine cups at the table's center. Two players race to drink and flip at their own station; each successful flip lets them claim a grid square with their marker cup. Three in a row wins. A clever head-to-head format when you don't have numbers for full lines.

Around the world

Teams stand in a circle rather than lines, and the flip travels around it - Sometimes with the whole circle racing a timer instead of an opposing team. Great for parties where one big group beats two separated ones, and a good format for setting 'house record' lap times.

Pro tips

Pour less than you think - A quarter cup drains in two seconds, and races are won on flips, not chugging heroics.

Set the cup deliberately with a consistent overhang every time; a repeatable setup is worth more than a fast, random one.

Flick with fingertips and low force - The ideal flip is a lazy, single rotation that dies flat on landing.

Practice your flip a few times before the race starts; muscle memory under pressure is the entire game.

Put your calmest player at anchor, not your fastest drinker - The last flip is played with eight people screaming at it.

Watch your teammate's cup instead of the opposing team; reacting to the flip a half-second faster wins more races than anything else.

Where Flip Cup fits on the shelf

Flip Cup lands mid-table for intensity (6th of 14 cups games), rated 3 out of 5.
It is one of the few games here that genuinely works with just 2 players, and it stays fun up to 20.
Rounds are fast (5-10 min per race), so it slots between bigger games without hijacking the night.
Browse the full pong & cup games shelf to compare all 14 games side by side.

A little history

Flip cup's exact origins are murky, as is tradition for games invented at parties. It's widely believed to have spread through US college campuses in the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes under the names 'flippy cup' or 'taps,' with East Coast schools often credited. Whatever the true birthplace, it traveled fast precisely because it needs nothing: cups, a table, and two teams. By the 2000s it was a fixture of tailgates and a core Beer Olympics event.

Drink responsibly: Flip cup runs many short races, and the sips add up quickly - Keep pours small and consider water in the race cups with real drinks on the side, which also keeps shared tables sanitary. Rotate players between series, push water breaks, and never pressure anyone into another rematch. See our safety guide for pacing tips and alcohol-free versions.

Flip Cup FAQ

How many people do you need for flip cup?

Two teams of at least two, so four minimum - But flip cup genuinely shines with teams of five to ten a side. It's one of the few drinking games that gets better with big numbers, since longer lines mean bigger comebacks, louder finishes and more anchors cracking under pressure. Twenty players around one table is not a crowd problem; it's the ideal state of the game.

What's the trick to flipping the cup?

Consistency beats power. Set the cup with about a quarter of its base hanging off the table edge, put one or two fingertips under the rim, and flick gently upward so it makes one lazy rotation. Most misses come from over-flipping - Too much force sends it spinning twice and bouncing away. Grooving one soft, identical flip is worth ten minutes of practice before any serious race.

How much do you put in each cup?

House standard is a quarter to a third of a 16 oz cup - Enough to make the drinking leg real, little enough that a best-of-seven series stays fun. Remember every player drinks one cup per race and rematches are guaranteed, so small pours are the correct call. Playing with water in the race cups and your own drink on the side works perfectly too.

What happens if my cup lands crooked or falls on the floor?

A flip only counts when the cup lands fully upside down and stable on the table. Leaning against another cup, resting on its rim, or rolling means you reset it upright on the edge and flip again - There's no limit on attempts, only the time you're losing. If it goes to the floor, you retrieve it yourself and keep flipping; teammates can scream but not touch.

Can you play flip cup without alcohol?

Perfectly. The mechanics - Chug, set, flip - Work identically with water, soda or juice in the cups, and plenty of hosts run it that way for hygiene alone. The flip is the skill and the relay is the drama; what's in the cup changes nothing about either. It's also standard practice at Beer Olympics events that need many races without wrecking the competitors.

Flip Cup Drinking Game

What you need & setup