Screw the Dealer Drinking Game

Outguess the dealer or put them out of their misery.

Also known as: F*ck the Dealer · Beat the Dealer

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Players 3-8

You needDeck of cards, drinks

DrinkBeer

Intensity

Time20-40 min

Play Screw the Dealer online

Screw the Dealer, also known by a considerably ruder name, is the only classic card drinking game where one player is officially everyone's enemy. The dealer holds the deck while the table takes turns guessing the top card, two tries each, with a higher-or-lower hint in between. Guess wrong and you drink the difference between your call and the truth. Guess right, though, and the dealer drinks big while the whole table grins.

The hook is the escape clause: the dealer cannot pass the deck until two players in a row completely whiff. One hot guesser can chain correct calls and pin an increasingly desperate dealer in the seat for what feels like a geological era. Add the face-up discard grid that lets sharp players count cards, and you get a guessing game with genuine strategy, real villainy, and the most satisfying role reversals in card drinking games.

What you need & setup

Shuffle a full 52-card deck and choose a first dealer (they will suffer soon enough).
Seat 3-8 players in a circle; the guesser role moves clockwise from the dealer's left.
Clear a space to lay used cards face up in rank order - this grid is the game's memory.
Agree on the dealer-escape rule: two wrong guesses in a row from different players frees the dealer.
Everyone gets a drink; aces count high or low, but decide now.

How to play Screw the Dealer

Guess the top card

The player to the dealer's left names any rank, two through ace, trying to call the deck's top card exactly. The dealer looks at the card privately and responds only with higher or lower if the guess misses, or reveals it if the guess is dead on. No suits, no colors - rank is the whole game.

Take the second shot

Armed with the higher-or-lower clue, the same player guesses once more. Nail it on either guess and the dealer drinks: commonly the difference between the guess and the card in sips on the second try, or a flat heavy penalty on a first-guess hit. Miss both and the drinks flow the other direction.

Drink the difference

When both guesses miss, the guesser drinks the gap between their final guess and the actual card. Guess a 5, reveal a 9, drink four. The card is then flipped into the face-up grid for all to study, and the guessing seat moves one player clockwise while the dealer stays trapped.

Count everything

The face-up grid is the strategy layer. Four sevens already showing means never guess seven. As the deck thins, sharp guessers narrow ranks down mercilessly, and dealer punishment accelerates. Screw the Dealer quietly rewards the most sober-brained card counter at the table, which creates a delicious tension as the night progresses.

Escape the dealer seat

The dealer is released only when two consecutive players both miss twice. The deck then passes clockwise, and a new dealer starts sweating. A hot streak of correct guesses can imprison one dealer for a brutally long shift - which is precisely the level of drama the game is named after.

Play out the deck

The game runs until the deck is exhausted, with late-game rounds turning into near-certain hits as the grid fills in. The final few cards are effectively free shots at the dealer, so tradition demands the table savor them loudly. Reshuffle, install the most smug guesser as the new first dealer, and run it back.

The rules

The player left of the dealer guesses the top card's rank; suits never matter.
The dealer answers a wrong first guess only with 'higher' or 'lower'.
Each guesser gets exactly two guesses per turn.
First-guess exact hit: the dealer drinks a heavy set penalty (commonly 4-10 sips, agree beforehand).
Second-guess hit: the dealer drinks the difference between the first guess and the actual card.
Both guesses miss: the guesser drinks the difference between their last guess and the card.
Every revealed card goes face up into a rank-ordered grid that anyone may study.
The dealer escapes only after two different players in a row both miss twice.
Aces are high (or low) per the pre-game agreement; ties on 'higher or lower' cannot occur since guesses name exact ranks.
When the deck runs out, the game ends; the best guesser traditionally deals the next round.

Variations & house rules

Beat the Dealer

The polite-company version in more than name: penalties cap at three sips regardless of the guess gap, and the dealer escapes after a single player misses twice. Rounds move much faster, no one gets buried, and it doubles nicely as a quick warm-up game before something heavier takes the table.

Suit Screw

After a correct rank guess, the guesser may double down by calling the suit. A correct suit call doubles the dealer's penalty; a wrong one splits the original penalty between guesser and dealer. Pure gambling stacked on gambling, and the source of the loudest single moments in this game.

Dealer's Revenge

Once per shift, the dealer may secretly peek at the top card and 'taunt' - offering one true statement about it ('it is a face card'). If the guesser still misses both tries, their penalty doubles. If they hit, the dealer's penalty doubles instead. High risk, high comedy, dealer's choice.

Speed Screw

A ten-second shot clock on every guess, counted down by the table. Overtime counts as an automatic miss at maximum distance (drink the full gap to the revealed card). It obliterates the card-counting advantage and turns the game into pure gut instinct, which levels the field late at night.

Sober Screw

Sips become points against you, tracked on a pad; lowest total when the deck runs out wins. Because the game already rewards memory and probability, the alcohol-free version is legitimately competitive - a rare drinking game that converts into a real card game without losing its personality.

Pro tips

Guess 8 blind: it is the statistical center of the deck, and your higher-or-lower clue then splits the remaining ranks evenly.

Read the grid before every single guess; four showing of any rank makes that rank a wasted breath.

As dealer, keep a perfect poker face on the peek - most tables read hesitation like a billboard.

Set the first-guess penalty before starting; it is the most commonly disputed number in the game.

Late deck is guesser paradise - if you get to choose seats, sit deep in the rotation.

Rotate the dealer seat at the deck's halfway point if your group wants mercy over tradition.

Where Screw the Dealer fits on the shelf

Screw the Dealer sits near the top of the intensity table - 4th heaviest of our 17 cards games, rated 3 out of 5.
The sweet spot is 3-8 players - enough for chaos, few enough that every turn matters.
A typical session runs 20-40 min - a solid middle act for the evening.
Browse the full card drinking games shelf to compare all 17 games side by side.

A little history

Screw the Dealer's origins are undocumented, as with most drinking games, but it is believed to descend from old pub guessing games built on a single deck and a punished dealer. Most accounts place its modern two-guess format on American college campuses by the 1980s, where the profane version of the name stuck. The face-up discard grid that enables card counting appears to be a later refinement that became standard.

Drink responsibly: Dealer shifts can stack penalties on one person fast, so cap any single drink at a few sips, count honest ranks not gulps, and rotate the deck at halftime if someone is getting buried. A dealer with water in hand keeps the game running longer anyway. See our safety guide for pacing tips and alcohol-free versions.

Screw the Dealer FAQ

Why is it called Screw the Dealer?

Because the entire game is engineered against one player. The dealer drinks every time anyone guesses correctly, cannot pass the deck until two consecutive players fail completely, and gets systematically dismantled late in the deck when card counters take over. The common name is actually a ruder four-letter version; the game is identical either way.

How does the dealer get rid of the deck?

Two players in a row must each miss both of their guesses. The moment one player guesses correctly, the escape counter resets to zero, which is how unlucky dealers get trapped for ten-minute shifts. When the double-miss finally lands, the deck passes clockwise and the freed dealer becomes a regular guesser again.

What do higher and lower mean for the drinking amounts?

Higher and lower are just the dealer's clue after a wrong first guess. Drink amounts come from distance: a losing guesser drinks the gap in ranks between their final guess and the revealed card, while a dealer caught on the second guess drinks the gap from the first guess. Bigger whiffs, bigger drinks.

Is card counting allowed in Screw the Dealer?

Not just allowed - it is the point. Every revealed card sits face up in a rank-ordered grid precisely so players can track what is left. Nobody may write notes on most tables, but staring at the grid and doing deck math out loud is fair play and increasingly decisive as the deck shrinks.

How many people can play Screw the Dealer?

Three players is the true minimum since the escape rule needs two consecutive missers who are not the dealer. Four to six is ideal: guesses come around quickly and dealer shifts change hands often. With eight, expect slower rotations and consider capping penalties so a trapped dealer does not get flattened.

Screw the Dealer Drinking Game

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What you need & setup