Beer Pong!

Up until a few a days ago I had no idea this game existed. I was talking with Jeremy a young fellow at work and I asked him how his apartment hunting was going? He said, “It was going fine. I have looked at a few places and have a few more to check out.” I then said, “Have you thought about staying where you’re at?” He said, “Well when I step out on my patio I can see across the courtyard in to an apartment where several young guys live and they have a room dedicated to Beer Pong. Every time I step out on my patio I see them playing Beer Pong, so they must play 24/7.” I said, “Beer Pong?” Jeremy looked at me with an astonished look and said, “You don’t know what Beep Pong is?” I said “No, I have never heard of it.” He said, “You’re kidding me!” I said, “No, really I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

We then had a discussion about Beer Pong and decided to take a survey of the people in the office who know what Beep Pong is. After the survey we found that the folks younger than 35 all knew what Beep Pong was. The folks from 35 to 45 have heard of the game, but did not know for sure what it was. The folks 45 and older never heard of Beer Pong.

Because I wanted to be enlightened as to how this game is played I asked Jeremy to explain the game.

Jeremy went on to say, “I learned how to play when I was in college at Purdue University. There are other variations, but this is how I learned.”

“First you set up a ping-pong table in the middle of the room. Then you get 20 16 ounce Solo cups. At each end of the table you set 10 cups up in a triangle pattern near the edge of the table. You then fill each cup with about an inch of beer. Then you get a ping-pong ball and choose up teams. Each team stands at the end of the table and one at a time tosses the ping-pong ball across the table attempting to get the ping-pong ball in a cup at the other end of the table. If successful, the cup at the other end of the table is removed and a team member on the other side must drink the contents. Once the cup is removed, the other cups are rearranged into the best possible triangle pattern and the game continues. When all the cups are gone on one side of the table, the team at the other end is the winner.”

I then asked, “Should the net be set up on the ping-pong table?” He said, “Only if it is already set up on the table you are using. The net is not part of the game.” I said, “Oh, so the winners don’t have to jump over the net when they win.”

Someone else then asked, “What kind of beer should be used?” Jeremy said, “Whatever you can get you hands on would be fine to use.”

Another asked, “Why only and inch of beer?” Jeremy said, “Well this can be determined by the folks playing the game. Usually at the beginning of the game an inch is the starting amount, but as each additional game is played the amount is usually increased.”

Then I asked, “Have you ever played using some kind of hard liquor like “Jack”? Jeremy said, “I did once and it was not a pretty site at the end of the evening.”

So that’s it. Seems pretty simple and might be fun, and there might be other people who might like to try the game.

The game set up might be conducive to a kid’s game especially at a birthday party where the adults are trying to keep the kid’s occupied with games. They could fill the cups with Kool-Aid, sugar flavored optional. ”Kool-Aid Pong!”

Another would be for the Napa Valley folks. They could use wine as the liquid, the quality would be optional. “Wine Pong!” or “Whine Pong!”

Finally we don’t want to leave the senior citizens out of the mix. Nursing homes usually have a game room and are looking to keep the inhabitants busy. They could have this set up in the game room and use Prune Juice as the liquid. “Prune Pong!”

I have nothing else to add to this report except to say, “Now I know why Schnucks Grocery Store (Cordova TN) has ping-pong balls for sale in the beer aisle.”