Ride the Bus: Official Rules

Get rid of your cards before the pyramid is finished, so that someone else rides the bus.

Three to eight players sit around a table. Choose a dealer. The dealer does not play, but deals, flips and keeps order. Use a standard deck with jokers removed. Aces are high.

Rule 1. The four questions

The dealer asks each player four questions, in four rounds. Each question is answered before the dealer deals that player a card face up. A wrong answer means the player drinks. A right answer means the player gives one drink to any player.

Rule 1.1. Red or black? The player guesses the color of their first card.

Rule 1.2. Higher or lower? The player guesses whether their second card will be higher or lower than their first. A card of the same rank is wrong.

Rule 1.3. Inside or outside? The player guesses whether their third card will fall between their first two cards or outside them. A card matching either of the first two is wrong.

Rule 1.4. Which suit? The player guesses the suit of their fourth card. A right answer gives five drinks instead of one.

Rule 2. The pyramid

Rule 2.1. The dealer lays out fifteen cards face down in a pyramid: rows of five, four, three, two and one, from the bottom up. Players keep their four cards.

Rule 2.2. The dealer turns the pyramid cards face up one at a time, starting at the bottom row and working up.

Rule 2.3. When a card is turned, any player holding a card of the same rank may place it on the pyramid card and give drinks: two for the bottom row, four for the second, eight for the third and sixteen for the fourth. More than one player may play on the same card.

Rule 2.4. The top card is a shot. A player who matches it gives a shot to any player. The table agrees what is being poured before the pyramid is dealt.

Rule 3. The bus ride

Rule 3.1. When the pyramid is finished, the player holding the most cards rides the bus. If players tie, the tied player holding the highest card rides. If that ties too, compare the next-highest card.

Rule 3.2. The rider answers the four questions again, in order, using fresh cards from the deck. A wrong answer means one drink, and the rider starts again from the first question.

Rule 3.3. The ride ends when the rider answers all four questions correctly in a row. If the deck runs out first, the dealer reshuffles every card not on the table, and the ride continues. The bus does not stop until you get off.

• Gentler pyramid values, such as 1, 2, 3 and 4, with five drinks in place of the shot. Approved. Popular with tables planning to play a second game.
• The ride ends when the deck runs out. Approved. Some tables call this mercy. The Commission calls it a timetable.
• Riding with a co-pilot. Another player volunteers to ride along and split the rider's drinks. Approved. The Commission commends the co-pilot.
• Holding cards back for higher pyramid rows, at the risk of riding the bus. Approved. This is strategy, and the Commission respects it.
• The dealer plays too. Approved, if another player deals for them.

In the bus ride, does a card of the same rank count as higher or lower? Neither. It is a wrong answer, the same as in the first round (Rule 1.2).

On "inside or outside," the first two cards are the same rank. What can the player say? "Outside" is the only answer that can be right. The Commission permits the player to say it with confidence.

May players give drinks to the dealer? No. The dealer is staff.

• Wrong answer. Penalty: one drink. Signal: drink (Provision 7.1).
• All aboard (a player begins the bus ride). Signal: the Official pulls an imaginary bus cord, twice.
• End of the line (the ride ends). Signal: the Official holds up one flat hand, palm out.

Ride the Bus is played in three parts, and most of the arguments happen in the third. The Commission's archive contains a ruling on a bus ride that went through the deck twice. The rider got off at the third shuffle, and asked that the ruling not include his name. It does not.

Play with any non-alcoholic drink. Ride the Bus is mostly a guessing game, and plays exactly the same.