Drunk UNO: Adding Some Drinking Rules To The Very Favorite Card Game UNO

That UNO is one of the most popular & entertaining card games, it is. The fact that it was the number-one selling item in the games category for multiple years, just seals what we said. Not only as a classic card game, but UNO also makes a great blast even if we play it as a drinking game. Indeed, depending on personal tastes, lots of people prefer drinking UNO over the classic one.

Using the game’s standard cards, combining a bit with the standard rules and our ideas, you’ll get some instructions on how to get yourself drunk! One more adorable thing about drunk UNO is that you’re free to add your house rules, or even modify the existing ones. Do you think one of the instructions is boring? Change that. Go for it! 

How To Play Classic UNO

What? You still don’t know how to play the classic, standard version of the game? Ah, what have you been missing… Don’t even worry! We’re dedicating this section of our article to all the people who want to learn the standard rules. These apply to the main game, but however, the other editions (such as the All Wild Deck) do not differ much when it comes to rules.   

We think that once you understand how normal UNO goes, and you know how the scratch is made, it will be simpler to add some drinking! We won’t explain things very meticulously, but it’ll be detailed enough for beginners. 

Information You Need To Know Before Playing UNO

• The game is made to be played by 2 to 10 players;
• Because of its content & understandable rules, everyone who is 7 years or older can play;
• The classic deck of UNO contains 108 cards;
• Even though we may say the game is based on luck, still, you’d perform better if you add some strategy and some math skills; 
• The game is named UNO since when one player has only 1 card left (we’ll get to that later) has to announce out loud “UNO”. 
• Based on people’s experiences, UNO helps adults and kids to develop logical thinking, reasoning their decisions, and forming strategies. 

The Set-Up 

To start the game, firstly choose the dealer. As an idea, you may all draw 1 card, and whoever has the highest value is the dealer. The dealer shuffles the deck and deals 7 cards to each player. Since there are 108 cards, after dealing 7 cards to everyone, there will be some other cards remaining. Place them in the center of the table, face-down. 

Next, turn over the top card of that deck, which creates the discard pile.  Every card can start a discard pile unless it is a Wild or Wild Draw 4. If that occurs, place them back on the deck and use another card. 

The Cards

The main edition of UNO, as mentioned previously, contains 108 cards. Each card can belong in any of the 4 colors: red, green, yellow, and blue. Cards are divided into 76 number cards (one 0 card and two sets of cards from 1 to 9 in each color), 24 action cards, and 8 wild cards. 

Here are the action cards & what they do: 

Draw 2 – If you play a draw 2, means that the next player (going clockwise) has to draw 2 more cards from the deck, and also miss their turn.

Skip –  Makes the next player skip (lose) their turn. 

Reverse – These cards reverse the direction of the gameplay. So, if the game is going clockwise, and you play one reverse card, now the game goes counterclockwise. 

There are 2 action cards of each color. That’s it. That’s the tweet. 

Now, it’s time to talk about our beloved wild cards:

Wild – If you play a wild card, you may now choose one of the 4 colors for the other players to play. So, you may change the color of the gameplay. 

Wild Draw 4 – It is pretty similar to the Wild card, but, besides changing the color, now the next player must also draw 4 cards from the deck, and lose their turn as well. 

As I bet you understood, there are 4 Wild cards and 4 other Wild Draw 4 cards. 

The Gameplay 

Now, when we are at playing the game, once you know what each card represents, it’s all simple. Based on the rules, the game starts from the first person on the dealer’s left and continues that way. 

Each player when it’s their turn must play a card from their hand into the discard pile, but only if it matches the number or the color. So, if the card on the discard pile is a red 3, you may either play a 3 of any color or any red card, including here the skip, reverse and draw 2 cards. 

Also, if you do not have a card that matches neither the number nor color, you may play a Wild or Wild Draw 4. But, what happens if you don’t have any cards you can play? Well, you have to draw a card from the draw pile. If it matches, you can play it. If not, the game continues to the other player. 

The game continues with all the cards, everyone taking their turns and following the instructions of each card. Now, before you play your last card, you should announce “UNO”. If you forget to do that, you get punished. You have to draw 4 more cards from the pile and continue playing. 

If you get rid of all your cards, you get points based on what cards your opponents have. All number cards are worth their face value, Draw 2, Skip & Reverse are worth 20 points and Wild & Wild Draw 4 are worth 50 points. You may play for as long as you want, but usually, the winner is the first person to reach 500 points. 

How To Play UNO Drinking Game 

Now that we’ve learned how to play UNO, it’s time to get drunk! Since the set-up & the gameplay as well are the same, let’s continue with the drinking rules, shall we? 

• If you forget the rules to play classic UNO, or you make a question about the game: Take one drink;
• When it’s your turn to play, if you don’t have a matching card & you have to draw one from the pile, and you still can’t play it: Take one drink;
• If someone plays a Reverse or a Skip card, and you’re the one who loses their turn: Take one drink;
• If you draw a card with the same number or color as the player before you: take a drink
• When the other player plays a +2 card, and it is applied to you: take two drinks;
• The same goes when a +4 card is played: you now take 4 drinks;
• If you draw a +2 from the pile: you take 2 drinks;
• If you draw a +4 from the draw pile: everyone in the group drinks;
• A Wild card is played: everyone in the room drinks;
• If a Wild +4 is played: everyone drinks. If the player who has to play next doesn’t have any card to play, he/she drinks +4 drinks;
• If you have only one card left, and forget to announce “UNO”: take 4 drinks;
• Once you’ve played a while and probably got a bit drunk and have forgotten it’s your turn, or messed up the colors: take 1 drink for that!;
• When someone wins, you the others count the cards: take 1 drink for each card left in your hand;
• Extra: the player with the most cards in their hand drinks 2 times;
• If it occurs that you have any blank cards on your deck, you may add your own house rules. Here are some ideas: 

1. If anyone calls someone by their name, they take one drink;
2. When a blank card is played, everyone touches the floor. Whoever is the last to do so, takes one drink;
3. If you play a blank card, that means you’re free to make up a dare for the player on your left. If they fail to complete it, they take 3 drinks;
4. When a blank card is drawn, all the other players may ask the player who drew the card 10 questions. If that player doesn’t answer, take 4 drinks! 

Get creative and add whatever rule you want. Back and forth we’ve heard that people don’t use any rules, they just drink every time they pick up a card or something like that, but, we don’t want you to get super drunk that you think of getting an unreasonable tattoo. 

Is This Drinking Game Worth It?

It’s heartwarming how well UNO fits all types of people. Yes, officially it is made as a family card game, but, no one stops us from adding our amazing rules and improving the game. So, you may play it in many ways, and never get bored of it. Besides all the fun it brings – and the fact that gets us drunk, it also helps our brain health. 

If you still don’t have the game, here’s something to make you happy: UNO is one of the card games under $10. Yey!!! Cheap as chips. Also, somewhere you may find a Drunk UNO card game, that only has some extra shot glasses in it, and a card of instructions, but why spend some extra money? 

We recommend you tell everyone the rules and make sure everyone agrees. If someone is a teetotalist, it’s totally okay to use any other drink, not necessarily alcohol. Drink carefully and take care of people’s alcohol tolerance. Most importantly, have fun and make it the best time!

Uno, dos, tres, have a blast!