United Nations of Beer

Spoof the drinking game

by Ashley Cotter-Cairns
(UNOB HQ)

Spoof, the drinking game
Visit the UNOB Drinking Games HQ

Easy to learn, play and equip (three coins each, a large glass and a memory for who bid what are all you need!), Spoof is a world-wide drinking game classic.

How to play Spoof

Spoof is remarkably easy to play, but there's plenty of strategy and bluff involved!

Each player sits in a circle with their left palm upwards and open. Each player has three coins in their right palm. In the centre of the circle is a large, empty glass.

All players now put their hands behind your back and palm any number of coins from zero to three into their right hand, keeping both fists closed.

Try not to let the coins knock against each other to give away information!

Next, all players hold their right fists out into the circle. Once everybody has put their right fist out, Spoof the drinking game starts in earnest!

Play moves clockwise. The first player must guess the TOTAL NUMBER OF COINS in the combined right hands of ALL the players. The next player makes another guess and so on.

Nobody is allowed to guess what the previous players have guessed. In other words, if Player A guesses eight coins, Player B guesses seven, Player C guesses ten and Player D guesses six, none of the remaining players may guess six, seven, eight or ten.

The person who guesses correctly is removed from the circle, to psyche up the others. Here's the great part: whenever a player is eliminated, he adds a shot to the glass in the centre of the circle!

As play progresses, the glass gets ever-fuller of gross booze. The strategy in Spoof the drinking game really heats up when you get down to the last three. One of those three is going to down the drink!

If nobody is correct in any round, every player must take a sip from their current drink, but nobody gets eliminated.

The real tension happens when two players are heads-up. It really gets nasty now! The person who bids first has a big advantage, because they know how many coins they are holding. They also know the other person cannot bid the amount that they bid.

The last person left in the game is the SPOOF. He or she has to down the disgusting mixed drink in the centre. Usually while everybody else laughs and gets their coins ready for round two!