Drunken Pirates: pirate drinking games to play tonight

What is the Drunken Pirates drinking game?

Drunken Pirates is a card-based drinking game from Ridley’s Games. It comes in a bottle-shaped tin with 54 cards, an eyepatch and instructions, for 2 or more players of legal drinking age, and a game takes about 15 minutes. Players race to collect the most doubloons while avoiding sharks, mutiny and other pirate misfortunes, doing piratey forfeits along the way.

We’re not affiliated with Ridley’s Games. If you don’t have the tin, Pirate’s Plunder above is our own free pirate drinking game with a similar spirit: treasure, sharks and mutiny, on one phone.

How to play Pirate’s Plunder

1. Gather the crew

   Add 2–8 pirates and choose the target: 20, 30 or 50 banked doubloons.

2. Flip for treasure

   On your turn, flip cards one at a time. Coins add to your haul for this turn.

3. Push your luck

   After any flip you can bank your haul (it’s safe forever) or flip again for more.

4. Beware the second shark

   The first shark is a warning. A second shark in the same turn loses your whole haul, and you take 2 sips.

5. Win

   The first pirate to bank the target number of doubloons is captain, and hands out 3 sips.

Pirate’s Plunder cards

Play it with a normal deck of cards

No phone? Use a standard deck with jokers. Number cards 2–5 are 1 doubloon, 6–9 are 2, 10s are 3 and aces are 5. Jacks are sharks, queens are rum barrels (take 1 sip), kings are mutiny (everyone else sips, you bank) and jokers are the kraken (everyone sips, your turn ends). Keep score on paper or with our scoreboard.

Liar’s Dice: the pirate dice game

Liar’s Dice is the dice game every pirate film loves. Each player shakes five dice in a cup and peeks at their own. Take turns bidding on how many of a face are under all the cups (“four fives”); each bid must go higher. Instead of raising, you can call “liar!”. Everyone reveals: if the bid was right, the caller loses a die and takes a sip; if not, the bidder does. Lose all your dice and you’re out. More dice games are on our dice drinking games page.

Pirate party drinking rules

• Talk like a pirate: every sentence ends in “arr”. Forget and take a sip.
• Hook hand: everyone drinks with their non-dominant hand (it’s Buffalo with a hook).
• Man overboard: anyone who leaves the table without asking “permission to leave the ship” takes a sip.
• Grog for all: make a jug of alcohol-free “grog” (lime, ginger beer, a little sugar) so everyone can play.
• Walk the plank: the player who loses each game does a forfeit chosen by the captain.

Drunken Pirates variations

Short voyage

Play to 20 doubloons: about 10 minutes with 4 players.

Pirate crews

Teams of two share a bank and take turns flipping.

No-alcohol voyage

Choose No alcohol: sips become penalty points, and the richest pirate still wins.

Tips for a good game

• Bank early when there’s a shark out: greed sinks ships.
• Keep the sips small: sharks and rum come up often.
• Water for the crew between voyages.

Drunken Pirates: FAQ