So it's official, I'm visiting Lawrence next weekend. Barring any Greyhound problems, I get in to Appleton at around 12:30 pm on Friday.

To mark the occasion, here are the correct, Politician-approved rules to King's Cup, a popular drinking game I learned at Lawrence. I've already written about my other two favorite Lawrence games.

Though I had trouble finding the rules when I was in Germany three years ago, I'm sure that by now there are a lot of different variations of this already available on the Internet. Still, you can rest assured that we have thoroughly honed these rules.

King's Cup

You'll need:
1 standard deck of cards, no jokers. mix them up in a pile.
Drinks and glasses and such. Everyone drinks whatever kind of alcohol they want.
1 "King's Cup," a large glass in the middle of the table. Mine is basically a vase.

On your turn, flip a card over without looking at it first. After the card is done, the next player draws, and so on until all the cards are gone.

Two (black) - send two drinks.
Two (red) - red dead. take two drinks.
Three (black) - send three drinks.
Three (red) - red dead. take three drinks.
Four - the last person to place four fingers of one hand flat on the table ("four on the floor") drinks.
Five - the last person to raise an open palm in the air ("five up high") drinks.
Six - the last person to touch their nose with their pointer finger drinks.
Seven - seven sentence. say the first word of a sentence. the next player says your word and then another word capable of building a sentence, and so on. first to forget a word in the sentence drinks.
Eight - make a rule. usually something that people have to keep doing or avoid doing, with a drink penalty for each infraction. unless your group likes punishment, new rules get rid of old ones.
Nine - nine, nine, bust a rhyme. go around finding rhymes for your chosen word until someone messes up and has to drink.
Ten - categories. give a category and an example. the first person who can't come up with something in your category drinks.
Jack - jack back. player before you drinks.
Queen - queen question. starting with the person who drew the card, players address questions to any other player. make sure it's clear who you're talking to. the first person who doesn't respond with a question loses.
King - pour as much of your drink as you'd like into the King's Cup; the person who draws the final king has to drink (and finish) the Cup.
Ace - toast. depending on how people are feeling, this can be either a social (everyone takes a drink) or a waterfall (everyone starts drinking at once. the person who drew the card can choose when to stop, but everyone else has to wait until the person before them stops.)

we usually resolve rules questions by general consensus, but here are some tips:

1. a drink is whatever you're comfortable with, but should be more than a sip.

2. for the seven (sentence), nine (rhyme), and ten (category), whatever the player picks has to be able to get around the table. for categories, the category has to be something that other people could conceivably know or guess. for sentence, every player has to pick a word that could conceivably be part of a longer sentence. anyone who messes this stuff up takes a drink, and the next player's turn starts.

3. if you doubt that a category, rhyme, or sentence can make it, the burden of proof is on the player. whoever is wrong drinks.

4. don't pretend that you're drinking on the waterfall. if you run out, set your empty glass down and let the players to either side of you connect the gap in the chain.

5. the only cards that need to be explained before the game are the four, five, six, and the queen. if you don't realize what's going on during the game... well, good luck to you sir.