Official Beer Pong Tables and Supplies

One of the first steps to getting better at competitive beer pong is to play with the equipment used in tournaments. Here is the universal equipment used in most local and national tournaments:

8 Foot Table (Bingbongtables.com)

World Series of Beer Pong Cups (www.spencersonline.com)
Official World Series of Beer Pong Balls (www.bpong.com)

Smashing Time, World Series of Beer Pong V Champs!

For the first time ever a WSOBP team was able to defend their title successfully. Smashing Time (Mike Popielarski and Ron Hamilton) from Long Island are now World Series of Beer Pong IV and V champions. Smashing Time plays the majority of their Beer Pong on Long Island and travels both locally and nationally for large tournaments. Smashing Time has become the "Yankees" of beer pong, after winning the Atlantic City Championship and the World Series twice in a row. These three events alone have won the team over $125,000, and they are looking to repeat as champs again in AC in June.

For more information about the World Series of Beer Pong and Smashing Time, visit www.bpong.com

Some Simple Strategy

Even if your playing Beer Pong for fun you still want to win. Well, today's post should help that happen more often. The first element that we will discuss is shooting order. Personally, I feel it is good to maintain the same order throughout the game. This enables both players to get into a groove and get comfortable with where they are shooting. I also feel that it is important for the better shooter to always be shooting second. Shooting first allows the weaker player the opportunity to possibly shoot at a larger rack, while the second shooter may be shooting at one less cup.
Another important strategy is cup order. If done correctly, your team will end up with racks that are compact and traditional. The cup order that is most used can be summed up as "Front to Back". Basically, the plan here is to start with the front cup and begin to work your way to the back row. If you do not start at the front you risk the chance of making random middle row cups that leave you with a gaping hole in your rack. One of the few times I do not use the front to back strategy is when I am playing with the "Island Cup" or "Skill Cup" rule. In this case I will start by shooting for the second row. If I am able to make both cups in the second row, I have successfully created an Island Cup out of the front cup. Now I have a the easiest island cup possible. Use this strategy at your next game and I promise you you'll see a difference.

Cool Rule Variations

A fun thing to do at your recreational pong games is to institute different rules in order to keep the night interesting. Here I'll list a few of the rules that I have played with recently.

1. Island Cup- Island cup can be called when there is a cup on the opposing teams side that is missing all its adjacent cups. For example, the front cup would become an island cup if you make it in both cups in the second row. If an Island becomes available, you have to declare that you are shooting for it. If you make it into any other cup on this turn it will not count. However, the up side is that if you call Island and make it into that cup the opposing team has to remove two cups. You can also establish a rule for the amount of times "Island" can be declared by a team.
2. Troll Rule- Now this may be by far the best rule you can add. In the situation that a player on the losing team did not make a cup the whole game, they then have to sit underneath the table for the whole next game. Furthermore, while they are under the table they have to drink anything any type/amount of alcohol that is given to them.
3. NBA Jam Rule- This rule seems to be pretty well known. In the event that a player makes a shot on two consecutive turns, he then can declare that he is "heating up". if he makes a cup on his next turn he is then declared to be "on fire" and gets to keep shooting til he misses. This rule is cool in the fact that it can both allow a better player to carry his/her team more easily and it can cause big swings in games.
   

Elbow Rule?

As you may or may not know, the majority of these large beer pong tournaments do not enforce the "elbow rule". The "elbow rule" states that a player must keep his elbow behind the table while he shoots. At first I disagreed with these tournaments and could not imagine playing without the elbow rule being enforced. However, after I played a few games without it I realized 2 things:

1. No "elbow rule" did not make the game too much easier. In fact, I would love to hear some responses from readers who tested this out. (An official tournament table is 8 feet)
2. There was no complaining over people leaning. Every single time I go out and play pong there is always one guy whose complaining about how much everyone is leaning. Because tournament rules allow you lean, the playing field remains even. (Unless your Yao Ming)
   

Increase the Amount of Cups you Make Instantly

One of the biggest mistakes that most players make is that they do not aim for individual cups early in the game. They simply throw the ball at the cups with the hope that it will fall into one of them. Next time, try aiming at a specific cup each turn. Don't get discouraged right away if you don't make the cup you are aiming for. There are two benefits to this technique that will pay off. First, you will notice that you are making more adjacent cups because your shots or more accurate. Second, you will be better at making the last few cups because you have trained your eye to aim at one specific cup already.

Can You Make Money Playing Beer Pong?

Our goal here at Beer Pong Nation is to both continue the growth of the game of Beer Pong and increase the skills of our readers. Although Beer Pong is a drinking game, there are many people out there that consider it a sport. Consider the people who go out to the World Series of Beer Pong in Las Vegas every year. These people play for a first place prize of $50,000! This kind of tournament is not just a random occurrence. The WPT (World Pong Tour) hosts a $50,000 championship event in Atlantic City every year, and there are various other leagues around the country that host tournaments that have prizes of over $10,000. Now that we know that it is possible to make good money while drinking, the next question is how good are these guys?