What Does Your Favourite Pres Game Say About You?

Welcome to my completely unscientific guide to your drinking habits, questionable decisions and the role you play in the group.

There are two types of people at pres: those who want a few drinks followed by a manageable walk to the club, and those who treat pre-drinks like the main event. Your favourite drinking game reveals which category you fall into, what your intentions are for the night, and how likely you are to make it past midnight.

Here is what your choice of pres game says about you.

1. Ring of Fire

You can’t have a pres without turning it into a two-hour event.

Everyone has to join in, the rules must be followed, and somehow there’s always an argument about whether the last King actually counts. You planned to leave at 10, but suddenly it’s 11:30 and you’re introducing eight new house rules nobody will remember.

What started as one quick round has become a personal commitment to finishing the entire deck.

Diagnosis: Competitive, loud and incapable of having a quick pres.

2. Jai Ho

You have places to be, people to see and a dance floor that isn’t going to occupy itself. Small talk is unnecessary. Rules are negotiable. The countdown has begun.

While everyone else debates which game to play, you’ve already finished yours. Pres is simply a means to an end, and that end is getting into the club as soon as humanly possible.

Your efficiency is impressive, although you’re also the reason everyone needs to sit down for twenty minutes before leaving.

Diagnosis: Zero patience. Maximum efficiency. Questionable time management.

3. King’s Cup

You love a game with structure, rules and just enough authority to make you feel important.

Before anyone has even sat down, you’re explaining the rules. Every card has a meaning, every rule matters, and anyone who gets something wrong will hear about it.

You probably consider yourself organised, competitive and good at bringing people together. Your friends, however, might argue that you take a drinking game far too seriously.

Nobody appointed you in charge, but apparently you’re the only person who can be trusted. Introduce a new rule halfway through, and you’ll spend the next ten minutes explaining why it’s completely unacceptable.

Diagnosis: Control issues disguised as organisational skills.

4. Paranoia

You don’t want a drinking game. You want answers.

Gossip, awkward silences and finding out what people actually think of each other are what keep you entertained. You’ll ask an innocent-sounding question, watch everyone exchange concerned looks, then act surprised when someone gets offended.

A whispered answer is never enough. You’ll spend the next twenty minutes trying to work out what was said. If someone refuses to drink, you’ve already convinced yourself the answer was about you.

You call it getting to know your friends. Everyone else calls it an interrogation.

Diagnosis: Nosy, suspicious and definitely not to be trusted with a secret.

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5. Never Have I Ever

You’re either very experienced or very interested in finding out how experienced everyone else is.

Discovering things about your friends is half the fun, particularly when the conversation becomes increasingly inappropriate. Every round starts innocently enough before someone reveals something that changes the entire group’s opinion of them.

When it’s your turn, you always seem to have a suspicious number of stories ready. Whether you’re telling the truth is another matter entirely.

By the end, everyone knows far too much about each other. Someone will inevitably say, “I actually can’t believe you’ve done that.”

Diagnosis: Overshares for a living. Regrets nothing until the morning.

6. Cup Pong

You take yourself far too seriously for someone throwing a ping-pong ball into plastic cups.

Perhaps you’ve practiced enough to be genuinely good. Alternatively, you’ve watched one TikTok and decided you’re the best player in the flat. Either way, you insist on choosing your own team and develop an inexplicable routine before every shot.

The moment you start winning, you’re unbearable. Lose, however, and it’s suddenly the table, the lighting, the cups or your teammate’s fault.

Diagnosis: Competitive, overconfident and convinced you could have gone professional.

7. Boat Race

You thrive in a group setting, especially when it involves shouting, terrible coordination and blaming your teammates for any losses.

Team selection is serious business. You’ll organise everyone into positions and become far too invested in a race that has absolutely no bearing on your life.

Perhaps you’re the person keeping the team together. More likely, you’re screaming at everyone to hurry up despite having just messed up your own turn.

Diagnosis: Treats a drinking game like a team-building exercise.

8. Pyramids

You love a game that involves absolutely no trust, terrible memory and the ability to lie directly to your friends’ faces.

Throughout the game, you’ll convince everyone you’ve got the card they need, even when you haven’t got a clue what’s in your hand. People take your word for it, confidently call your bluff, and then you’re personally offended when someone does the same to you.

Somehow, you remember exactly who lied to you three rounds ago but conveniently forget your own lies.

Diagnosis: Manipulative, untrustworthy and far too pleased with yourself.

The Verdict

Your favourite pres game says less about your drinking ability and more about the role you play in your friendship group.

Every flat has the Jai Ho enthusiast trying to get everyone moving, the King’s Cup rulebook and the Paranoia player who knows everyone’s business. Somewhere in the background, the Ring of Fire loyalist is still insisting that one more round won’t hurt.

Perhaps your favourite game really does reveal your personality. Or maybe you’ve simply found a game that lets you behave exactly as you always do.

The real question isn’t which game you play. 

It’s what game came to mind when you read the title?