California Kings is a card game that most college aged students will recognize as Circle of Death or Ring of Fire. It's marketed as a drinking game, and if you're consuming alcohol, it will definitely get you messed up, even if you're just drinking beer. Of course you don't have to be drinking alcohol, but if you don't have a beverage of some sort, then the game has nothing to offer you other than the amusement of watching your friends possibly get plastered.

Unlike when you would try to play with your friends and just a regular deck of cards, where you have to spend half an hour beforehand trying to remember what the rules were and having to write them all down, California Kings offers a fantastic solution; having all the rules on their respective cards. Ideally, everybody should be drinking something with about the same alcohol content to make things more fair, but each person can pick their beverage of choice and roll with it. It's also a good idea to have refills nearby, but if you're going to be drinking a lot, you should have to get up for some of them since if you can't walk to get your own refills, you should probably stop drinking.

Like I mentioned before, each card has a rule written on it. This is awesome because you don't have to keep referencing anything else nearby, you can just draw the card, say the action, and go with it. After you shuffle the deck and have your drinks handy, just put the deck in the middle of the circle and start drawing and have fun!

The cards read like this:

- Joker - it's wild. Turn this card into any card in the deck. Use it now or use it later, it's up to you, but for now, pick somebody to drink.
- Ace - Social, everybody raise your glasses and enjoy a drink together. Whoever doesn't raise their glass drinks again.
- 2 - The spades and clubs have you drink for 2 seconds, hearts and diamonds let you make somebody else drink for 2 seconds.
- 3 - Like the 2's, the spades and clubs have you drink for 3 seconds, and the hearts and diamonds let you make somebody else drink for 3 seconds.
- 4 - You are the thumb master! Every time you put your thumb on the table, everybody must do the same. Last person to do it drinks.
- 5 - Five is for guys, so the guys drink.
- 6 - Six is for chicks, so the girls drink.
- 7 - Seven is heaven, reach for the sky and the last person to get their arms up drinks.
- 8 - Eight gives you a drink date, pick anybody at the table to have a drink with you.
- 9 - Nine is rhyme time, pick a work for everyone at the table to rhyme with. Keep rhyming clockwise around the group, first to get stuck, doesn't rhyme, or repeats drinks. If you don't like the person to your left, remember, nothing rhymes with orange.
- 10 - Ten means you have to drink again. Last person(s) to have a drink have to drink again.
- J - Jack means take it back, finish your drink and get yourself and anyone else who needs one a refill.
- Q - Queen is categories, pick any category and go clockwise around the group and everybody has to come up with something that fits into the category. First person to get stuck or repeat drinks.
- K - King lets you make a rule that everybody must follow for the rest of the game. They give you some examples of no cussing, last names only, tap your head before you drink, etc. You can also do stuff like every time you have to drink, you have to drink twice or tap your chin with your drink or make a toast first. It's really limitless.

There are no real "winners" here, unless you count not throwing up. You can tweak the game and keep track of who had to drink the most and figure out a way to come up with a winner, but otherwise, the only real objective is to get through the deck.

These cards are designed similar to traditional playing cards, except instead of any kinds of pictures or designs, they have rules on them. There's a full set Ace to King of all four suits; spades, diamonds, hearts, and clubs. There are two Jokers as well. The cards are made as well as any other set of cards and should last you a long time provided you aren't just trying to destroy them. They'll rip like regular cards, but seem to be pretty resistant to spills.

My friends and I had a blast with this. We played for about 3 hours straight I think, and everybody was able to get in on it. One of my best friends has been sober for a few years now, and I don't think I've come across a single drinking game yet that I haven't been able to tweak to not be exclusive to alcohol. It's not difficult, their glass just gets filled up with whatever non-alcoholic beverage they want. We even got my mom to play.

My personal favorite card is the thumb master one. Partly because I love yelling "I am the thumb mastaahhhhh!!!" and partly because I found it very amusing to watch how much longer people would take to realize my thumb was on the table after a few drinks. Categories was fun because you can get pretty off the wall with them, and rhyming was pretty fun too. If you're feeling like being a dick, nothing rhymes with orange or purple, so feel free to spout those out!

I really can't think of a single bad thing about this game. If you don't have anybody around to drink with, you can even use it to play solitaire. I definitely recommend this for anybody who's been thinking about getting it.