On the first beat, the players clap their palms on their thighs or the table. On the second beat, they clap their hands together. On the third beat the fingers of the right hand are clicked, and on the fourth beat the fingers of the left hand are clicked. The sequence then returns to clapping the thighs/table. The entire sequence takes one and a half to two seconds.

Keeping time in this way, after the first iteration of the cycle (when the first beat, hitting the thighs, is reached again), the player who started will call out “give” (in sync with the thigh clapping), “me...” (in sync with the hand clapping). The hand hand clicking beats are then undertaken with no calling out. Throughout the game, where players are required to call anything, whatever is said must be spoken with one word for each of the first two beats, and nothing said for the second two beats. Multiple sequences may be used to say anything longer than two words — although long words may be broken to multiple beats if necessary, and several short words are sometimes compacted to a single beat.

The starting player will, by this point, have picked a category. The aim of the game is to go through all the players, each naming an item which has not previously been mentioned in the category. Whichever player fails to think of an original category member in time stops the round, and drinks a fine. Someone else then starts, either with a new category, or with a traditional “Give me” (click click) “more of the same” (click click) “continuing with” (click click).

When the starting player has thought of a category, it will also be called out on the beats, after the “give me”. Most categories are “names of...”, “types of...” and so on (with the occasional “things you find... in bottles...”). The originator has to give an example, so “starting with” (click click) followed by an example is appended. Hence “Give me” (click click) “names of” (click click) “stations on” (click click) “the Circle Line” (click click) “starting with” (click click) “Liverpool Street” would be a typical start.

Having got this far, the next player in the prescribed direction of play must also call an element in the category (e.g. “King's Cross”) and the next person must follow on. This continues until someone fails (often because the previous player chose the same category entry that the current player was about to say — “always have two” — or because of ineptitude — “always have one”)..

If it is doubted that there are sufficient elements in a category to allow all the players involved to have at least one turn, a player may challenge the originator by shouting “Challenge” before play passes to the next player. The originator must then name a different member of their category (on the beats) for each player. If they cannot do so, a large fine is incurred. If they succeed, the player who challenged must drink a (normal) fine.

While “give me” (click click) “ways of” (click click) “amigossing a pint” (click click) “starting with” (click click) glug has been known, it relies on people laughing too much to challenge.

A more intellectual variant involves naming elements from a category without explicitly naming the category in advance; a challenge may then require the most recent player to justify why the play was legal, by identifying a consistent category which includes all previous responses.

If this is insufficiently challenging, there is also a trappist variant in which players are obliged to mime a response (with or without the category being stated explicitly).