Alcohol tolerance?!

Alcohol tolerance?

so i hardly ever throw up even when i feel super sick. the last time i puked was when i drank beer while taking a medication that your not suppose to take with alcohol. i only had like 4 beers over the course of a few hours so i wasn't super plastered, and there have been times when i've had 8+ beers in like an hour or less. i felt like **** but i didn't puke.
now my boyfriend's bigger than me, older than me, and has been drinking heavily for about 9 years whereas i just started this year. last night we both drank the same amount but he threw up and i didn't. this has happened a few times and i don't understand it. i didn't feel sick at all or that drunk really. it seems like i get drunk faster than him and stay drunk for longer, but i don't ever get to the point where i puke or pass out.
i don't understand this at all? do some people have a natural tolerance? (i'm irish/german background, have some big drinkers in the fam) can anyone explain this?

Really has nothing to do with the booze. Some people throw up easily and some do not. My Husband throws up every time he gets the tummy flu. I can catch the same bug and be sick as a dog but will not throw up. Heck he can cough too hard and it will make him throw up.

Now...having said that...if you are talking "tolerance to alcohol" then yes, people have vastly different tolerances based on everything from body weight, age, history and family tree. I can really overindulge and I am blessed with never having had a hangover in my life...even during my stupid years when I drank way too much at weekend parties. My husband...the 6'2" macho man that he is... gets a horrible headache from a single glass of wine. Of course he is also 50% Nez Pierce (Native American) and I am an Irish girl through and through.