About Higher or Lower
Higher or Lower is a guessing game played with a standard 52-card deck. You see one card and decide whether the next one will be higher or lower. Each correct call adds to your streak, and a single wrong call ends it.
How to play
- A shuffled 52-card deck is dealt one card at a time. The face-up card is on the left and the next card is hidden on the right.
- Choose Higher or Lower. The hidden card is revealed for a moment, then becomes the new face-up card if you were right.
- Aces are low. Ranks run Ace (lowest), 2 to 10, Jack, Queen, King (highest). Suits do not matter.
- If the next card has the same rank as the current one, it counts as a correct guess whichever button you chose.
- Each correct guess adds one to your streak. A wrong guess ends the game and your streak is your score.
- If you get all the way through the deck, a fresh shuffled deck is dealt and your streak continues.
Controls
- Mouse: click the Higher or Lower button under the cards.
- Touch: tap Higher or Lower. The buttons are disabled while a card is being revealed.
- There are no keyboard shortcuts.
Tips and strategy
- Start from the middle. With Aces low, a 7 sits exactly in the middle of the 13 ranks, so anything 6 or below favours Higher and anything 8 or above favours Lower.
- Remember that ties win. A guess is only wrong when the next card is strictly on the other side, which means guessing Higher on an Ace or Lower on a King can never be wrong.
- Track what has already gone. The deck is dealt without replacement, so if most of the high cards have appeared, Lower becomes more likely even from a middle card.
- Pay particular attention on a 7. That is the one card where only the cards already seen can tell you which way the odds lean.
- A run through the whole deck is 51 guesses. If you are counting cards, reset your tally when a new deck is dealt.
Background
Guessing whether the next card is higher or lower is an old card pastime, and it was the basis of television game shows such as Card Sharks in the United States and Play Your Cards Right in the United Kingdom. Although it looks like pure luck, the odds of each guess can be worked out from the current card and the cards already played. That makes it a gentle introduction to conditional probability: the chance of the next card being higher changes as cards leave the deck.
Questions
- What happens if the next card is the same rank?
- A tie counts as a correct guess, so your streak goes up whichever button you pressed.
- Are Aces high or low?
- Aces are low, below the 2. The King is the highest card.
- What happens when the deck runs out?
- A new deck is shuffled and dealt, and your streak carries on.