How to play
- A card lies on the table.
- Guess: will the next card be higher or lower? Tap the button, or use the up and down arrows on a keyboard.
- Right, and your streak grows by one. The same rank, and nothing happens – you keep going. Wrong, and the streak is over.
- How long can you go? Your best streak is kept on this device.
The ace counts high, above the king. Tick Ace is low to play it below the two, the way some families do.
The odds of every guess
Tick Show the odds and the page counts the cards still in the deck: the chance that the next card is higher, the same or lower. After a seven the guess is a coin toss; after a two or a king it is almost a sure thing – unless the deck says otherwise, because the cards that have gone are not coming back until the deck is shuffled again.
That is the whole trick of the game, and a good lesson in probability: the more cards you remember, the better your guesses get.
Where it comes from
Higher or lower is one of the oldest card guessing games, played with a single deck at the kitchen table. It was the heart of the TV game shows “Card Sharks” in the United States and “Play Your Cards Right” in Britain, where contestants guessed their way along a row of giant cards.
Play it with a group
- Pass the phone round: each player guesses until they are wrong, and the longest streak wins the round.
- Play in teams: the team agrees on every guess out loud.
- For a classroom: the class votes higher or lower, and somebody works out the odds on the board first.
Nothing to install
It all runs in your browser, on this device: no app, no account, nothing sent anywhere. Your settings and the game in progress are still here after a reload.