actfap

Free Hi-Lo

One card face up, a guess at the next one and a cash-out multiplier, played with chips that are worth nothing, with the odds of both guesses printed beside the card.

Play chips

1,000

No real money, no prizes, nothing to buy.

The card showing

No round yet

Correct guesses
0 of 8
The round ends at the last one
Chance of getting this far
100%
With the guesses made
Multiplier
None yet
Shown rounded down
Cash-out value
0
On a bet of 10

Pick a bet, then deal a card.

Session coach

Last round

Nothing played yet. After each of your rounds the coach says what the round cost and what decided it.

Decide the cost before you start

Gambling is entertainment with a price, like a concert ticket. The useful question is not how much you might win but how much the evening is allowed to cost. Pick that number first, and treat reaching it as the end of the session. You can set one below and the coach will hold you to it.

Next bet

10 chips at a 1% house edge: an expected cost of 0.1 chips.

This table is for practice and entertainment only. How to keep gambling safe

What each guess is worth

Ranks in the deck
13
Each equally likely, every card
Average return, wherever you stop
99%
The house keeps 1%

The obvious guess pays little because it is likely, and the long shot pays a lot because it is not. Each guess multiplies the cash-out value by 13 divided by the number of ranks it wins on, so chance times multiplier is exactly 1 on every card. No guess is better value than the other. The house takes its 1% once, on the bet, and after that every guess is an even trade.

Both guesses on every card: chance, and what it multiplies by
CardHigher or sameLower or same
Ace12/13 ×1.08331/13 ×13
212/13 ×1.08332/13 ×6.5
311/13 ×1.18183/13 ×4.3333
410/13 ×1.34/13 ×3.25
59/13 ×1.44445/13 ×2.6
68/13 ×1.6256/13 ×2.1666
77/13 ×1.85717/13 ×1.8571
86/13 ×2.16668/13 ×1.625
95/13 ×2.69/13 ×1.4444
104/13 ×3.2510/13 ×1.3
Jack3/13 ×4.333311/13 ×1.1818
Queen2/13 ×6.512/13 ×1.0833
King1/13 ×1312/13 ×1.0833

On an ace the first column is plain "higher" and the second is "same". On a king the first is "same" and the second is plain "lower". Work out the expected value of a guess yourself

This session

Rounds played
0
Chips bet
0
Net chips
0
Expected at a 1% edge
0

The expected figure is 1% of the chips you have bet on finished rounds, whichever guesses you made and wherever you stopped. A short session can land far from it in either direction, and further the more long shots you take and the longer you let a round run.

Built by Alexander Korsager · last updated October 3, 2026 · corrections

Returned on average, whichever guesses you make
99%
House edge, taken once per round
1%
Ranks, each equally likely on every card
13
Correct guesses before a round cashes itself out
8

01 / 03

A card with both guesses priced

Hi-lo looks like a game of judgment.

A card is turned face up, you guess whether the next one will be higher or lower, and each correct guess raises a multiplier you can cash out. With a 2 showing, "higher" feels like free chips. This table exists to show what that guess is actually worth.

With a 2 showing

  • Higher or same

    Right 92.31% of the time×1.0833

  • Lower or same

    Right 15.38% of the time×6.5

The bar is the share of the 13 ranks the guess wins on. The gold figure is what a correct guess multiplies the cash-out value by.

With a 2 showing, "higher or same" is right 92.31% of the time (12 of the 13 ranks) and multiplies the cash-out value by 1.0833.

On the same card, "lower or same" is right 15.38% of the time (2 of the 13 ranks) and multiplies the cash-out value by 6.5. Multiply each chance by its multiplier and you get exactly 1 both times. The obvious guess pays little because it is likely, the long shot pays a lot because it is not, and neither is better value. The house takes 1% of the bet once per round, so every round returns 99% on average whichever guesses you make and wherever you stop.

Every guess is priced by its chance
ShowingGuessWins onMultiplies by
AceHigher12 of 13×1.0833
Same1 of 13×13
2Higher or same12 of 13×1.0833
Lower or same2 of 13×6.5
7Higher or same7 of 13×1.8571
Lower or same7 of 13×1.8571
KingSame1 of 13×13
Lower12 of 13×1.0833

A guess that wins on fewer ranks multiplies by more, in exact proportion: 13 divided by the ranks it wins on.

02 / 03

Rules at this table

  • Ace showing

    Higher
    12 of 13 ranks
    Same
    1 of 13 ranks

    The longer shot multiplies by

    ×13

    Same, right 7.69% of the time

  • 7 showing

    Higher or same
    7 of 13 ranks
    Lower or same
    7 of 13 ranks

    The longer shot multiplies by

    ×1.8571

    Both guesses win on the same number of ranks

  • King showing

    Same
    1 of 13 ranks
    Lower
    12 of 13 ranks

    The longer shot multiplies by

    ×13

    Same, right 7.69% of the time

  • Cards come from an endless deck: each of the 13 ranks is equally likely on every card, whatever came before. Suits do not matter. The ace is low and the king is high.
  • Bets are 5, 10, 25, 100 chips. The bet is taken when the first card is dealt.
  • Guess "higher or same" or "lower or same". A card of the same rank wins either guess.
  • With an ace showing, "higher or same" could not lose, so the guesses are plain "higher" and "same". With a king showing they are "same" and plain "lower".
  • A correct guess multiplies the cash-out value by 13 divided by the number of ranks the guess wins on. A wrong guess ends the round and loses the bet.
  • After any correct guess you may cash out for the bet times the current multiplier. There is nothing to cash out before the first guess, and a round cashes itself out after 8 correct guesses.
  • Tab
    Reach the two guesses
    Space
    Make the guess in focus
    Enter
    Make the guess in focus, deal a card or cash out

FAQ

Is this hi-lo game played for real money?
No. The table uses play chips that have no value, cannot be bought, and cannot be cashed out or exchanged for anything. If you run out, you are handed another stack for free. There is no account and nothing to download.
Is the likely guess the better guess in hi-lo?
No. Each guess multiplies the cash-out value by 13 divided by the number of ranks it wins on, so its chance times its multiplier is exactly 1. With a 2 showing, "higher or same" is right 92.31% of the time (12 of the 13 ranks) and multiplies the cash-out value by 1.0833, while "lower or same" is right 15.38% of the time (2 of the 13 ranks) and multiplies the cash-out value by 6.5. The likely guess wins more often and adds less. The average is the same.
Is there a best time to cash out in hi-lo?
No. Every stopping point returns 99% of the bet on average, because the house takes its 1% once, on the bet, and every guess after that is an even trade. Cashing out early gives small returns often. Letting a round run gives large returns rarely. No stopping rule makes the game cheaper or beats it.
Do the cards already dealt change the odds of the next card?
Not at this table. The deck is endless, so every card is one of 13 equally likely ranks whatever has come out. A run of high cards does not make a low one due. A version dealt from a real, finite deck would be different: there the cards already seen do shift the odds a little.

How this game works

Each card is drawn in your browser as one of 13 equally likely ranks, independently of every card before it, with a suit drawn separately for show. The next card is not decided until you guess.

A guess that wins on w of the 13 ranks is right w times in 13 and multiplies the cash-out value by 13 divided by w, so its chance times its multiplier is exactly 1. On a 7, both guesses win on 7 ranks and multiply by 1.8571. On an ace, "higher" wins on 12 and multiplies by 1.0833, and "same" wins on 1 and multiplies by 13. A king is the mirror image, with "lower" and "same".

The house edge is applied once per round, not once per guess. The cash-out multiplier is 99% times the product of every guess's own multiplier, so the first correct guess on any card returns 99% of the bet on average and each guess after it is an even trade on what you could cash out. The test suite checks every card with either guess using whole-number arithmetic, and then checks whole strategies, sensible and senseless, over every possible sequence of cards: each returns exactly 99%. The expected value calculator does the same sum for any bet you describe.

Rounding goes one way. A cash-out pays the bet times the exact multiplier, rounded down to a hundredth of a chip, and the multipliers on screen are rounded down too (to four decimal places, or two on the largest). That costs less than a hundredth of a chip a round, which is at most 0.2% of the smallest bet, and never moves anything in the player's favor.

The expected figure in the session panel is the edge multiplied by the chips you have bet on finished rounds.

Limits

  • This is one invented table with a 1% edge taken once per round. It is not a copy of any real game. Real versions set their own edge, some take it on every guess so that longer rounds cost more, and many deal from a finite deck.
  • A round stops at 8 correct guesses. The largest multiplier is 807,573,413.79×, for guessing "same" on an ace or a king 8 times running, a chance of 1 in 815,730,721. On a 100-chip bet that is 80,757,341,379 chips, and no real operator would pay it uncapped.
  • The cards are drawn with your browser's ordinary random number generator. This table does not publish seeds, so a round cannot be verified after the fact the way a provably fair game can.
  • Rounds are fast. A real stake at this pace runs through far more bets per hour than a table game does, and the 1% is charged on each one.
  • Play chips do not feel like money. Cashing out early and stopping after a loss are both harder with a real stake.

This is a practice game for adults. It has no real-money play and links to none. Hi-lo played with money keeps its edge on every bet, and no guess or cash-out point changes that: on this table each of them returns 99% on average, a fraction less after rounding, and never more.

Gambling can cause serious harm. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential and open 24/7, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), or chat at ncpgambling.org/chat.

03 / 03

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