HiLo: How It Works, Odds and Payouts

HiLo is a card-guessing cash-out game. You see a card and guess whether the next one will be higher or lower. Each correct guess multiplies your payout by a price based on how likely that guess was, and you can cash out whenever you like. A wrong guess ends the round and the bet is lost.

Coins are virtual and have no cash value, and "cash out" only means locking in a multiplier on your bet.

How a round works

1. Set your bet and tap Start. A first card is dealt.
2. Choose Higher, Lower or Skip. Each button shows its win chance.
3. The next card is turned. A correct guess raises your multiplier; a wrong one ends the round.
4. Cash out between guesses to keep the multiplier shown. A round lasts up to 50 guesses.

Ranks run from Ace (low) to King (high), and suits do not matter. Every card is drawn independently, with each rank equally likely, so there is no deck to count.

The tie rule

Ties favour you, with two necessary exceptions. If the next card has the same rank as the current one, your guess wins, whether you chose Higher or Lower. But from an Ace, Higher means strictly higher, and from a King, Lower means strictly lower. Without that rule those guesses would be sure wins and could never pay more than 1x.

Chances and multipliers from each card

The chance of a guess is the number of winning ranks divided by 13, and a single guess pays 0.97 divided by that chance.

The safest guess on the board is 92.31%, so you can never do better than 1.05x on one step. Safe-looking guesses pay very little, and the guess with the best payoff is the one least likely to win.

How the multiplier grows

Your payout is 0.97 divided by the combined chance of all the guesses you have won. Suppose you start on a 7 and guess Higher (53.85%), then land on a 10 and guess Lower (76.92%). The chance of both is 0.5385 x 0.7692 = 41.42%, so the multiplier is 0.97 / 0.4142 = 2.34x. A 200-coin bet cashed out there pays 468 coins.

You can check each step by multiplying your chance of getting that far by the multiplier: it comes to 0.97 every time.

Skips

You may skip the current card up to 30 times in a round. A skip turns a new card without a guess, costs nothing and leaves the multiplier unchanged. It looks like an edge: if the card is an awkward 7, skip until you get an Ace. It is not an edge, because the game prices each guess at its true chance. An Ace-Higher guess wins 92.31% of the time but pays only 1.05x, so the easy card adds almost nothing to your multiplier.

Max win and caps

If you keep guessing, the multiplier can climb to the 50,000x payout limit; the server refuses a guess that would pass it, and you then cash out or skip. No round pays more than 50,000x the bet or 250,000,000 coins. The odds page lists these limits.

What is the same as other cash-out games

HiLo uses the same 97% pricing as Mines: how to play, odds and RTP and Coin Flip: How It Works, Odds and Payouts, but its risk changes with the card in front of you, which Mines changes with the tile count and Coin Flip never changes. How cash-out games work explains the pricing rule, and Gambler's Fallacy and Streak Myths in Casino Games covers why a run of high cards says nothing about the next one.

Tips that hold up

• Higher on a low card is not a streak system. It is simply a guess with a high chance and a low payout.
• A run of highs does not make a low due. Each card is independent of the one before.
• Skips give control, not an edge. Use them if a card makes you uncomfortable, but know that the average does not change.
• Cashing out early is a style choice. It trades big swings for steadier results at the same 97%.

Play with limits

Rounds can run on for dozens of guesses, so decide how long you want to play before you start. See Play Safely in Cashout Arcade: Limits and Breaks for tools to set limits. Cashout Arcade is for adults aged 18+, with virtual coins and no real-money prizes.