Play the Hi-Lo card game online with friends

What is Hi-Lo?

Higher or lower is one of the simplest card games there is. Ping44 turns it into a press-your-luck betting game. Everyone at the table calls the same cards at the same time, but each player runs their own streak and chooses their own moment to walk away.

That's what makes it so tense with friends: one player banks after two cards, another keeps going for six, and everyone watches the reveal together.

How to play Hi-Lo

Ace is high and 2 is low. Suits don't matter.

1. Each round starts with a freshly shuffled 52-card deck and one card turned face up.
2. Choose your initial bet and call Higher or Lower. You can type any whole number of chips you have, or tap a quick pick (the host's default bet, 10%, 20% or 50% of your chips, or all in). Or press Fold to sit the round out.
3. Once everyone still playing has called, or the betting window closes, the next card is turned over.
4. A card of the same rank loses: if you called Higher on a 7, another 7 is a miss.
5. Call it right and your run's cash-out value grows by the multiplier on the button you chose. The new card becomes the one to beat.
6. Now choose: Cash out to bank the cash-out value, or call Higher or Lower again with the whole run riding on the next card. A call, once made, is final.
7. Call it wrong and your run is over: you lose the chips you bet, and everything the run had built up is gone.
8. The round ends when everyone has cashed out, missed or folded.

Multipliers come from the deck

Each button shows its multiplier and how many cards left in the deck would win it. The multiplier is the number of cards that could come up divided by the number that would win, so the riskier call always pays more.

For example, with a 7 face up and 51 cards left, 28 are higher, 20 are lower and 3 are sevens. Higher shows 1.82x and Lower 2.55x. Bet 100 on Higher, see a Queen, and your run is worth 182 (winnings are rounded down to whole chips).

Cards already turned over in a round stay out, so the counts and multipliers change after every card. When no card left could win a call, such as Higher on an Ace, that call can't be made.

When the window closes

• A call you've already made stands.
• A run with at least one right call is cashed out for you.
• If you hadn't bet yet, you sit the round out.

Hi-Lo settings on Ping44

The host sets up the table in the lobby:

• Show bet selections: off by default, so other players see only "Bet placed" until the card is revealed, not whether you went higher or lower. Stakes and streaks stay visible. Turn it on to show everyone's calls before the reveal.
• Starting chips: anywhere from 100 to 50,000. The default is 1,000.
• Default bet: 50, 100, 200 or 500 chips. The default is 100.
• Betting window: 10, 15, 20, 30 or 45 seconds for each call. The default is 20.
• Game length: unlimited, or 5, 10 or 20 rounds.
• No timer for first round: the very first betting window waits for every player, handy for teaching newcomers.
• Auto-start next round: the next round opens 30 seconds after the results. The host can pause the countdown, or turn it off and start each round with Next round.

Hi-Lo needs at least two connected players. If you run out of chips, you sit out the next round and then come back with the starting chips. When everyone has run out, the game ends, and Play again starts a fresh one with everyone back at the starting chips.

Scoring on Ping44

Every run is settled by the server when it ends, and the result goes into your room score:

• Cash out: plus your profit, the cash-out value minus your bet.
• Miss: minus your bet.
• Fold or no bet: nothing changes.

A run that ends in profit counts as a win in your stats. Room scores add up across every game you play in the room, including blackjack and baccarat.

Tips and strategy

• Read the counts, not just the card. "28 higher, 3 equal lose" tells you exactly how likely a call is, using the cards really left in the deck.
• Middle cards are the hardest. On a 7 or 8 neither call is safe. On a 2, 3, King or Ace the safe-looking call is very likely to come in, but its multiplier is small: on a King, Lower is right 44 times in 51 and pays 1.16x.
• Equal ranks are your enemy. Three cards of the same rank are usually still in the deck, and every one of them is a miss.
• Each press risks everything the run has won. A streak of five can vanish on the sixth card, so decide your target before the round starts.
• Bank on a bad card. If the new card is a middle rank like a 7 or 8, that's often the moment to cash out.

How to start a game of Hi-Lo on Ping44

1. Go to ping44.com, sign in (free, with email or Google) and create a room.
2. Share the invite link, the room code or the QR code. Friends can join as guests by just picking a name.
3. In the lobby, choose Card, then Hi-Lo in Game settings.
4. Set the starting chips, default bet, betting window and game length, and choose whether calls are shown.
5. Start the game once at least two players are in.

Why play Hi-Lo on Ping44

• Everyone plays the same cards. Up to 100 people call each card together and see the reveal at the same moment.
• Honest odds. Multipliers come straight from the cards left in the deck, shuffled by the server with a cryptographically secure random source.
• Private calls by default, so nobody can just copy the player who's on a streak.
• No real money. Chips are virtual, have no cash value and can't be bought.
• Voice and text chat in the room.
• More casino games in the same room. Switch to blackjack, baccarat, poker or any of the other card games without leaving.
• Free, with no ads, in the browser, with nothing to install.

Frequently asked questions