Red Black Higher Lower starts with the dealer exposing a card. Each turn consists of the dealer calling “three, two, one, bid”. On “bid”, each player may do one of five things:

• Raise a hand, flat and vertically with the palm out. This indicates the “Red Hand of Ulster”, and a belief that the next card will be red.
• Raise a hand with a closed fist in a “black power” salute. This indicates a belief that the next card will be black.
• Raise a hand with a closed fist and a raised thumb, indicating that the next card will be higher than the current one (aces are high).
• Raise a hand with a closed fist with the thumb down, indicating that the next card will be lower than the current one.
• Raise a hand with a closed fist with a thumb held horizontally, indicating that the next card will be the same rank as the current one.

The dealer then exposes the next card.

Everyone drinks a pencil for each person (including themselves) who is wrong in the same way as themselves. Note that consecutive cards of the same rank are always “wrong” (a horizontal thumb always “loses”), but may minimise fines due to the number of players “agreeing”.