Play Your Cards Right hire · a big-screen game
“Higher… or lower?” A row of giant playing cards fills the big screen, and a team has to call whether the next card beats the last. Ride your luck along the line and you clear the row. One wrong call and the card flips, the buzzer sounds, and the turn is gone.
Runs at the tables so nearly every table plays, or at the front with a few volunteers. Your call, or mine on the night.
How a round plays
Each round opens with a number question to decide who plays the cards. After that it is pure nerve, the whole room shouting higher or lower while the team sweats the flip.
A light-hearted number question opens each round, the closest answer takes control of the cards.
The first card turns face up. The team calls whether the next one is higher or lower, and the room joins in.
Clear a card and they can push their luck to the next, or stick and bank their place on the row.
A wrong call flips the busting card for all to see and ends the turn. First team to clear their row wins.
On the big screen
Every screen on this page is my own software running live, captured at the size a projector throws. It is one of nine big-screen games in the same app, run from a phone in my hand at the microphone, with the sound, the strikes and the scores built in.
Three ways to play
Every game I run can be played three ways, and I pick the way that suits the room, the timings and the layout on the night: as a show at the front, table against table, or with every single guest playing on their own phone. Mix them across an evening and nobody spends the night watching.
As a show
The television version. A number question decides who plays, then a team calls higher or lower along a row of five giant cards on the big screen while the room shouts the call with them. One wrong call flips the busting card, the buzzer sounds and the turn is gone.
Best for: a fast, dramatic burst between longer gamesAt the tables
The version I run most. Every table gets a row, every table calls higher or lower on its own turn, and the whole room is playing rather than watching two teams. Tables that stick early keep their place; tables that push on risk the lot. The room noise is extraordinary.
Best for: dinners where the whole room should be in itOn the app
On phones this is where Side Bets shines: before the team at the board makes their call, three hundred people have staked play money on higher or lower, and the room’s odds go up on the big screen. Then the card flips.
Best for: whole-company nightsBuilt for the room
I customise every game for the audience in front of me: the questions, the answers, and the way I present them. The same format is a completely different show for a room of graduates in their twenties and a room of chief executives, and it should be. I write for the people who will actually be there, then I speak into the listening on the night: I read what the room is giving back and change gear to match it.
How many cups of tea does the average Brit drink a day?
How many people applied for your job?Fast, funny, and the closest guess plays.
How many customers did the business serve last year?
How many miles has this team flown since January?Numbers from the company itself, with the real answer on screen.
Send me the year’s stories, the in-jokes, the departments and the industry. The rounds are built from them, so the answers land in a way no off-the-shelf pack ever can.
The words on the screen are half of it. How I present them is the rest, and I pitch the pace, the teasing and the tone to the room that has turned up, not the one on the brief.
Eight hundred events across festivals, awards, conferences and dinners means I have hosted every kind of room. If the mood is not what anyone expected, I change the style on the spot, and often the questions too.
In the running order
The palate cleanser between longer games, or the fast finale when the room wants one last shout.
A few minutes a round. Three rounds at the tables fills fifteen minutes and gets every table a turn.
Open the night with Family Fortunes, run this in the middle and let Side Bets ride on every call.
“One call can win or lose the whole round. A room will genuinely roar at a lucky flip, it is the most suspenseful few minutes in the set.”
All sixteen games
Five rounds the whole room plays on their phones, nine big-screen games with teams at the board, and two that need no screen at all: a phone on a forehead, and a coin. The screen games are all my own software, run from one screen, so I can switch format the moment the room needs a lift. Tap any game to see exactly how it plays.
Vote with the room, score for matching it
How it plays →On your phone
Three stories, one true, the room decides
How it plays →On your phone
A knockout quiz down to the last few standing
How it plays →On your phone
Play money on what happens next on stage
How it plays →On your phone
Everyone answers, the lowest scores are cut
How it plays →Big screen
Two teams, one survey board, three strikes
How it plays →Big screen
Categories, buzzers and picture rounds
How it plays →Big screenThis pageHigher or lower on a row of giant cards
You are hereBig screen
Fill the gap, match the room’s funniest answers
How it plays →Big screen
A hidden phrase, one letter at a time
How it plays →Big screen
Describe it without saying it, against the clock
How it plays →Big screen
The whole room up, hunting and mixing
How it plays →Big screen
The conveyor belt of prizes to remember
How it plays →Big screen
Rave bingo with dance breaks and forfeits
How it plays →No screen needed
Charades with a phone on your forehead, table against table
How it plays →No screen needed
One coin, the whole room on its feet, one winner
How it plays →Almost all of these can be played as a show, at the tables or on the app, and the questions are written around your company before the night. Not sure which mix suits your event? Tell me the room and I will suggest a running order.
What’s included
It is short, sharp and dramatic, which makes it the ideal palate-cleanser between longer games, a burst of shared tension that resets the room. If you want the classic survey game alongside it, see Family Fortunes hire; both run from the same screen, so switching takes a tap.
What clients say
Kevin recently hosted a company corporate event and proved to be the consummate professional throughout the evening. He has the unique ability to read a room and keep everyone happy.
Kevin hosted our staff conference event this year which was fantastic. He brought an energy and enthusiasm with him and played a really important part in getting people engaged in the day.
Thank you Kevin for hosting our Christmas party in December 2025. The team had an amazing time. We really liked the intertwining of awards and the game. Everyone had a brilliant time and Kevin was fantastic.
Good to know
Each round starts with a light-hearted number question, ‘how many cups of tea does the average Brit drink a day?’, and the closest team plays the cards.
Yes, both teams have their own row on screen, and the first to clear their cards wins.
It is quick by design, a few minutes a round, so it slots neatly between the bigger games or works as a fast finale.
Instantly. Everyone understands higher or lower, so there is nothing to explain and the whole room joins in the calls.
Yes. Every game I run can be played three ways: as a show with teams at the front, table against table, or with every guest on their own phone through Play Along. I pick the mix that suits your room and the running order, and I often use all three in one night.
Fees are quoted individually for the date, the venue and the length of the show. Send the numbers and the running order and I will send a quote.
Enquiries
Tell me about your event and I will bring Play Your Cards Right to your room. Hosted right across the UK.
