Game Card Four Deck

Four decks, rules wey dem hide. Some decks dey win plenty but lose more; some dey win less and lose less. You fit tell the difference? About 5 minutes, free, no sign-up.

Na Helibrain team write amRobert(English), PhD student for biophysics, don review amDem publish am Dem last review am

How to understand your result

  • Net score: picks from the two good decks minus picks from the two bad decks, for all 100 picks. E dey from −100 reach +100; if e pass 0, e mean say you choose decks wey dey pay over time more. Na the usual score for Iowa Gambling Task [2].
  • Learning curve: na the same score for each group of 20 picks. If the bars dey rise, e mean say you figure out which decks dey pay as you continue.
  • Wetin the decks be: after the game, the result go show which deck be which. Dem dey shuffle their places for screen every game, so this page no fit give the answer away.
  • Compare with other players: once at least 30 people don play, the result go show the share of players wey you beat.

Wetin be good score for Iowa Gambling Task?

Net score wey pass 0 mean say you pick the good decks more times than the bad ones. Plenty healthy adults score lower pass wetin you fit think: among 330 healthy adults from 4 studies of this version of the task, the average net score for 100 picks na 2.5, and about half finish below 0 [2][3].

Quick facts

  • Wetin e measure: decisions when you no sure: learning from wins and losses which choices go pay for long run, when nobody explain the rules [1].
  • Where e come from: Antoine Bechara and im colleagues for University of Iowa publish am for 1994. People wey damage affect part of their frontal lobe (the ventromedial prefrontal cortex) continue to choose the bad decks, while most healthy people learn to avoid dem [1].
  • The trap: decks wey get big wins still get big losses. People like decks wey losses no happen often even when dem dey lose money: among 602 healthy adults for an open data pool, people pick deck B (big wins, rare huge losses) pass the others [2][3].
  • Learning dey slow and different: for the same data, average net score rise from about −3 for the first 20 picks reach about +4 for the last 20, and people differ plenty [3].
Bar chart wey show wetin each kind deck dey pay for every 10 cards. Decks A and B win 1,000 points and lose 1,250 (A for five losses, B for one): net minus 250. Decks C and D win 500 and lose 250 (C for five losses, D for one): net plus 250.
Figure 1. Wins and losses for every 10 cards of each kind of deck for this game, the 1994 task structure [1]. Dem dey shuffle the kinds across the four places for screen every game.

Cite dis page: Game Card Four Deck. Helibrain. 2026. https://helibrain.com/pcm/four-deck-card-game. CC BY 4.0.

How the game dey work

  1. You start with 2,000 points and four decks, dem number am 1 to 4.
  2. Pick card from any deck. Every card dey win points; some cards dey also collect points. The card show both at once.
  3. Continue to pick. The game go end after set number of picks (100). Finish with as many points as you fit.

Each deck get 40 cards; once deck finish, you no fit pick am again, like the original task. Two kinds of deck dey win 100 points for each card but lose 1,250 for every 10 cards; the other two dey win 50 for each card and lose 250 for every 10 cards (Figure 1). Dem dey shuffle losses among every 10 cards, and deck places dey change for each game.

Na our own open version with the same structure as the task wey dem publish, e no be the licensed Iowa Gambling Task™ wey the publisher dey sell. Na our own cards, losses and order, dem dey make am fresh for each game.

Wetin fit affect your score

  • How much you explore. Try every deck early e go help you learn, but each bad card go cost you points.
  • Wetin you notice. E easy to forget big losses wey no happen often in between; plenty people dey go back to deck B because of that [2].
  • Think about long run. The task reward decks wey win across plenty cards, no be just for the next card.
  • Practice. Once you know how e work, second game dey easier. Compare first games with first games.

Wetin this game fit and no fit tell you

Your net score show how quickly you find the better decks for one game. E no be intelligence test and e no fit tell you anything about your brain health: healthy adults dey get very different scores for this task, so low score dey common [2][3]. E no be diagnosis.

Our version keep the structure wey dem publish, but the scores no compare exactly with lab studies: the way dem pay people and the exact card order no be the same [3]. The reference numbers for this page come from our own calculation with the open data of the 330 healthy adults wey play versions with the same structure as our own [3].

Questions people dey ask

Wetin be Iowa Gambling Task?

Iowa Gambling Task na card game wey dem use to study decisions when people no sure; Bechara and im colleagues publish am for 1994. Players dey pick 100 cards from four decks; two decks dey give big wins and bigger losses, two dey give smaller wins and smaller losses. The score show how much person dey favour the good decks [1]. Helibrain game card four deck na open version with the same structure.

Which decks be the good ones?

For Helibrain game card four deck, the good decks dey change place every game, so no fixed answer dey. The good decks dey win less for each card (50 points instead of 100) but dem dey lose far less, so dem come out ahead for every 10 cards. The result screen go tell you which deck be which.

Why plenty people score below zero?

Big wins dey tempt person, and deck wey rare big losses dey happen (like deck B) dey feel good most times. For open data from healthy adults, deck B na the deck wey people like pass, and plenty people no settle for the good decks [2][3]. Negative score dey common and e no tell anything about your health.

Na the real Iowa Gambling Task be this?

No. Iowa Gambling Task na licensed test wey the publisher dey sell. Helibrain game card four deck na our own version with the same structure wey dem publish: same wins and losses for every 10 cards, but na our own card order dem dey shuffle for each game [1]. So the scores near the licensed test scores, but dem no be the same.

Helibrain card game really free?

Yes. Helibrain game card four deck and your full result free: no sign-up, no email, no payment. Helibrain dey make money from im app, wey get free plan and paid plans; you no need the app to play.

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Cite dis page: Game Card Four Deck. Helibrain. 2026. https://helibrain.com/pcm/four-deck-card-game. CC BY 4.0.

How this test works

This game is about learning which choices pay off when nobody tells you the rules. You start with 2,000 points and pick 100 cards from four decks. Every card wins points, and some cards also take points away. Two decks win big but lose more over time. The other two win less but come out ahead. Your score is your picks from the good decks minus your picks from the bad decks. It follows a card task first published in 1994.

Version 1 · Cite this test:

Helibrain (2026). Four-deck card game, v1. https://helibrain.com/four-deck-card-game/methods

Full method →

Sources

  1. Bechara A, Damasio AR, Damasio H, Anderson SW (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition 50(1–3):7–15. doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90018-3
  2. Steingroever H, Wetzels R, Horstmann A, Neumann J, Wagenmakers E-J (2013). Performance of healthy participants on the Iowa Gambling Task. Psychological Assessment 25(1):180–193. doi.org/10.1037/a0029929
  3. Steingroever H, Fridberg DJ, Horstmann A, et al. (2015). Data from 617 healthy participants performing the Iowa Gambling Task: a "many labs" collaboration. Journal of Open Psychology Data 3:e5. doi.org/10.5334/jopd.ak (data: osf.io/8t7rm, CC BY 4.0; the per-block numbers on this page are our own calculation from these data)

How we take make dis page: di Helibrain team write am from di studies wey dem list above, and Robert(English) (PhD student for biophysics) review am on 4 Nọvẹ́mba 2026. We dey update am wen di sources change.