Odds and evens (hand game)

Odds and evens is a simple two-player hand game that mixes chance with quick reflexes, used both as a way to make an arbitrary decision and as entertainment in its own right. In its most common form, both players simultaneously thrust out a hand showing some number of fingers, and depending on which player called odd or even beforehand, the outcome is decided by whether the combined total of fingers shown is an odd or even number. A related variant has one player conceal small objects in a closed fist while the other guesses whether the hidden quantity is odd or even. The finger-throwing version is known by several other names, including swords, choosies and pick. The game descends from the much older games of morra and par impar, played by the ancient Greeks as artiazein and by the Romans as ludere par impar, and it remains common today among children in Europe, the United States and Brazil. Because the outcome depends entirely on the simultaneous, uncoordinated choices of both players, the game is treated as a game of complete chance despite its simple hand-based mechanic.