Plinko picker

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Choices — one per line, up to 24 Sound effects

Running order

Winner

No race yet

Press Start race. Each line above becomes one marble.

Edit the list, then start. Every marble is identical, so the result is down to the pins.

Plinko turns a choice into a single drop. Your choices become the slots at the bottom of the board; one ball falls through a field of pegs and round bumpers, and the slot it settles in is the answer.

What is on the course

A field of 17 staggered rows of pegs, too tight for the ball to fall straight through, so every drop bounces its own way.
Three round bumpers that kick the ball sideways with a pop.
Narrow slots at the bottom, one per choice, with the name above each. The winning slot lights up.
A slow-motion last stretch, so you can watch the ball pick its slot.

How the race stays fair

A plinko board is naturally lopsided: the middle slots catch the ball more often than the edges. To keep it fair, which choice sits in which slot is shuffled with your browser's secure random numbers before every drop. A middle slot is likely, but any choice is equally likely to be sitting in it. In 800 test drops with eight choices, every choice was picked about as often as any other, even though the slots themselves were not equally likely.

When to use it

Picking tonight's dinner from a short list, or a name from a team.
Drawing an order for a game, taking each winner out and racing again.

Prefer a wheel?

What is kept. Your list is saved in this browser so it is there next visit. It is never sent anywhere.

Read the rest — 7 more sections

Turning a list into a plinko board

Plinko works the other way round from a race. Instead of many marbles on one course, you get a single ball and a row of slots along the bottom of the board. Each line you type becomes a slot with its name printed above it, and wherever the ball finally settles is the pick. Five or six choices make a board that is easy to read; with up to twenty-four, the slots get narrow but the drop works the same way.

There is no first-or-last option here because only one thing is chosen. If you want to pick a loser instead, simply write the list so that landing in a slot means that person takes the task, and treat the result accordingly.

Following the ball down

Press Drop the ball and a single ball is released from the top. It passes through a field of staggered pegs, bounces off round bumpers that kick it sideways, and drops toward the slots. The last part of the fall plays in slow motion so you can watch it hunt for a slot rather than missing the moment it lands.

The tension is part of the point. A ball can look committed to one side and then be knocked back across the board by a single bumper. Because the path is made of many small bounces, nobody at the table can call the winner until the ball stops.

Why the middle slots are not an advantage

Anyone who has watched a plinko board knows the ball tends to land near the middle more often than at the edges. That is a property of the board itself, and it would normally make the middle choices look favoured. Here the names are shuffled across the slots with secure random numbers before every drop, so the slot that is likely changes owner each time.

The practical result is that the board has a shape you can watch and enjoy, while the choice that sits in the busy middle slot is different on each drop. Your first line is no more likely to win than your last, however the ball happens to behave.

Good uses for a single drop

Plinko suits decisions with one answer: where to eat tonight, which film to put on, who gets the last slice, or which of several chores to tackle first. It is quicker than a race because there is only one ball, which makes it a good choice when people are hungry and patience is short.

It also works as a gentle way to settle a disagreement. When two people each want a different option, adding both plus a couple of neutral ideas and letting the ball choose removes the sense that one person won the argument.

Dropping again and building a short list

After a drop you can press Drop again for a fresh shuffle, or take the winning choice out of the list and drop once more. Doing this a few times gives you an ordered shortlist: the first drop picks your favourite, the second picks the runner-up, and so on. Many groups use two drops as a compromise, choosing the first result for a main course and the second for dessert.

What plinko is not

It is not a way to weigh options. A slot has no idea whether its choice is cheap, healthy, close by or a long drive away, and the ball treats every name the same. If an option is genuinely unacceptable, remove it from the list rather than hoping it will not come up.

It is also not a game of skill. Dropping the ball does not let you aim, nudge or time anything, which is exactly why the result can be trusted by everyone watching.

Questions people ask

Can two slots have the same name? Yes, and that doubles that choice's chance, because there are then two slots carrying it.

Does it remember my last list? The list is kept in this browser so it is ready next time, and it is never sent to a server.

What if I only have two choices? It works, but a coin flip would be quicker. The board is more fun with four or more slots.

Why did the ball stop in the middle of two slots? It always settles into one slot in the end. If it hovers on a pin for a moment, give it a second and it will fall one way or the other.