Decision Maker: Random Picker & Tournament

Enter your options, then draw one or compare them two at a time

The decision helper is for the moments when you have the options but can't pick one: what to eat, what to do this weekend, whether to do it at all. Enter 2 to 12 candidates and press Pick. A reel spins and stops on one of them. Switch to Tournament and the candidates are paired two at a time; you click the one you prefer, round after round, until a single candidate is left. Either way you can copy the result, or copy a link that reopens your list.

The default list above is 6 lunch options. In Pick mode every option has the same 16.7% chance, and in Tournament mode you make 5 choices and you're done. If a result shows up and you feel like pressing "Pick again", that reaction gets recorded too.

Why decide at random, or two at a time?

When options are close in quality, more time spent choosing rarely buys more satisfaction. In a 2000 supermarket jam-tasting study, a booth with 24 flavors stopped 60% of passers-by (145 of 242) but only 3% of them (4) bought a jar. A booth with 6 flavors stopped 40% (104 of 260) and nearly 30% (31) bought. More choice caught the eye but delayed the decision. A 2010 meta-analysis of 63 conditions from 50 experiments (5,036 participants) found a mean effect close to zero with large differences between studies, and it pointed to conditions such as having no clear prior preference and being unfamiliar with the options. That is exactly the situation in which people open a tool like this.

• Why a random pick can help: if the options are about equally good, any of them gives a similar outcome, and the only real cost is the time spent agonizing. A 2021 study that followed people who let a coin toss decide major life choices found that those whose coin said "make the change" were more likely to change and reported being happier six months later. The author concluded that people may be excessively cautious when facing life-changing choices. The relief or disappointment you feel when a result appears can show a preference that deliberating never did.
• Why a tournament can help: choosing one of twelve is hard, but choosing the one you like more out of two is easy. Repeat that n − 1 times and one option is left, without ranking everything. The bracket keeps the comparisons on screen, so you can look back at why that option survived.

How to use it

1. Add candidates: type one per field. Enter moves to the next field, and Enter in the last field adds a new one (up to 12). You can also start from a quick example: lunch, weekend plans, movie genres or do it or not.
2. Choose a method: pick Pick or Tournament under "How to decide". Use Pick when the options are about equally good, and Tournament when you have a ranking in mind but can't choose in one go.
3. Pick: press Pick and the reel spins for about 2.6 seconds, then stops on one candidate. The number of candidates and the probability appear under the result. If you like it, press "Settle on this". If not, press "Pick again". For a group, press Full screen and pick with the space bar. The candidate that stops in the middle row is the one picked, and the same name appears in the result below.
4. Tournament: click the card you prefer out of the two shown. If you click the wrong one, "Undo one step" takes you back one match. When the last match is chosen, the winner appears. In full screen, the ← and → keys choose the left or right card.
5. Copy the result or a link: Copy result copies your candidate list, the result and a link that reopens the same list. Copy link copies just the list without a result, so you can keep a favorite list in your notes or bookmarks.

How Pick and Tournament differ

Pick probability and tournament matches

In Pick mode each candidate has a chance of 1 ÷ the number of candidates, with no weighting. If you want to give one option a higher chance, the Random Roulette, which accepts weights, is the right tool. In a tournament every match removes one candidate, so with n candidates it ends after n − 1 matches. In any round with an odd number of candidates, the last candidate gets a bye and moves up.

Probabilities are rounded to one decimal place. Typing the same candidate in two fields counts it once, so its chance does not double.

The random number decides first, not the reel

The moment you press Pick, the browser's cryptographic random generator (Web Crypto's crypto.getRandomValues) draws one integer from 0 to n − 1, and the candidate with that number is the result. Taking a 32-bit random number modulo n would make the lower numbers come up very slightly more often, so numbers in the leftover tail that does not divide evenly are thrown away and drawn again. The reel is then animated to stop on the chosen candidate after 3 to 4 laps and a slow stop, so its speed and the number of laps tell you nothing about the result. If "reduce motion" is turned on in your device settings, the reel does not spin and the result appears immediately.

The first-round order in Tournament mode is shuffled with the same random source. Which candidates meet first, and who gets the bye when the number is odd, is not decided in advance. If you don't like the order, Restart shuffles it again.

How often you press Pick again tells you something

If a result appears and you want to press "again", that option may already be out of the running in your head. Each time you press Pick again, the tool counts the previous result as skipped and builds up picked and skipped counts per option as bars under "Picks this time". Once you have skipped options, a button to drop them appears; press it and only the skipped options leave the list, so you can pick again from the rest. If a result brings relief instead, press "Settle on this". How many picks it took is recorded with it.

Every pick is drawn fresh and remembers nothing, so seeing the same option twice in a row, or one option missing for a long stretch, is normal. If you need everyone to be picked exactly once, as when setting an order, use a roulette that has a no-repeats option.

Tournament: choose one of two, n − 1 times

1. Enter your candidates and choose Tournament. The first-round order is shuffled and the first two cards appear. The bracket already shows empty slots for each round.
2. Click the card you prefer. The chosen candidate moves up to the next round's slot and the other is struck through. The current match is outlined in color on the bracket.
3. In a round with an odd number of candidates, the last candidate gets a bye and moves up. With 6 candidates that means 3 matches in round 1, 1 match plus 1 bye in round 2, and a final, for 5 matches in all.
4. If you click the wrong card, press "Undo one step". If you choose the other side after undoing, the later matches are played fresh.
5. When the final is chosen, the winner and the total number of matches appear. Copy result copies the winner and the list, not the whole bracket.

A tournament result can depend on the order. A candidate that would have finished second is knocked out early if it meets the eventual winner in round 1. That is fine when you only need one answer, but if you need a full ranking this is not the right tool.

When to use it

• Lunch or dinner: enter the options and pick once. If you skip yesterday's meal, drop it and pick again.
• Weekend plans or trips: with many options and a ranking in mind, compare them two at a time in a tournament.
• Do it or not: pick between "Do it" and "Don't", then notice how you feel about the result.
• A movie, a book or a game: enter genres or titles and pick. Keep a favorite list as a link.
• Choosing one fairly in a group: enter the options in front of everyone and pick. The screen shows that every option has the same chance.

Common mistakes

• Typing the same option twice: duplicates are merged, so the chance does not go up. To give an option a higher chance, use the weights in the Random Roulette.
• Skipping results without dropping them: a skipped option can come up again and be skipped again. Dropping skipped options shortens the list and speeds up the decision.
• Expecting a full ranking from a tournament: a tournament leaves one winner, so second place and below are not reliable.
• Refreshing without copying the list: your entries and records are not stored, so they are gone. Use Copy link to keep your list.

Limitations

• You can enter 2 to 12 candidates of up to 30 characters each, and a vertical bar (|) is replaced with a slash (/). For longer lists, the Random Roulette accepts up to 100.
• Results and records exist only on this browser screen and are not kept on a server. Nobody can verify who drew from which list and when, so this is not suitable for prize draws or anything else that has to prove fairness.
• In a very old browser without Web Crypto, the tool falls back to Math.random, which is not a cryptographic random generator.
• This tool helps you choose among options. It does not make high-stakes decisions about money, health or legal matters for you; use it only to narrow the options down.

As of The probabilities in this article follow 1 ÷ the number of candidates and the independent-draw rule. Tournament matches, rounds and byes follow the rule of pairing two at a time with a bye when the number is odd. The cited studies and the random number documentation were checked against the originals on 2026-10-14.

Sources

• 01Levitt, S. D. (2021). Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent Happiness. Review of Economic Studies 88(1), 378–405 (NBER WP 22487)Participants whose coin said to make a change were more likely to change and reported being happier six months later
• 02Iyengar, S. S. & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79(6), 995–1006Jam booth with 24 or 6 flavors: 60% vs. 40% stopped, 3% vs. 30% bought
• 03Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R. & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can There Ever Be Too Many Options? Journal of Consumer Research 37(3), 409–425Meta-analysis of 63 conditions from 50 experiments (5,036 participants): mean effect near zero, large variance, preconditions such as no clear preference and low familiarity
• 04MDN: Crypto.getRandomValues()The Web Crypto function that fills an array with cryptographically strong random values

Frequently asked questions

Tools to use with it