Playing with friends

The short version

1. 1

   Go to Create Game and set your blinds. Turn List publicly off if you only want the people you invite.

2. 2

   Copy the table link from the Lobby box in the middle of your new table.

3. 3

   Send it to your friends however you normally talk to them. They open it, log in with Google or Apple, and pick a seat.

4. 4

   They're dealt in automatically, with nothing for you to approve. There's a switch if you'd rather approve everyone yourself.

1. Where Create Game is

Two places, both on every page. In the top right, click the pill with your picture and name to open your account menu, then choose Create Game. Or scroll to the bottom of any page and use Create Table in the footer. On a phone the account menu is behind the menu button in the top right, the one with three short lines.

Either one lands you on Host a Table. Pick Free Play if you just want to deal cards with no money involved, or Real money if you want the pots to be real. Set your blinds, then press the green button at the bottom to create the table.

2. Getting the link

Once the table opens, a Lobby box sits in the middle of the screen with the table's link in it. The green button beside the link copies it: one click, nothing to type out.

Closed the box? The link is just your table's web address, so you can copy it from your browser's address bar instead. That link is all anyone needs. There is nothing else to send them and no invite to generate.

3. What your friend sees

Someone opening your link for the first time doesn't need to install anything or have played on a site like this before. They sign in with Google, Apple, email or a phone number, and an account is made for them in the background. No seed phrase, no browser extension, no setup call.

They pick an empty seat, buy in, and they're playing.

At a real-money table, your friend needs dollars in their account before they can buy in. That's Add funds in the same account menu (top right, their picture and name), and it takes a normal debit or credit card. If they'd rather not, run a Free Play table instead: the same poker, with chips that aren't worth anything.

4. Seating: automatic, or you approve

You don't have to let anyone in one by one: every new table starts on Auto-Accept, which seats people as they arrive.

If you'd rather look at every player first, open the settings button (the gear) at the top of your table and turn Auto-Accept off. After that nobody is dealt in without you: the settings button grows a badge with the number waiting, and you accept or decline each one on the Players tab.

Private tables

A table is public by default, which means it shows up in the lobby for anyone to take a seat. On the create screen, turn List publicly off and it stays off that list. The only way in is the link you send.

That keeps it out of the lobby, but the link still works for anyone who ends up holding it. If you're worried about it being passed on, turn Auto-Accept off too and then nobody sits down without you saying so.

Running a tournament for your group

Tournaments work the same way. On the same create screen, switch to the Tournament tab, set the buy-in and the start time, and share the link. Fill in the Access code field and the tournament becomes private: only people who have the code can register.

The tournament page shows a countdown, who's registered, and what each place pays, which is usually enough to get a group to actually turn up on time.

Nobody around right now?

There's a game most nights, and the schedule gets posted in our Discord before it gets posted anywhere else. It's also the easiest place to find people to fill a table when you're three-handed and want six.

Or see what's running right now in Public games.