Hold'em

Start a tournament

Hold'em is online only, with 2–9 players including one optional bot. Human players must be registered, and there are no same-device seats. Guests can browse the lobby, view rooms, and read chat; they cannot create rooms, join, play, or post chat.

Include bot defaults to No. Yes adds one automatically ready bot, so a registered host can start alone against it. The bot counts toward the nine-seat limit; other registered humans can still join before the game starts. Bot games are unrated, including when recreated. The bot uses only its own private cards and public information to estimate its share of the pot, then checks, folds, calls, or makes conservative value bets and raises.

The host starts ready. Other players mark themselves ready, and the host may start once at least two players are present and everyone is ready. The room need not fill all nine seats. Joining closes when play starts. Eliminated players can continue watching.

All rooms are public to view. Joining is Open by default, with Host approval and 4-digit passcode also available. Host invitations, waiting-room transfers, and room recreation use the ordinary shared room controls.

Room settings

Cards and betting rounds

Each hand shuffles one copy of every card in the selected deck. Every remaining player receives two private cards. The flop reveals one community card, and the turn reveals one more. There is no river or burn card. Nine players use 20 cards: the entire Value-sum deck, leaving one Square-grid card or two Triangular-grid cards undealt.

Players post the ante, then the small and big blinds, up to the chips they have. Betting occurs pre-flop, on the flop, and on the turn. With three or more players, action starts left of the big blind pre-flop and left of the dealer button afterward. With two players, the button posts the small blind and acts first pre-flop and last afterward. The button and blinds rotate between hands, preserving blind obligations after eliminations.

At a deadline, the server checks if checking is legal and folds otherwise. Refreshing, closing the tab, and navigating away do not resign your seat; you can return, while deadlines continue.

Pots and showdown

If everyone but one player folds, the remaining hand wins without exposing private cards or dealing unused community cards. Otherwise, after turn betting finishes, all surviving hands are revealed. If no further betting is possible, the remaining board is dealt automatically.

The server returns any unmatched bet and builds separate pots for different contribution levels. A player can win only the pots their contribution covers, and folded hands cannot win. The best eligible hand wins each pot independently, so several players may win different pots in one hand.

For Value-sum, your score is the largest sum within the room's Maximum sum obtainable using any subset of your two private cards and the two community cards. You may use one, two, three, or all four cards, including community cards alone. The limit is 25, 30 (default), or 40; the best available sum may be lower. The server computes the score automatically.

Equal scores compare the complete four-card tuple sorted highest to lowest, including cards not used in the scoring sum. The highest differing card wins. With Maximum sum 30 and board [1, 2], [7, 20] beats [8, 19]: both score 30, but (20, 7, 2, 1) exceeds (19, 8, 2, 1). Equal tuples would require the same private cards, impossible in the Value-sum deck.

For Square-grid and Triangular-grid, the server uses the piece arrangement solver to cover the most unit tiles in the room's panel using any subset of your two private pieces and the two community pieces. Whole pieces may rotate and reflect, but must fit completely without overlapping. Your score is the number of covered tiles. At showdown, each evaluated hand shows its score, contributing cards, and optimal arrangement.

Equal grid scores compare the tile counts of all four pieces sorted highest to lowest, including unused pieces. The highest differing count wins. If these tuples also match, the winners divide each eligible main or side pot equally, rounding each share down and discarding the remaining coins. For example, a 101-coin pot shared by three winners pays 33 each and discards 2. The Discarded coins counter beside the pots tracks the total throughout the tournament.

Completion, resignation, and ELO

The last remaining player with chips wins. Other places follow elimination order. When several players lose their last chips in one hand, the larger stack at the start of that hand places higher; equal starting stacks share a place. This tournament-placement tie is separate from any shared showdown pot.

Resign requires confirmation. Choose Cancel to keep playing, Resign to resign and keep watching, or Resign & Exit to resign and return to the lobby after the request succeeds. Uncommitted chips leave play, while committed chips remain in their pots. An already all-in hand keeps its pot rights; other departing hands check or fold as action reaches them. Any chips returned or won by a resigned seat leave play after settlement. Resigned and eliminated players can spectate or exit and join another room.

Waiting-room Exit opens a confirmation with Cancel and Exit. Confirming removes your seat and returns to the lobby; host ownership passes to a remaining player, and an empty room closes. If you are watching a waiting or playing room, Exit confirms that you want to stop watching. Exit from a completed room or its final results returns directly to the lobby.

In human-only tournaments, each player receives an average pairwise ELO result against every opponent: 1 for a higher finish, 0.5 for a shared place, and 0 for a lower finish. The expected result against an opponent is 1 / (1 + 10^((opponent ELO − your ELO) / 400)). New ELO is old ELO + 40 × (average result − average expectation), with a minimum of 1. Starting ELO is 1500. Ratings update once at completion; bot, abandoned, and administrator-ended games are unrated.

The podium appears immediately at completion, and final results open automatically after the shared three-second delay. Clicking the podium opens them early. Ratings and ELO history are stored; full hand records are not stored permanently. Unrevealed private cards, folded hands, and undealt deck order are never exposed through spectator or Admin projections.

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