Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, completely free of charge. There are no subscription tiers, paywalls, premium feature locks, or credit card requirements.

Both core tools—the Tournament Blind Clock and the Cash Settlement Ledger—are fully unlocked with zero restrictions. You will never be asked to pay to host a game or settle a table.

There are no artificial limits. You can add as many players as your table accommodates, customize an unlimited number of tournament blind levels and scheduled breaks, and run as many cash game settlements as you wish.

Flophouse Poker is built and maintained by home game poker enthusiasts. We keep hosting overhead low by running lightweight static assets distributed via Cloudflare.

To support ongoing maintenance and hosting costs, our Recommended Gear section features hand-picked, curated poker supplies (such as ceramic chip sets, plastic playing cards, and dealer buttons) that may include affiliate referral links. Purchasing gear through these links helps support the site at zero additional cost to you.

"Disclaimer: Please review all buy-ins, cash-outs, and final settlement calculations carefully. Flophouse Poker provides calculation tools for convenience only and is not responsible for input errors, payment discrepancies, or accounting mismatches."

What this means: The Cash Ledger is an automated computational utility. It processes whatever numbers you enter. It cannot verify whether physical chips at your table match your bankroll drawer, whether a player actually sent a Venmo payment, or if an accidental typo occurred when logging an entry.

Hosts and players should always verify that the Table Balance reads $0.00 before sending out the recap and completing peer-to-peer transfers.

"Notice: Keep this browser tab open and active during your tournament to prevent background device sleep mode from throttling the timer. Disclaimer: Flophouse Poker timing tools are provided for convenience only and are not responsible for missed level increases, audio alert failures, or timing variances."

Why this notice is necessary: Modern operating systems (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Android, Windows) preserve battery life by aggressively "freezing" or throttling JavaScript timers in inactive browser tabs or sleeping devices. If a host locks their phone or switches to another app, the browser timer may pause until reopened.

Best practice: Keep the device screen unlocked, set Auto-Lock to "Never" during game night, or install Flophouse Poker as a standalone PWA app on a tablet/laptop connected to power.

No, absolutely not. Flophouse Poker does not host online gambling, take real-money wagers, accept player deposits, hold financial balances, or process digital payments.

The site is solely a calculator and administrative utility intended to help friends manage private, legal, in-person social games in jurisdictions where home games are permitted. Users are responsible for complying with all applicable local, state, and national laws regarding private social gaming.

1. Click the Levels button in the top-right corner of the Blind Clock.
2. The structure settings editor will expand below the main clock.
3. Modify the Small Blind, Big Blind, Ante, or Duration (minutes) in any row.
4. Click + Add Level at the bottom to insert a new round.
5. Changes are saved automatically to your browser in real time.

In the Structure & Level Settings panel, the preset selector lets you quickly load proven blind structures tailored to different game formats:

• Standard (15 min): Balanced blind structure for a 3–4 hour tournament. Ideal for typical 8–10 player home games starting with 5,000 to 10,000 chips.
• Turbo (10 min): Fast-action pace for weeknight tournaments or satellite qualifiers designed to finish in under 2.5 hours.
• Deepstack (20 min): Slow, strategic blind curve designed for serious structures with 20,000+ starting chips and plenty of post-flop play.

Note: You can always select a preset and then customize individual rounds, add breaks, or adjust durations to fit your exact chip counts.

Inside the Level Settings panel, click the + Add Break button.

You can give the break a custom label (e.g., "Color-Up 25 Chips", "10-Min Rest Break", or "Dinner Break") and set a duration. When the tournament reaches this interval, the clock pauses blind increments and displays a break indicator with a dedicated countdown timer.

Yes, in two different ways:

• Drag and Drop: Click and drag the handle icon (::) on the left side of any row. Auto-scrolling smoothly scrolls the screen as you drag near top or bottom edges.
• Arrow Buttons: Tap the ▲ (Move Up) or ▼ (Move Down) buttons on any row to step it through the structure.

Modern browsers enforce strict "autoplay policies" that block web audio until the user has directly interacted with the page:

• Ensure you clicked Start Clock on the page.
• Check that the sound button in the top-right reads Sound On (green icon).
• Verify your device media volume is up and physical silent/mute switches (e.g. on iPhones or iPads) are toggled off.

Yes! The interface is built with high-contrast typography and large numerals specifically designed for visibility from across the room.

Connect your computer to a TV via HDMI, or wirelessly mirror your browser tab using Apple AirPlay or Google Cast. Entering fullscreen mode (F11 or Cmd + Ctrl + F) provides a clean, distraction-free tournament display.

The Cash Settlement Ledger eliminates messy post-game math when wrapping up your home cash game:

1. Enter player names and their initial buy-ins.
2. If players rebuy during the session, add to their total buy-in (or click the quick +20 / +50 buttons).
3. At the end of the night, count everyone's chips and input their final Cash Out amounts.
4. The ledger computes each player's net profit (green ▲) or loss (red ▼) and balances the table.
5. Our minimum cash-flow engine determines the exact direct payments needed to square everyone up with the fewest transactions.

In a game with 8 or 10 players, doing manual settlements often results in 15+ confusing cross-payments between players.

Our greedy settlement algorithm matches the largest debtors (players down the most money) with the largest creditors (players up the most money). By satisfying maximum balances iteratively, it reduces complex multi-party debts down to the theoretical minimum number of direct payments (often just 3 or 4 quick Venmo or Zelle transfers).

In poker, cash cannot be created or destroyed: Total Buy-Ins must equal Total Cash-Outs.

If there is even a $1 difference, a red warning banner appears showing the exact discrepancy (e.g. "Variance: -$20.00 short"). When this occurs, look for:

• A forgotten rebuy that was handed across the table without being logged.
• A chip stack that was miscounted during cash-out.
• A player who left early whose chips were not recorded.

Once you adjust the entries and Table Balance shows ✓ $0.00, final settlements are guaranteed to be 100% mathematically balanced.

Click the Copy Recap button next to the Group Text Recap box.

The formatted text is instantly copied to your clipboard. Switch to your message thread (iMessage, WhatsApp, GroupMe, SMS) and paste. It includes your custom game title, the date, total pot, leaderboard of player results, and step-by-step payment instructions.

Click the ⚡ Load Demo Data button inside the Cash Ledger panel. It instantly populates a balanced 4-player game with realistic buy-ins and cash-outs so you can preview the net calculations, settlement payments, and text recap.

When finished, click Reset Table to return to a clean slate.

100% locally on your own device. Flophouse Poker does not require account creation, logins, or server-side databases.

All player names, buy-in logs, and tournament level structures are stored strictly within your browser's localStorage. We never send, track, or save your private home game financials or player names on any remote server.

No. Because data is continuously synced to your browser's local storage, your custom level structures, active player list, and game names will remain intact if you reload or reopen the page.

Note: Using private/incognito browsing windows or manually clearing your browser cache and cookies will erase local storage data.

Yes! Flophouse Poker is built as a Progressive Web App (PWA).

Our background Service Worker caches the application assets on your device. Once loaded, you can run the Blind Clock and Cash Ledger in basements, remote cabins, or camping trips without an active cellular or Wi-Fi connection.

You can install Flophouse Poker as a standalone app with full-screen support:

• iPhone & iPad (Safari): Tap the Share button (square with arrow), scroll down, and tap Add to Home Screen ➕.
• Mac (Safari): In Safari's menu bar, click File → Add to Dock...
• Android & Desktop (Chrome/Edge): Click the Install App button in our header navigation or tap the browser menu (⋮) → Install App.